How many harbors are in the world

This deepens and often cleans the body of water. The earthen material dredge d from harbors can be used for nearby facilities, like larger beaches or stronger breakwaters seawall s. Most harbors are natural. They are located along many types of coastline. They occur in fjord s, cove s, and lagoon s. They also occur along lakeshores and in estuaries, where rivers empty into larger bodies of water. Iron , steel , and timber are some of the raw material s shipped from manufacturing sites in the U.

New York City has one of the world's finest natural harbors. The harbor has deep water, a small tidal range , and moderate current s.

A small tidal range means that the water level is fairly consistent. There is little difference between high tide and low tide. Moderate currents mean movement of the water is predictable. This makes it easy for ships to maneuver , load and unload their cargo.

There are artificial harbors as well as natural ones. Breakwater s, huge walls of concrete, steel, and wire, are the most important element of artificial harbors.

Breakwaters protect the harbor from storms and reduce the tidal range. The seabed in protected harbors is more likely to remain stable, although sediment from human activity is likely to accrete , or build up. The harbor at Chennai, India, formerly called Madras relies on a series of artificial breakwaters.

It is considered one of the finest artificial harbors in the world. Construction of the harbor began in the mids, and continued until the mids. Now, the busy harbor import s and export s such cargo as oil , cars, and consumer goods like clothes and software. The Chennai harbor also loads and unloads thousands of tourists, from throughout India, Australia, and the tropical islands of the Indian Ocean like Maldives and Seychelles.

Like Chennai, many harbors may serve as port s manmade structures where ships load and unload cargo. For this reason, they are often vital to trade. When they function as ports, harbors often have artificial structures such as docks or jetties, as well as lighthouse s, buoy s, and other aids to navigation. The large size of modern vessels requires that harbors have deep ship channels.

Harbors have played an important role in civilization ever since people began using boats and ships at sea. Some 2, years ago, for instance, the Roman leader in what was then Palestine created a magnificent harbor at his city Caesarea Maritima.

The ruins of this harbor, called Sebastos, are located on the Mediterranean Sea in present-day Israel. The Sebastos harbor relied heavily on breakwaters constructed from a unique form of concrete: a type of volcanic ash that hardened when mixed with seawater. Gibraltar 3 Greece Greenland 22 Grenada 1 Guadeloupe 3. Haiti 11 Honduras 6. Hungary 1 Top. Iceland 67 India 76 Indonesia Iran 39 Iraq 4 Ireland Israel 5 Italy Top. Jordan 3 Top. Kazakhstan 9 Kenya 3.

Kiribati 3 Korea, North 8. Korea, South 17 Kuwait 3 Top. Latvia 6 Lebanon 2. Liberia 4 Libya Lithuania 1 Top. Namibia 2 Nauru 1 Netherlands 24 Netherlands Antilles 7. A major terminal expansion project is currently underway at the Port of Singapore, which, when fully commissioned in , will add 15 more berths.

Port of Tianjin The third biggest port in the world is the Port of Tianjin formerly Tanggu , which in witnessed remarkable increase of cargo and container throughputs by 5. It handled million tonnes of cargo and It connects to more than ports and serves countries. Tianjin Port Group Companies is the operator. The port features berths and is made up of the northern port, southern harbour, Dongjiang Port, an economic zone in the southern region, the south-east region and other auxiliary harbours.

Port of Guangzhou The Port of Guangzhou handled more than million tonnes of cargo in , making it the fourth biggest port in the world based on cargo traffic. The port is located in the middle of the Pearl River Delta. It is operated by Guangzhou Port Authority and handled the first million tonnes of cargo in The cargo traffic has increased significantly since then. It is currently the largest loading and discharging port for coal in China.

Port of Ningbo Port of Ningbo, which handled more than million tonnes of cargo in , is the fifth biggest port in the world. Ningbo Port Group is the operator of the port.

Comprising of berths, the port connects to more than ports in more than countries. It was recently been merged with the Port of Zhoushan. The combined TEU capacity of the two ports reached Port of Rotterdam The Port of Rotterdam is currently the biggest port in Europe and the sixth biggest in the world by annual cargo throughput.