Prince William Sound

Prince William Sound
Inlet of the Gulf of Alaska, southern Alaska, U.S. It lies east of the Kenai Peninsula and spans 90–100 mi (145–160 km).

It was named by the British captain George Vancouver in 1778 to honour a son of George III. In 1989 one of the largest oil spills in history occurred when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef and lost 10.9 million gallons of crude oil into the sound, with disastrous effects on its ecology.

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 irregular inlet of the Gulf of Alaska (Alaska, Gulf of), Alaska, U.S. It lies east of the Kenai Peninsula and spans about 90 to 100 miles (145 to 160 km). Hinchinbrook and Montague islands are at its oceanward entrance. The area lies within Chugach National Forest and has supported considerable fishing, mining, and forestry. Shipping is centred at the port of Valdez, the southern terminal for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, and at Cordova. The sound was named by the British navigator Captain George Vancouver (Vancouver, George) in 1778 to honour the third son of King George III.

 The area was devastated in 1964 by a massive earthquake, which unleashed a tsunami that affected coastal areas along the Gulf of Alaska, on the west coast of Canada and the United States, and in Hawaii; it also damaged or destroyed much of downtown Anchorage. Prince William Sound was also the site of a massive oil spill on March 24, 1989, when an Exxon Corporation tanker, the Exxon Valdez, ran aground on Bligh Reef. Delayed efforts to contain the spill and naturally strong winds and waves dispersed some 10.9 million gallons of North Slope crude oil across the sound. The spill eventually polluted thousands of miles of indented shoreline, as well as adjacent waters, as far south as the southern end of Shelikof Strait between Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula. An intensive effort was subsequently mounted to clean up the oil spill and restore the sound's damaged ecosystem.
 

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Prince William Sound — is a sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. Other settlements on …   Wikipedia

  • Prince William Sound —   [ prɪns wɪljəm saʊnd], verzweigte Bucht an der Südküste Alaskas, USA, östlich der Kenaihalbinsel; 160 km breit, 300 400 m tief; nährstoffreiches Wasser, artenreiche Tierwelt: Wale, Seelöwen, otter, zahlreiche Fisch und Vogelarten. Am 24. 3.… …   Universal-Lexikon

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  • Prince William Sound — geographical name inlet of Gulf of Alaska S Alaska E of Kenai Peninsula …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Prince William Sound — …   Useful english dictionary

  • Prince William (Begriffsklärung) — Prince William (englisch für Prinz Wilhelm) bezeichnet Prinzen William Ætheling (1103–†1120), englischer Prinz William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765), britischer Prinz William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1743–1805),… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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