A Widening Gulf Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ĺland

The Gulf of Bothnia (a Latinized form of the Old Norse "botn", meaning "gulf" or "bay") is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. With a length of 725 km (450 mi), it consists of two halves, the Bothnian Sea in the south and the Bothnian Bay in the north, connected by the shallow Kvarken strait (Merenkurkku in Finnish). The gulf is widest (240 km/150 mi) at its entrance, just north of the Ĺland archipelago.

Because of the many rivers that flow into the gulf from both the Finnish and the Swedish side, its waters have very low salinity, especially in the northern part - which explains why the gulf is frozen for at least five months a year, when navigation is restricted and ships need to be assisted by icebreakers. The Finnish city of Kemi, on the border with Sweden, is famous as a departure point for icebreaker cruises in the frozen waters of the Gulf during the winter months. The icebreaker "Sampo" is shown in the photo, sailing through the ice.

The Ĺland archipelago ("Ahvenanmaa" in Finnish) lies halfway between Turku, Finland's first capital, and Stockholm. It enjoys autonomous status within Finland, and its population is primarily Swedish-speaking. Zeeland is a province of the Netherlands, while the Shetland Islands are located north of Scotland, in the North Sea, and the Falkland Islands (a British overseas territory) in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Answer: Ligurian Sea

The Ligurian Sea lies between the eponymous region of northwestern Italy and the island of Corsica, which is part of France. With a width of about 145 km (90 mi), the gulf stretches between the cities of La Spezia in the east and Imperia in the west, spanning much of the famed coastline known as the Italian Riviera. Genoa, the capital of a powerful maritime republic for over seven centuries, and now one of the busiest ports in Europe, lies in the centre of the Gulf.

Within the Gulf of Genoa there are two smaller gulfs, both located east of Genoa, in the Riviera di Levante (Eastern Riviera): the Gulf of Tigullio, where the famed resort of Portofino is located, and the Golfo Paradiso. The incredibly picturesque coastal villages that make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Cinque Terre (one of them, Manarola, is depicted in the photo) lie near the gulf's eastern end. The whole region that borders the Gulf of Genoa is known for its mild climate - considerably milder than the rest of Northern Italy - which allows the cultivation of olive trees.

All the wrong answers are marginal seas of the Mediterranean. The Alboran Sea lies between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, the Ionian Sea is located south of the Adriatic Sea, and the Thracian Sea is the northernmost part of the Aegean Sea.

Answer: Strait of Hormuz

Though called a gulf, the Persian Gulf (a name given to this body of water by the Ancient Greeks) is actually a mostly inland sea that lies between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran (hence its attribute of "Persian"). This huge body of water is about 989 km (615 mi) long, and very shallow, with an average depth of 50 m (164 ft). The Gulf's northwestern shore is mainly occupied by the massive Shatt-el-Arab, the river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have the longest coastlines on the Gulf; other countries that border it are Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, the Musandam exclave of Oman (a peninsula that juts into the Strait of Hormuz), Qatar, and the island nation of Bahrain. Some major Middle Eastern cities lie on the shores of the Persian Gulf: among them, Dubai and Abu Dhabi (UAE), Doha (Qatar - shown in the photo), and Kuwait City (Kuwait). The world's largest source of petroleum, the Persian Gulf region is dominated by the oil industry, which has negatively impacted its environment. The Persian Gulf gave its name to the conflict fought by the US and its allies against Iraq in 1990-1992; the Iraq War of 2003-2011 is often referred to as the Second Gulf War. In addition, the Gulf was the main battlefield of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War.

A major strategic location for international trade, the Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, which is an arm of the Indian Ocean. The currents that flow through the strait compensate for the high evaporation rate of the Gulf's waters, which accounts for their high salinity.

The Strait of Otranto connects the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea; the Strait of Malacca lies between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra (Indonesia); the Strait of Juan de Fuca lies between Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern North America.

Answer: pearl beds

Part of the Laccadive Sea, a marginal sea of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar lies between the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu (also known as Coromandel Coast), India's southernmost state, and the west coast of Sri Lanka. North of the gulf, from which it is separated by a chain of islands, lie Palk Bay and the Palk Strait, which leads into the Bay of Bengal. All these bodies of water are characterized by their shallowness: the average depth of the Gulf of Mannar is 5.8 m (19 ft), and that of Palk Bay 13 m (42.6 ft). The Pamban Lighthouse depicted in the photo is located on Rameswaram, one of the islands in the gulf, and a famous Hindu pilgrimage centre.

Because of its thriving marine life, which includes over 3,500 animal and plant species, the Gulf of Mannar was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2001; its core area, consisting of 21 small islands and coral reefs, became one of India's National Parks in 1986. The marine environment includes three different ecosystems: coral reefs, mangrove forests, and seagrass beds - the latter providing an ideal feeding ground for dugongs, the endangered marine mammals closely related to manatees. Unfortunately, this unique environment and its rich biodiversity are threatened by human activity - in particular, coral mining and destructive fishing methods.

The Gulf of Mannar has been renowned since antiquity for its plentiful pearl banks, mentioned by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD. The area was nicknamed Pearl Fishery Coast. The fishing of pearl oysters was banned in 1961 when the oyster stock waned, but very recently there have been attempts at reintroducing these valuable mollusks in the Gulf of Mannar.

Answer: Vietnam

Known as the theatre of a military confrontation in August 1964 that led to increased US involvement in the Vietnam War, the Gulf of Tonkin lies between the northern coast of Vietnam, the Chinese autonomous region of Guanxi, the Leizhou Peninsula (part of the Guangdong province), and the island of Hainan, which is the smallest province of China.

The name "Tonkin" (Dong Kinh), meaning "eastern capital", denoted the city of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, during the Lę Dynasty (1428-1789); it was later given to the whole northern region of Vietnam when it became a French protectorate in 1884. The Vietnamese name of the gulf is "Vinh Bac Bo", and the Chinese one "Beibu Wan", both meaning "Northern Bay". In modern Chinese, "Tonkin" refers to Tokyo, whose name also means "eastern capital".

The Gulf of Tonkin is about 500 km (300 mi) long, about 250 km (150 mi) wide, and relatively shallow, with an average depth of 70 m (230 ft). The Red River, one of the major rivers of the Indochinese Peninsula, empties into the gulf, forming a vast, low-lying delta known for rice production. The city of Haiphong, the most important seaport of Northern Vietnam, is located within the Red River Delta region, as is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay (shown in the photo). The shores of the Gulf of Tonkin are densely populated, and many international companies have been conducting oil explorations in its waters.

Myanmar and Malaysia were both British colonies, while Thailand has never been colonized by foreign powers.

Answer: tropical savanna

With its roughly rectangular shape, the Gulf of Carpentaria is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia, while the Arafura Sea - the arm of the Pacific Ocean located between Australia and New Guinea - lies to the north of it. The west coast of the Gulf is part of Arnhem Land, the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, while the west coast of Cape York Peninsula (part of the state of Queensland) lies to the east; the southern coast, also known as Gulf Country, is also in Queensland.

The Gulf of Carpentaria's maximum width is about 675 km (420 mi), and its average depth is about 60 m (197 ft); the gulf floor is the continental shelf shared by Australia and New Guinea. The largest of the gulf's islands bears the archaic Dutch name of Groote Eylandt ("big island"), and is located off the west coast.

The gulf was named by Jan Carstenszoon, a Dutch explorer who visited the region in 1623, in honour of Pieter de Carpentier, at the time Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company. The Carpentaria region was also explored by Abel Tasman in 1644, by Matthew Flinders in 1802-1803, and by the Burke and Wills expedition in 1861.

The land that borders the Gulf of Carpentaria is generally flat, covered for the most part with savanna woodlands and grasslands that constitute the ecoregion known as Carpentaria tropical savanna. . This landscape, which extends from the Gulf Country in the south to the east and west coasts of the gulf, is dominated by various species of eucalyptus and melaleuca (paperbark) trees, with an understory of grasses such as soft (curly) spinifex. The photo was taken at Kowanyama, a town on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula.

Answer: Honduras

The Gulf of Fonseca was discovered in 1522 by Spanish explorer and conquistador Gil González de Ávila, who named it after Archbishop Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, counsellor to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic monarchs. This small body of water, with a coastline of 261 km (162 mi), is bordered by Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. These three countries have been involved for a long time in a dispute over the rights to the gulf and its islands. The Gulf of Fonseca has also been the object of various international tensions, which led the UN to the creation of a peacekeeping mission (ONUCA) in 1989 to address the political unrest in the region.

The lands bordering the gulf and the islands within it are all of volcanic origin, with a number of active volcanoes. The coastline is mostly covered by mangrove forests, typical of the tropical wetland ecosystem. During high tides, these forests provide a favourable feeding habitat for fish, crustaceans, and other marine life, which also find shelter from predators in the roots of the trees. Vestiges of numerous ancient settlements have been found in the Gulf region (including its islands), the oldest of which dates from around 1850 BC.

The photo shows a view of the Gulf of Fonseca from the top of the Conchagua volcano in El Salvador. Of the four countries listed as possible answers, Belize has no Pacific coastline, while Costa Rica and Panama lie further south. Honduras, which has the longest coastline on the Gulf of Fonseca, often appears at the top of lists of the world's most violent countries, as does El Salvador.

Answer: Kodiak Island

The Gulf of Alaska lies within the wide curve described by the southern coast of Alaska, the largest US state. Its shoreline is a spectacular combination of dense forests, snow-capped mountains, and tidewater glaciers. To the west, two deep indentations, Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, surround the Kenai Peninsula, which lies north of the Kodiak Archipelago. Kodiak Island, the second-largest in the US, is separated from the mainland by the Shelikof Strait. All the Archipelago is a National Wildlife Refuge, famous for its population of a subspecies of the brown bear (Ursus arctos middendorffii), whose members can grow as large as polar bears.

The Alexander Archipelago to the east is part of the Alaska Panhandle; the renowned Inside Passage, a favourite cruise destination, is found there. The Gulf of Alaska is also notable for its national parks, such as Katmai (located on the Alaska Peninsula, just across the sea from Kodiak Island), Kenai Fjords (on the Kenai Peninsula), Lake Clark (north of Katmai), Glacier Bay (in the Alexander Archipelago), and Wrangell-St Elias, the US's largest national park, at the head of the Panhandle. The photo depicts the stunning landscape of Lituya Bay, a fjord that is part of the Glacier Bay National Park, known for the megatsunami that occurred there in 1958.

Attu Island is part of the Aleutian Islands, which lie west of the Alaska Peninsula; it is one of the westernmost points of the US. Baranof Island and Kosciusko Island are both part of the Alexander Archipelago.

Answer: Georgia

About 1,500 km (930 mi) wide, and roughly oval in shape, the Gulf of Mexico is the biggest of the bodies of water that are called "gulf". The Bay of Bengal, however, is larger - even though the term "bay" generally denotes a body of water smaller than a gulf. The Gulf is bounded on the north, northeast and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the USA - which includes the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida; the island of Cuba forms its southern boundary, while the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo lie on the south and southwest. The Florida Straits between the US and Cuba connects the Gulf with the Atlantic Ocean, while the Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba leads into the Caribbean Sea. Two of the longest rivers of North America, the Mississippi and the Rio Grande, discharge their waters into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf of Mexico has been used as a trade route since the beginnings of the Maya civilization, over 2,000 years ago. Now it is one of the world's major areas for offshore petroleum extraction - which often wreaks havoc on its environment, as evidenced by the disastrous oil spill that followed the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform in April 2010. The Gulf Stream, the warm oceanic current that influences the climate of Northwest Europe, originates in the Gulf of Mexico - which is also a notorious breeding ground for the hurricanes that often ravage its coasts, as well as the neighbouring Caribbean region.

Georgia is not one of the Gulf Coast states, as its relatively short coastline lies on the Atlantic Ocean. The photo shows a beach on the aptly-named Emerald Coast, a stretch of the northern Florida Gulf Coast.

Answer: Niger

The northernmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Guinea (a name of disputed origin, probably from a Berber word meaning "black person") stretches east to west from Cape Lopez in Gabon to Cape Palmas in Liberia; its exact size, though considerable, is disputed. The coastline also contains two smaller bodies of water, the Bight of Benin in the west, and the Bight of Bonny in the east - where a number of islands, including the sovereign nation of Săo Tomé and Principe, are located. The African states of Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon have coastlines on the Gulf of Guinea. About 570 km (354 mi) from the coast of Ghana, the Prime Meridian intersects the Equator at a location known as Null Island (a reference to the two zero coordinates).

Africa's third-longest river, the Niger, which rises in the highlands of Guinea and flows southeast in an almost V-shaped curve, empties into the Gulf of Guinea through a vast delta that lies in southern Nigeria. The Congo empties into the Atlantic Ocean much further south, while the Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea, and the Zambezi into the Indian Ocean.

In recent times, the waters of the Gulf of Guinea have been plagued by acts of piracy, especially kidnappings for ransom. In the past, the Gulf coast was a thriving hub for the slave trade, so much that a large section of it was known as the Slave Coast. Many reminders of that cruel trade remain, such as the "slave castles" of Ghana (most of which are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site): a detail of one of them, Elmina Castle, appears in the photo.