Neptune's Needle

Arm of the Indian Ocean (area; 90,000 sq miles), bet. Arabia and Iran, extending c.600 miles from the Shatt al Arab delta to the Strait of Hormuz, which links it with the Gulf of Oman. The Persian Gulf, called the Arabian Gulf by Arabs, is mostly shallow and has many islands, of which Bahrain is the largest. The gulf is bordered by Oman and the UAE (S), Qatar and Saudi Arabia (W), Kuwait and Iraq (N), and along the entire E coast by Iran. It was generally thought that the gulf extended farther N and that sediment dropped by the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and Karkheh rivers filled the N part of the gulf to create a great delta. But geologic investigations now indicate that the coastline has not moved and that the marshlands of the delta represent a sinking of the earth’s crust as the Arabian land block pushes under Iran. The gulf waters have very slow currents and limited tidal range. The Persian Gulf was an important transportation route in antiquity but declined with the fall of Mesopotamia. In succeeding centuries control of the region was contested by Arabs, Persians, Turks, and W Europeans. In 1853, Britain and the Arab sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf signed the Perpetual Maritime Truce, formalizing the temporary truces of 1820 and 1835. The sheikhs agreed to stop harassing Brit. shipping in the Arabian Sea and to recognize Britain as the dominant power in the gulf. These sheikhdoms thus became known as the Trucial States. An agreement among the major powers in 1907 placed the gulf in the British sphere of influence. Although oil was discovered in the gulf in 1908, it was not until the 1930s, when major finds were made, that keen interest in the region revived. Since World War II the gulf oil fields, among the most productive in the world, have been extensively developed, and modern port facilities have been constructed. Nearly 50% of the world’s total oil reserves are estimated to be found in the Persian Gulf. It is also a large fishing source and was once the chief center of the pearling industry. In the late 1960s, following Brit. military withdrawal from the area, the U.S. and the USSR sought to fill the vacuum. In 1971 the first U.S. military installation in the gulf was established at Bahrain. The long-standing Arab-Pers. conflict in the gulf, combined with the desire of neighboring states for control of large oil reserves, has led to boundary disputes. The Persian Gulf’s vast oil reserves make the area a continuing source of international tension.

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Compiler

Peter Richards