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The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. A bay of the North Sea is Skagerrak, between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, which connects to the Baltic Sea through Kattegat, Öresund, the Great Belt and the Small Belt. In the south, the North Sea connects with the rest of the Atlantic through the English ChannelThe English Channel is the part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. In French it is called La Manche ("the sleeve"). It is about 350 miles long and at its widest i and in the north through the Norwegian SeaLocation The Norwegian Sea (Norwegian: Norskehavet is part of the North Atlantic Ocean northwest of Norway, located between the North Sea (i. north of Scotland) and the Greenland Sea. It adjoins the Iceland Sea to the west and the Barents Sea to the north.Major rivers that drain into the North Sea include the ElbeThe Elbe River ( Czech Labe Sorbian/Lusatian Lobjo Polish Laba is one of the major waterways of central Europe. It originates in the North West Czech Republic before traversing much of Germany and finally emptying into the North Sea. Geography Elbe rises (at CuxhavenCuxhaven is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, with about 55000 inhabitants. It is located on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of Elbe river. Geographical location 53° 52' North, 8° 42' East. Cuxhaven has a footprint of 14 km (east-west) and 7 km (no), the Weser (at BremerhavenBremerhaven is a city in the federal state of Bremen, Germany. It is located at the eastern bank of the Weser river mouth, opposite the town of Nordenham. Population: 120,900 (2003) History The town was founded in 1827, but there were settlements there as), the EmsFor the abbreviation or acronym EMS please see EMS. Satellite image of the Ems estuary and its surroundingsThe Ems (German; Dutch: Eems is a river in northwestern Germany and northeastern Netherlands. It runs through the states of North Rhine-Westphalia a at Emden, the Rhine and Meuse (at Rotterdam), the Scheldt (at Flushing), the Thames, and the Humber (at Hull). Kiel Canal, one of the world's busiest artificial waterways, connects the North Sea with the Baltic.
There is a substantial amount of oil and natural gas under the seabed: see North Sea oil.
In classical times this body of water was referred to as the Oceanum- or Mare Germanicum, meaning German Ocean or Sea. This name was commonly used in English and other languages along with the name, the "North Sea", until the early eighteenth century. By the late- nineteenth century, German Sea was a rare, scholarly usage even in Germany. Its modern name is thought to have originated from a Frisian point of view which lies directly to the south of the North Sea (also see Zuiderzee).
