Meaning and Definition of Strait

Definition of Strait

At a geographical level, the Strait can be understood by a space in which two portions of land remain nearby, limiting the flow of water or the water course that intermediate between them. The Strait is very common among geographic forms such as peninsulas or headlands since these two are ways in which that are more extensive and marked vertices in the rest of the territory. Planet Earth has several straits in which the navigation becomes more limited due to insufficient free space by which transit. The Strait can also be described as a channel, a narrow watercourse between two portions of land relatively close. You get that name because it represents precisely a space more narrow or narrow the resource of water present, whether this a sea, an ocean or a lake. Due to the proximity of land given in a narrow, these geographic forms are usually of great importance economically since they allow navigation corridors generate is from a point to the other, at the same time making two different States can deal much more easily. Normally, Strait divides the land in what would be two States or political organizations (as happens for example in the Strait of Gibraltar, which faces Spain in Africa), and this is easily a cause of many conflicts, both political as military and even social since it facilitates migration from one point to another. Depending on the behavior of the sea or ocean, the Strait can shrink if water levels rise continuously or you can narrow further if characteristics of drought and low rainfall occur. In addition, the action of the man may also alter deeply geographical environment, such as in the Strait that separates to Central America from South America, where the Panama Canal is.