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70 free North Sea trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This North Sea trivia quiz covers the shallow shelf sea between Britain and the continent from every angle: its geography (the Norwegian trench, Dogger Bank, the Wadden Sea, the Skagerrak and the Frisian Islands), its geology and prehistory (Doggerland, the Storegga tsunami, the 1931 Dogger Bank earthquake and the Draupner rogue wave), and its long history of storm surges from the Grote Manndrenke of 1362 to the 1953 flood that killed more than 2,000 people and produced the Delta Works and the Thames Barrier. You will also find questions on the sea's wars and rivalries (Vikings, the Hanseatic League, the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Dogger Bank incident, Jutland, Scapa Flow), its economy (Ekofisk and Brent crude, Piper Alpha, Rotterdam, the Kiel Canal, herring and cod, Horns Rev and the giant wind farms), its wildlife, and its many names, from Mare Germanicum to Vesterhavet. Some questions suit anyone who has stood on a beach at Scheveningen or Scarborough; others will test geographers, sailors and oil workers. Every answer has been checked against primary sources, chiefly the Wikipedia articles on the North Sea and its major features and events, and each explanation adds one further detail.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many countries border the North Sea?
Seven
Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
Q 02Through which two bodies of water does the North Sea connect to the Atlantic?
The English Channel and the Norwegian Sea
It reaches the Baltic through the Skagerrak and Kattegat, the narrow straits around Denmark.
Q 03What is the mean depth of the North Sea?
About 90 metres
It sits on the continental shelf; only the Norwegian trench, up to 725 metres deep, breaks the pattern.
Q 04What is the maximum depth, in metres, of the deep trench that runs from Oslo to north of Bergen?
725
It runs parallel to Norway's coast from Oslo to north of Bergen and holds the Troll gas field.
Q 05The Dogger Bank, the North Sea's finest fishing ground, is what kind of geological feature?
A moraine of glacial debris
It rises to just 15 to 30 metres below the surface.
Q 06The Long Forties and Broad Fourteens are named for their depth in what unit?
Fathoms
Forty fathoms is about 73 metres and fourteen fathoms about 26 metres.
Q 07Which two rivers are the largest and most important flowing into the North Sea?
The Elbe and the Rhine-Meuse
About 185 million people live in the catchment of the rivers that drain into it.
Q 08What is the direction of the main water circulation around the edges of the North Sea?
Anti-clockwise
Most ocean current enters through the northwest opening and leaves along the Norwegian coast.
Q 09What was the first recorded storm tide flood on the North Sea coast, in 1164?
The Julianenflut
In its wake the Jadebusen bay on the German coast began to form.
Q 10Which legendary city was lost to the sea in the Second Marcellus Flood of 1362?
Rungholt
Chronicles record more than 100,000 deaths in the flood known as the Grote Manndrenke.
Q 11The North Sea flood of 1953 cost more than how many lives?
2,000
The Netherlands recorded 1,836 deaths, mostly in Zeeland, and England 307.
Q 12How many citizens of Hamburg died in the North Sea flood of 1962?
315
The 1953 and 1962 floods drove the raising of dikes and the shortening of coastlines.
Q 13What share of the Netherlands lies below sea level, protected by dikes, dunes and beach flats?
27%
People were building artificial dwelling mounds above flood level as early as 500 BC.
Q 14The tsunami-causing Storegga Slides were underwater landslides off which country?
Q 21Which fishery ceased in the North Sea in the 1970s due to overfishing?
Mackerel
Herring, cod and plaice may face the same fate.
Q 22Which large marine mammals frequented the Orkney Islands through the mid-16th century?
Walruses
Flamingos and pelicans were also once found on the sea's southern shores.
Q 23A grey whale returned to the North Sea in 2010 after an absence of roughly how long?
300 years
Whaling drove the Atlantic grey whale extinct; the newcomer probably came through the ice-free Northwest Passage.
What was the English name for the North Sea in common use until the First World War?
Norway
They occurred between 8150 and 6000 BCE and hit Scotland and the Faroes hardest.
Q 15What was the magnitude of the 1931 Dogger Bank earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the UK?
6.1
It caused a small tsunami that flooded parts of the British coast.
Q 16The 25.6-metre Draupner event of 1995 was significant as what?
The first rogue wave measured by instruments
It struck a gas platform off Norway.
Q 17What was the dry landmass called that occupied the North Sea when ice-age sea levels fell?
Doggerland
A trawler dragged up a barbed antler point east of the Wash in 1931, spurring interest in the lost land.
Q 18Most evidence of habitation on the submerged land under the southern North Sea dates to which period?
Mesolithic
It may have been Europe's most prosperous hunting, fowling and fishing ground.
Q 19A bone found while drilling for oil in 2006 proved to be which dinosaur, the deepest fossil ever?
Plateosaurus
It was 199 to 216 million years old and the first dinosaur find for Norway.
Q 20Roughly how many species of fish live in the North Sea?
Over 230
Cod, haddock, plaice, herring and sandeel are among those fished commercially.
German Ocean
Pliny called it Septentrionalis Oceanus, and the Cimbri called it Morimarusa, the 'Dead Sea'.
Q 25The name 'North Sea' probably came into English via the Dutch, in contrast with which body of water?
The Zuiderzee
The Zuiderzee, or 'South Sea', lay south of Frisia before it was dammed.
Q 26What does the Danish name Vesterhavet mean?
West Sea
To Denmark the sea lies to the west, though Danes also use Nordsøen.
Q 27The Viking Age began in 793 with an attack on which North Sea island monastery?
Lindisfarne
For the next 250 years Vikings ruled the North Sea in their longships.
Q 28Which Baltic-centred trading alliance controlled most North Sea trade in the 13th century?
The Hanseatic League
It lost its dominance in the 16th century as neighbouring states took over its cities.
Q 29The first three Anglo-Dutch Wars between 1652 and 1673 ended with what result?
Victory for the Netherlands
After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 put a Dutch prince on the English throne, power shifted from Amsterdam to London.
Q 30In the 1904 Dogger Bank incident, the Russian fleet mistook British trawlers for what?
Japanese warships
The trawlers were from Hull; the incident nearly brought Britain into the Russo-Japanese War.