The Strait of Sicily (also known as Sicilian Strait, Sicilian Channel, Channel of Sicily, Sicilian Narrows and Pantelleria Channel; ; , or ) is the strait between Sicily and Tunisia. The strait is about wide and divides the Tyrrhenian Sea and the western Mediterranean Sea, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The maximum depth is . Deep currents in the strait flow from east to west, and the current nearer the surface travels from west to east. This unusual water flow is of interest to oceanographers. There are regular ferries between Sicily and Tunis across the Strait of Sicily. The island of Pantelleria lies in the middle of the strait. The Strait of Sicily is located between, at the eastern side, Tunisia and the Malta Bank and on the northern side, Sicily, Italy. Within the Central Mediterranean sea it is one of the topographically complex regions. With a length of 600 km it connects the Eastern and Western Mediterranean basins. The strait is delimited by two systems; at the eastern side it is connected with the Ionian Sea, south of the Malta Bank with a sill of 560 m deep, and, on the western side, two passages connect the strait with the Western Mediterranean basin. The passage or channel more closely to Sicily is narrow and around 430 m deep while the channel at the side of Tunisia is broader and shallower with a maximum depth of 365 m. Due to this particular bathymetry with two different channels, the strait is called a "two-sill strait". In the central region the strait is around 50 km to 100 km wide and 700 m to 900 m deep, but some parts consist of trenches of even 1800 m deep. A tunnel is proposed to link Tunisia and Sicily as nowadays ferries cross the Strait regularly. Flows At the surface and in the upper 200 m the strait consists of an eastward flow provided by the Modified Atlantic Water (MAW). Underneath this eastward flow, the Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) flows in westward direction. Just above the bottom of the Strait a relative small flow has been observed. This vein follows the same route as LIW but consists of different characteristics. The water flow is named 'transitional Eastern Mediterranean Deep Water' (tEMDW) and contains fresher, colder and denser (with a potential seawater density, σθ, of around 29.10) water than the LIW. In the Ionian Sea