Gulf of Lion
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The Gulf of Lion or Gulf of Lions
The chief port on the gulf is Marseille. Toulon is another important port. The fishing industry in the gulf is based on hake (Merluccius merluccius), being bottom-trawled, long-lined and gill-netted and currently declining from overfishing.
Rivers that empty into the gulf include the Tech, Têt, Aude, Orb, Hérault, Vidourle, and the Rhône.
The continental shelf is exposed here as a wide coastal plain, and the offshore terrain slopes rapidly to the Mediterranean's abyssal plain. Much of the coastline is composed of lagoons and salt marsh.
This is the area of the cold, blustery winds called the Mistral and the Tramontane.[clarification needed]
Etymology
The current name of the gulf appeared at least during the 13th century (in medieval
These sources, especially Deroy and Mulon, Diderot and D'Alembert, reject the hypothesis according to which the name would be related to the city of Lyon, since it is too far from the gulf.
A former name in classical Latin during Roman antiquity was sinus Gallicus (that is, "Gallic gulf").
Geodynamics
The Gulf of Lion is not a simple
Ocean dynamics
The gulf's bottom topography, the Mistral, extended cold weather, and evaporation combine to create a sinking of surface waters which forms the Levantine Intermediate Water of the Mediterranean Sea.[8]
Marine ecology
The Gulf of Lion is notable, according to C. Michael Hogan, for occurrences of biodiversity associated with the reef building organism
References
- Latin: sinus Leonis, mare Leonis, Classical Latin: sinus Gallicus)
- ^ Louis Michel, 1964, La langue des pêcheurs du golfe du Lion, Paris: D'Artrey
- ^ Louis Deroy, & Marianne Mulon, 1994, Dictionnaire des noms de lieux, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Frederic Mistral, 1878-1886 (1979), Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige ou dictionnaire provençal-français, Aix-en-Provence: Edisud, see. articles gou (golf, 'gulf') and lioun (leon, 'lion').
- ^ (in French)Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers Archived 2011-06-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ (in French)Supplément à l'Encyclopédie, Sinus Gallicus
- ^ (in French)Mémoires pour l'histoire naturelle de la province de Languedoc
- ISBN 978-0-691-15882-2.
- ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2011. Alboran Sea. eds. P. Saundry & C. J. Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC