STRAIT
OF HORMUZ – GEOGRAPHY
News:
Masked men seize tanker
in Strait of Hormuz
What's
in the news?
●
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO),
which advises vessel operators on incidents involving shipping, has reported
that up to five armed masked men boarded a tanker in the Gulf of Oman in the
early hours of this morning.
Strait
of Hormuz:
●
Strait of Hormuz, also called Strait of Ormuz is a channel linking the Persian Gulf (west) with the
Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
●
The strait is 35 to 60 miles (55 to 95 km)
wide and separates Iran (north) from the Arabian Peninsula (south).
●
It contains the islands of Qeshm (Qishm), Hormuz, and Hengām (Henjām).
●
The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint because
of the large volumes of oil that flow through the strait.
Go
back to basics:
Gulf
of Oman:
●
The Gulf of Oman or Sea of Oman, also
known as the Gulf of Makran or Sea
of Makran, forms the only entrance to the Persian Gulf from the Indian Ocean.
●
It connects
the Arabian Sea with the Strait of Hormuz, which then empties into the
Persian Gulf.
Bordering
Countries:
●
It is bordered by Pakistan and Iran in the north, by the United Arab Emirates in the west and by Oman in the south.
Key
takeaways:
●
The gulf is relatively shallow because of
its origin as a fissure in the mountain spine now divided between Iran and
Oman.
●
The Gulf of Oman is about 320 km wide at
its widest point between Cape al-Hadd in Oman and Gwadar Bay on the
Iran-Pakistan border. It narrows to 35 miles (56 km) at the Strait of Hormuz.
Persian
Gulf:
●
The Persian Gulf is located in Southwest Asia.
●
It is an extension of the Indian Ocean
located between Iran and the Arabian
Peninsula.
Bordering
Countries:
●
Countries with a coastline on the Persian
Gulf are (clockwise, from the north): Iran,
Oman (exclave of Musandam), United
Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar on a peninsula off the Saudi coast, Bahrain on an island, Kuwait, and Iraq in the northwest.