Dogger Bank
Dogger Bank is a large sandbank in a shallow area of the North Sea about 60 miles off the east coast of Great Britain, directly out from the Yorkshire coast. It is an important fishing area, with cod and herring being caught in large numbers. It gives its name to the Dogger region used in the Shipping Forecast. Several shipwrecks lie on the bank.
The bank extends over approximately 6,800 square miles: it is about 160 miles long and up to 60 miles broad.[1] The water depth ranges from 49 to 118 feet, about 65 feet shallower than the surrounding sea. It is a rich fishing bank. The name comes from dogger, an old Dutch word for fishing boat, especially for catching cod.
Geography
Geologically, the bank is most likely a moraine, formed during the Pleistocene.[1] At differing times during the last Ice Age it was land joined to the mainland of Great Britain and indeed Europe, or was an island when sea levels were higher. Trawlers fishing in the area have dredged up large amounts of moor peat, remains of mammoth and rhinoceros, and occasionally Paleolithic hunting artefacts. The bank was part of a large landmass, known as Doggerland, which connected Britain to Europe until it was flooded at the end of the last Ice Age.[2]
In 1931, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United Kingdom took place below the bank, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale. Its focus was 14 miles beneath the bank, and the quake was felt in countries all around the North Sea, causing damage across eastern Britain.
The bank has been the site of several naval actions:
- During the War of American Independence, a Royal Navy squadron fought a Dutch squadron on 5 August 1781 in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
- During the Russo-Japanese War, Russian naval ships opened fire on British fishing boats in the Dogger Bank incident on 21 October 1904, mistaking them for Japanese torpedo boats.
- In the First World War, the area saw two battles, the Battle of Dogger Bank of 1915 and Battle of Dogger Bank of 1916, between the Royal Navy and the German High Seas Fleet.
- In 1966, the German submarine U-Hai sank during a gale. 19 of 20 men died, one of the worst peacetime naval disasters in German history.
Wind farm
In January 2010, a licence to develop a wind farm in Dogger Bank was granted to a consortium of developers. The wind farm is projected to develop up to 9 gigawatts of power, as part of a planned nine zone project of 32 gigawatts. Construction is scheduled to start around 2014 at the earliest.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stride, A.H (January 1959). "On the origin of the Dogger Bank, in the North Sea". Geological magazine 96 (1): 33–34. http://geolmag.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/96/1/33. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
- ↑ University of Sussex, School of Life Sciences, C1119 Modern human evolution, Lecture 6, slide 23
- ↑ "BBC News - New UK offshore wind farm licences are announced". news.bbc.co.uk. January 8, 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8448203.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-08.