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The Only Sea On Earth Without Any Shorelines
The weirdest sea on the planet
There is only one sea on planet Earth that has no physical land within it or around it. It is a sea within a sea. A strange place that has haunted mariners and sailors for centuries. Located off the east coast of the United States, the Sargasso Sea is bordered by four powerful ocean currents. These currents make up the sea’s shorelines rather than land. The Sargasso Sea is 600 nautical miles wide and 1750 nautical miles long.
The Sargasso Sea is bound by the Gulf Stream to its west, on the north by the North Atlantic Current, the Canary Current in the east, and on the south by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current. These four currents, always flowing, create a massive gyre that rotates clockwise around the edges of the sea. This leaves the center almost completely calm.
The Sargasso Sea has very little in the way of winds. The surface is extremely flat, which is what allows copious amounts of Sargassum seaweed to proliferate here. (Hence the name.)
Past sailors, who were dependent on the wind to guide them, dreaded being locked into the Sargasso Sea.
