All At Sea Without a Vowel Trivia Quiz

Answer: Baltic

Situated in North Europe, the Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean and is connected through the Danish Straits, the Kattegat and the Skaggerak with the North Sea, another arm of the Atlantic. The Baltic is bordered by a number of countries, including the Nordic countries of Denmark, Sweden and Finland and the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Russia, Poland and Germany.

It is deemed a brackish sea having a salinity somewhere between fresh and salt due to the mixing of sea water with fresh water discharged into it from rivers. Over the centuries it had a few different names then Adam of Bremen named it Mare Balticum or Baltic Sea in the eleventh century.

Answer: Adriatic

The Adriatic Sea is a northeastern arm of the Mediterranean Sea and has Italy to the west of it and some Balkan countries, including Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania, on its eastern side. At its northern end is the Gulf of Venice and the Strait of Otranto is at its southern end. Through this Strait the Adriatic is connected to the Ionian Sea, another arm of the Mediterranean.

This semi-enclosed sea has more than 1200 mostly small islands and islets in it. Venice is built on about 117 of the islands but most of them are part of Croatia. In classical Roman and Greek times the Adriatic Sea was named the Mare Adriaticum or Hadriaticum, a name possibly derived from the town of Adria in what is now Italy.

Answer: Greenland

The Greenland Sea lies in between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and is generally considered to be part of the Nordic Seas, with the Norwegian Sea and the Iceland Sea being the other parts. The Greenland Sea is bordered by Greenland to the northwest with Spitsbergen on its northeast, the Arctic Ocean to its north, the Norwegian Sea to its south and east and Iceland to its southwest.

The climate of the Greenland Sea is an Arctic one with strong northern winds so that temperatures are usually below zero and it is partly iced over for some months of the year. It is believed that large amounts of natural gas and some crude oil and natural gas liquids are underneath it.

Answer: Tasman

The Tasman Sea is on the margin of the South Pacific Ocean and has Australia to its northwest and New Zealand to its southeast. It is named after the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman, who in 1642 was the first European to be recorded as navigating it and reaching both Tasmania and New Zealand.

Apparently the sea can be informally referred to as 'the Ditch' by both Australians and New Zealanders and travelling between the two countries as 'crossing the Ditch'. In 1977 Colin Quincey was the first person to row solo across the Tasman Sea and his son, Shaun, was the next person to do this in 2010. Later Justin Jones and James Castrission were the first to travel across 'the Ditch' by kayak between late 2007 and early 2008.

Answer: Sargasso

The Sargasso Sea is situated in the Atlantic Ocean and is the only sea not to have any land bordering on it. It is on the western side of the Atlantic and so nearer to the USA than to Europe or Africa. The area's borders are formed by four currents: the North Atlantic current on its north side, the Canary current on its east side, the North Atlantic Equatorial current on its south side and the Gulf Stream on its west side.

The Sargasso Sea is known for both its deep blue colour and for the vast amount of brown seaweed of the genus sargassum floating in it. Sailing ships have been stuck in the sea but this is believed to be more due to the lack of wind in the area than to the seaweed.

Answer: Labrador

The Labrador Sea is on the northwestern margin of the North Atlantic Ocean and has the Labrador peninsula of northeastern Canada to its southwest and Greenland to its northeast. The Davis Strait lies north of the Labrador Sea and connects it to Baffin Bay while the Hudson Strait links it to Hudson Bay to its west. The Labrador Sea was formed over a period of some 20 million years when the Greenland and North American plates gradually drew apart between 60 and 40 million years ago.

This sea's temperature rises to only about five or six degrees centigrade and something like two thirds of it is frozen over for some six months of the year. It is the source of a significant part of the North Atlantic Deep Water, a deep-level flow of cold water running along the western edge of the North Atlantic.

Answer: Libyan

The Libyan Sea forms part of the Mediterranean Sea and, as its name suggests, Libya lies on its south side with two North African countries bordering it to the south and Crete lying on its north side. The Ionian Sea lies to the north of the Libyan Sea and the Levantine Sea is to its east and these two are also parts of the Mediterranean.

In Roman times Libya was the name given to what is now the eastern part of modern Libya and the western part of what is now Egypt. The Romans named the sea bordered by this country 'Mare Libycum' and the name has been retained for that area so that the Libyan Sea now extends from Alexandria in Egypt to Tobruk in Libya.

Answer: Yellow

The Yellow Sea is on the margin of the Western Pacific Ocean with mainland China to its west and North and South Korea to its east. To the south of the Yellow Sea is the East China Sea and the dividing line between these two seas is considered to be along a line between the South Korean island of Cheju and the city of Qidong in China.

To the northeast of the Yellow Sea is an area of water bordered only by China which used to be known as Pechihli Bay or Chihli Bay but is now called the Bohai Sea and the two seas are connected by the Bohai Strait. The yellow colouring of the Yellow Sea is mostly caused by sand and silt flowing into it from Chinese rivers.

Answer: Ross

The Ross Sea forms part of the Southern Ocean and is bordered by parts of Antarctica, such as King Edward VII Land on the east and Victoria Land on the west. The sea lies some hundreds of miles from the South Pole and its southernmost part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf.

The sea and ice shelf are named after Sir James Clark Ross, a British explorer who reached the area in 1841 and after whom Ross Island is also named. This island has a few volcanoes, including Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, named after the ships in Ross' expedition. Unlike many other seas, the Ross Sea is comparatively unaffected by pollution caused by human behaviour and it contains a rich variety of animal ife.

Answer: Coral

The Coral Sea is on the western margin of the South Pacific Ocean and is bordered on its west by the northeast coast of Australia. The southern part of New Guinea borders the Coral Sea to the northwest, while the southern Solomon Islands are to its northeast and the islands of New Caledonia and Vanuatu are to its east. South of the Coral Sea is the Tasman Sea and north of it is the Solomon Sea while the Torres Strait leads northwest from the Coral Sea between Australia and New Guinea to the Arafura Sea.

Lying in the Coral Sea just off the coast of Queensland is the Great Barrier Reef, which is the world's largest coral reef and consists of some 3000 separate reefs and about 900 islands. These reefs and islands are home to many different types of generally marine animals and plants.