The most dangerous strait in the world - The fear of sailors' lives

This is a strait that always suffers terrible storms that create big waves, plus icebergs, creating a nightmare for any sailor passing through.

Since the 16th century, thanks to the great geographical discoveries of the world's maritime explorers, mankind has gradually come to know new lands and new seas. One of them is the Drake Passage , which separates South America and Antarctica.

But the danger of this strait was measured in the lives of countless sailors, so it took many years for this area to be visited by anyone. Most of them were experienced seafarers, experienced sailors or explorers .

"The most fearsome piece of ocean on the planet ," Alfred Lansing describes the journey of explorer Ernest Shackleton through the Drake Passage in a small lifeboat. The Drake Passage connects the southern tip of South America with the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Once a passage only for experienced explorers and sailors, the Drake Passage is now a major challenge for the growing number of people who want to reach the South Pole. It takes up to 48 hours to cross the strait and they can be proud of their success.

About 1,000km wide, the Drake Passage is the gateway for ships to enter Antarctic waters. This dangerous body of water is also known in Spanish as "Mar de Hoces".

Discovered in the 16th century, it was not until many years later that people dared to cross this strait.

The deadly danger of the Drake Passage comes from many factors.

First, there are warm and cold ocean currents that coexist under the water currents. The mixing of hot and cold currents in an area of ​​only 1,000km without any reefs to slow them down causes the water currents to move extremely strongly, creating a series of terrifying "killers" for seafarers. These are large tsunamis that can completely sink ships at any time.

Next , due to its proximity to Antarctica, the Drake Passage is home to extremely strong, extremely cold winds, with speeds reaching 10m/s, and temperatures ranging from -3 degrees Celsius to 5 degrees Celsius.

"This is the only place in the world where winds can blow across the globe without hitting land, while land tends to weaken storms," ​​said Alexander Brearley, an oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey.

Brearley says winds tend to blow from west to east, with latitudes between 40 and 60 degrees being notorious for strong winds. But the winds are slowed by land masses. That's why Atlantic hurricanes tend to hit Ireland and the UK, then weaken as they continue east, into mainland Europe.

There is no land mass to slow the wind at the latitude of the Drake Passage. So the wind can blow strongly across the globe, picking up speed and crashing into ships.

The rough waves in Drake Passage.

The third dangerous factor is that the weather in this area of ​​water is very unpredictable. All weather forecasts are almost nullified by large sea storms. It is very difficult to know when there will be a storm and when there will not be a storm in this scary sea area.

It can be seen that from the rapid water flows with a flow rate of up to 150 million m3 ^of water per second (600 times the water flow rate of the Amazon River), combined with the "flesh-cutting" cold wind, the giant unforeseen sea storm, all have turned this place into a "strait of death" , one of the most dangerous dead sea areas of the ocean on Earth.

For oceanographers, the Drake Passage is a fascinating place. It is home to many seamounts, and as the water snakes its way through the narrow channel, waves crash against the underwater mountains. These waves create eddies that bring cold water from the deep ocean up to the surface. This process is crucial to Earth's climate.