Nantucket Shoals

{{short description|Area of dangerously shallow water in the Atlantic Ocean}}

File:Nantucket Shoals NOAA chart 12300.gif nautical chart 12300 showing the Nantucket Shoals in relation to Nantucket Island.]]

Nantucket Shoals is an area of dangerously shallow water in the Atlantic Ocean that extends from Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, eastward for {{convert|23|mi|km}} and southeastward for {{convert|40|mi|km}}; in places water depth can be as shallow as {{convert|3|ft|m}}.{{cite book |title=United States Coast Pilot |url=http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/coastpilot_w.php?book=2 |accessdate=April 17, 2010 |edition=39th |volume=2 |year=2010 |publisher=National Ocean Service |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=178–179 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527143032/http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/coastpilot_w.php?book=2 |archive-date=May 27, 2010 |url-status=dead }} Depth soundings are unpredictable due to the constant change caused by strong currents, which are rotary rather than reversing.{{cite journal |first=Embert A. |last=Le Lacheur |date=April 1924 |title=Tidal Currents in the Open Sea: Subsurface Tidal Currents at Nantucket Shoals Light Vessel |journal=Geographical Review |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=282–286 |doi=10.2307/208104|jstor=208104 }}

The shoals lie just off of a major transatlantic shipping lane. Numerous ships have been wrecked here, most recently and notably the oil tanker Argo Merchant in December 1976. Until 1983, the edge of the shoals was guarded by the Nantucket Lightship.

File:Argo Merchant run aground.jpg Argo Merchant aground on Middle Rip, December 15, 1976.]]

Nantucket Shoals is made up of the following features:{{cite book |title=United States Coast Pilot |url=http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/coastpilot_w.php?book=2 |accessdate=April 17, 2010 |edition=39th |volume=2 |year=2010 |publisher=National Ocean Service |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=179–180}}

• Asia Rip
• Davis Bank
• Fishing Rip
• Middle Rip
• Phelps Bank

According to the 2010 edition of the United States Coast Pilot, the International Maritime Organization has established an "area to be avoided" for the Nantucket Shoals. Vessels transporting oil or hazardous materials and vessels of more than 1,000 gross tons should avoid the area bounded by the points in the below table.

{{kml}}

{{PoI start}}

{{PoI|Madaket|41.275|-70.208333|US|name=Madaket|}}

{{PoI|Southwest point|40.72|-70.008333|US|}}

{{PoI|Near Asia Rip|40.741667|-69.316667|US|}}

{{PoI|Near Fishing Rip|41.075|-69.316667|US|}}

{{PoI|Northeast point|41.391667|-69.525|US|}}

{{PoI|Great Point Light|41.39|-70.046667|US|name=Great Point Light|}}

{{PoI end}}