Where is the Caspian lake on the physical map. Caspian Sea. A small sea or a huge lake? (3 photos)
The Caspian Sea is the largest lake on our planet, which is located in a depression on the earth's surface (the so-called Aral-Caspian lowland) on the territory of Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Iran. Although they consider it as a lake, because it is not connected with the World Ocean, but by the nature of the formation processes and the history of origin, in terms of its size, the Caspian Sea is a sea.
The area of the Caspian Sea is about 371 thousand km2. The sea, stretched from north to south, has a length of about 1200 km and an average width of 320 km. The length of the coastline is about 7 thousand km. The Caspian Sea is located 28.5 m below the level of the World Ocean and its greatest depth is 1025 m. There are about 50 islands in the Caspian Sea, mostly small in area. Large islands include such islands as Tyuleniy, Kulaly, Zhiloy, Chechen, Artem, Ogurchinsky. There are also many bays in the sea, for example: Kizlyarsky, Komsomolets, Kazakh, Agrakhansky, etc.
The Caspian Sea is fed by more than 130 rivers. The largest amount of water (about 88% of the total flow) is brought by the Ural, Volga, Terek, Emba rivers, which flow into the northern part of the sea. About 7% of the runoff is provided by the large rivers Kura, Samur, Sulak and small rivers flowing into the sea on the western coast. The Heraz, Gorgan, Sefidrud rivers flow into the southern Iranian coast, which bring only 5% of the flow. Not a single river flows into the eastern part of the sea. The water in the Caspian Sea is salty, its salinity ranges from 0.3‰ to 13‰.
The shores of the Caspian Sea
The shores have a different landscape. The shores of the northern part of the sea are low and gentle, surrounded by low semi-desert and somewhat elevated desert. In the south, the shores are partially low-lying, they are bordered by a coastal lowland of a small area, behind which the Elburs ridge runs along the coast, which in some places comes close to the coast. In the west, the ridges of the Greater Caucasus approach the coast. In the east there is an abrasion coast, worked out in limestones, semi-desert and desert plateaus approach it. The coastline is very variable due to periodic fluctuations in water levels.
The climate of the Caspian Sea is different:
Continental in the north;
Moderate in the middle
Subtropical in the south.
At the same time, severe frosts and snowstorms are raging on the northern coast, and fruit trees and magnolias bloom on the southern coast. In winter, strong storm winds rage on the sea.
Large cities and ports are located on the coast of the Caspian Sea: Baku, Lankaran, Turkmenbashi, Lagan, Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, Izberbash, Astrakhan, etc. 
The fauna of the Caspian Sea is represented by 1809 animal species. More than 70 species of fish are found in the sea, including: herring, gobies, stellate sturgeon, sturgeon, beluga, white salmon, sterlet, pike perch, carp, bream, vobla, etc. Of the marine mammals in the lake, only the world's smallest Caspian seal is found, which not found in other seas. The Caspian lies on the main bird migration route between Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Every year, about 12 million birds fly over the Caspian during their migration period, and another 5 million usually winter here.
Vegetable world
The flora of the Caspian Sea and its coast is 728 species. Basically, algae inhabit the sea: diatoms, blue-green, red, char, brown and others, from flowering ones - rupee and zoster.
The Caspian Sea is rich in natural resources, many oil and gas fields are being developed in it, in addition, limestone, salt, sand, stone and clay are also mined here. The Caspian Sea is connected by the Volga-Don Canal with the Sea of Azov, shipping is well developed. A lot of different fish are caught in the reservoir, including more than 90% of the world's sturgeon catch.
The Caspian Sea is also a recreation area, on its shores there are rest houses, tourist bases and sanatoriums.
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February 16th, 2012
Original taken from sibved in the ancient Caspian. Climate catastrophe of the recent past
Looking through ancient maps, I constantly paid attention to how the cartographers of that time depicted the Caspian Sea. On early maps, it has an oval shape, slightly elongated in latitude, in contrast to its modern appearance, where the waters of the Caspian stretch from north to south.
Photos are clickable:
Caspian on the map in modern form
And the size of the Caspian Sea is completely different. The pool area is larger than the modern one.
Let's look at some ancient maps and see for ourselves.
Here the Caspian already has a slightly different shape, but it is still far from modern
All these maps show that the Caspian Sea has a system of full-flowing rivers flowing into it along the entire perimeter. Now, the main river flowing into the Caspian is the Volga. With so many rivers in the past, this should be a densely populated, fertile region. The ancient cartographers could not be so mistaken in the geometric shapes of the reservoir and in the number of rivers flowing into it.
I note that not a single map has an image, even a hint of Lake Baikal (this will come in handy later).
There is no Aral Sea on the maps - it is absorbed by the Caspian, this is one basin.
It is known that the Aral Sea is rapidly drying up, just catastrophically fast. About 25 years ago, the USSR even had projects to save this sea by turning the Siberian rivers. The coastline of the Aral Sea literally before our eyes, over the years, went beyond the horizon.
The official reason for such a catastrophic decrease in the water level in the Aral Sea-Lake is the huge withdrawal of water from the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers for irrigation of cotton fields.
More
Yes, this process is taking place. But not so much. It seems to me that we are witnessing climate change, which began long before the excessive economic activity of man in this region. Many deserts in this region, steppes are the bottom of the ancient Caspian. But not all. Below I will try to explain why.
In the meantime, I will add information from official science confirming changes in the shape and area of the Caspian basin:
The Russian scientist, academician P.S. Pallas, having visited the low flat shores of the Northern Caspian, wrote that the Caspian steppes are still in such a state, as if they had recently emerged from under the water. This thought comes by itself, if you look at these leveled vast expanses, at this sandy-clay soil mixed with sea shells, and at countless salt marshes. What sea could flood these steppes, if not adjacent to them the Caspian Sea?
Pallas also found traces of a higher standing of the sea on small hills scattered across the Caspian lowland like islands in the middle of the sea. He discovered ledges, or terraces, on the slopes of these hills. They could only be developed by sea waves acting for a long time.
Soviet scientists have established that on the shores of the Caspian, especially on the eastern (Mangyshlak and others), three coastal terraces are found at a height of 26, 16 and 11 m above the modern level of the Caspian. They belong to the last stage of the Khvalynsk Sea, that is, to the period of 10-20 thousand years ago. On the other hand, there is reliable information about underwater terraces at depths of 4, 8, 12, and 16–20 m below the present level.
At a depth of 16-20 m, there is a sharp bend in the transverse profile of the underwater slope, or, in other words, a flooded terrace. The period of such a low sea level dates back to the post-Khvalynian time. Later, in the Neo-Caspian time, which began 3-3.5 thousand years ago, the level of the Caspian Sea generally increased, reaching a maximum in 1805.
It turns out that in comparatively recent geological time the level of the Caspian experienced significant fluctuations with an amplitude reaching approximately 40 meters.
A large number of coastal ledges - terraces could be formed only during transgressions (the advance of the sea on land) and regressions (retreat of the sea). During transgression, the sea level remained at a certain height for a long time, and the sea surf had time to process the coast, creating beaches and coastal ridges.
Those. scientists do not deny that even in a very recent era by geological standards, the Caspian Sea was different.
Let's read what some figures of the past wrote about the Caspian Sea:
The first information about the Caspian Sea and its shores was found in the writings of ancient Greek and Roman scientists. However, this information received by them from the merchants of the participants in the wars, navigators, was not accurate and often contradicted each other. For example, Strabo believed that the Syr Darya flows simultaneously with two branches into the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. In the general geography of Claudius Ptolemy, which was the reference book of travelers until the 17th century, the Aral Sea is not mentioned at all.
The ancient maps of ancient geographers have also come down to us. The distances between geographical points were then determined by the speed and time of movement of caravans and ships, and the direction of the path was determined by the stars.
Herodotus (who lived around 484-425 BC) was the first to define the Caspian as a sea isolated from the ocean with a ratio of its width to length as 1:6, which is very close to reality. Aristotle (384-322 BC) confirmed Herodotus' conclusion. However, many of their contemporaries considered the Caspian to be the northern gulf of the ocean, which, according to their ideas, surrounded all the then known land.
Ptolemy (90-168 AD), like Herodotus, considered the Caspian Sea to be closed, but depicted it incorrectly, in a form approaching a circle.
Later, in 900-1200. AD, Arab scientists, following Ptolemy, represented the Caspian as closed and round. You can go around the Caspian (Khazar) Sea, returning to the place where you started, and not encounter obstacles, except for the rivers flowing into the sea, wrote Istakhari. The same was confirmed in 1280 by Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveler who visited China. As we shall see below, the misconception about the form of the Caspian persisted in the Western scientific world until the beginning of the 18th century, until it was refuted by Russian hydrographers.
Source: http://stepnoy-sledopyt.narod.ru/geologia/kmore/geol.htm
From all this, we can conclude that the climatic conditions in this region were different, this map of Africa indirectly proves this:
The climate was different not only in Central Asia, but also in the largest desert on the planet - the Sahara. Look at the huge river that crosses the modern desert Africa from east to west and flows into the Atlantic. In addition, a huge number of rivers flow into the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic - this indicates heavy rainfall in this region, and at least savannah vegetation. The Arabian Peninsula, too, is full of rivers and vegetation.
And this is the climate of the not so distant past, the past, when people made maps to the fullest.
What could have happened that changed Central Asia, northern Africa beyond recognition. Where did so much sand come from in the Karakum and Sahara?
I will put forward a version based on these maps, which at first glance may be incomprehensible:
It can be seen that the Black Sea and the Caspian are connected into one basin and a huge water area flows into them from the northeast and in the center - a huge river flowing from somewhere in the north. There is a connection with the Persian Gulf.
These data are confirmed by scientists:
It turned out that for a very long time, measured in millions of years, the Mediterranean, Black, Azov and Caspian Seas constituted a huge sea basin, connected to the World Ocean. This basin repeatedly changed its outlines, area, depth, was divided into separate parts and restored again.
The stages of development of this basin in the historical sequence received various, purely conditional, names: the Miocene basin, or the sea that existed in the Miocene time, several million years ago, the Sarmatian, Meotic, Pontic, Akchagyl, Apsheron and the Khvalyn Sea closest to our time.
Source: http://stepnoy-sledopyt.narod.ru/geologia/kmore/geol.htm (B.A. Shlyamin. The Caspian Sea. 1954. Geographic survey. 128 p.)
Or this is an image of the post-glacial period, when from the melting of glaciers, water flowed south. But who could draw such an accurate map in that period?
Or this is an image of a catastrophe in the very recent past, when the Caspian was at first oval in shape, and then acquired a modern look. In any case, there were streams of water, a huge layer of sand and silt was deposited, deserts and steppes were formed in this region.
With Africa, the issue is more complex and requires more complex study.
I will give a good analysis by A. Lorets: “Ancient civilizations were covered with sand” http://alexandrafl.livejournal.com/4402.html which just shows that not so long ago there were cataclysms, information about which is not available in this history. Perhaps St. Petersburg was covered with silt and sand at that time and for this reason, and Peter I and Catherine dug up and restored this ancient city.
One of the possible reasons for what happened could be the fall of a large asteroid into the Arctic Ocean. You can listen to this in this lecture of the "Tynam.net" project "Faroese astrobleme. Star Wound of the Apocalypse":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4cnp1voABE
it is also possible that many mountain systems were formed during this cataclysm. Lake Baikal - too, because. it does not appear on ancient maps. And local rivers are depicted in sufficient detail.
CaspAndmOre(Caspian) - the largest enclosed body of water on Earth. In size, the Caspian Sea is much larger than such lakes as the Upper, Victoria, Huron, Michigan, Baikal. According to formal features, the Caspian Sea is an endorheic lake. However, given its large size, brackish waters and sea-like regime, this body of water is called the sea.
According to one hypothesis, the Caspian Sea (among the ancient Slavs - the Khvalyn Sea) got its name in honor of the Caspian tribes who lived before our era on its southwestern coast.
The Caspian Sea washes the shores of five states: Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
The Caspian Sea is elongated in the meridional direction and is located between 36°33' and 47°07' N latitude. and 45°43΄ and 54°03΄ E (without Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay). The length of the sea along the meridian is about 1200 km; the average width is 310 km. The northern coast of the Caspian Sea is bordered by the Caspian lowland, the eastern coast by the deserts of Central Asia; in the west, the mountains of the Caucasus approach the sea, in the south, near the coast, the Elburz ridge stretches.
The surface of the Caspian Sea is much lower than the level of the World Ocean. Its current level fluctuates around -27 ... -28 m. These levels correspond to the sea surface area of 390 and 380 thousand km 2 (without the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay), the volume of water is 74.15 and 73.75 thousand km 3, average depth is about 190 m.
The Caspian Sea is traditionally divided into three large parts: the North (24% of the sea area), the Middle (36%) and the South Caspian (40%), which differ significantly in morphology and regime, as well as the large and isolated Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay. The northern, shelf part of the sea is shallow: its average depth is 5–6 m, maximum depths are 15–25 m, and the volume is less than 1% of the total water mass of the sea. The Middle Caspian is a separate basin with the area of maximum depths in the Derbent depression (788 m); its average depth is about 190 m. In the South Caspian, the average and maximum depths are 345 and 1025 m (in the South Caspian depression); 65% of the water mass of the sea is concentrated here.
There are about 50 islands in the Caspian Sea with a total area of approximately 400 km2; the main ones are Tyuleniy, Chechen, Zyudev, Konevsky, Dzhambaysky, Durneva, Ogurchinsky, Apsheronsky. The length of the coastline is approximately 6.8 thousand km, with islands - up to 7.5 thousand km. The shores of the Caspian Sea are diverse. In the northern and eastern parts, they are quite strongly indented. There are large bays Kizlyarsky, Komsomolets, Mangyshlaksky, Kazakhsky, Kara-Bogaz-Gol, Krasnovodsky and Turkmensky, many bays; off the western coast - Kyzylagach. The largest peninsulas are Agrakhansky, Buzachi, Tyub-Karagan, Mangyshlak, Krasnovodsky, Cheleken and Apsheronsky. The most common banks are accumulative; areas with abrasion shores are found along the contour of the Middle and South Caspian.
More than 130 rivers flow into the Caspian Sea, the largest of which is the Volga. , Ural, Terek, Sulak, Samur, Kura, Sefidrud, Atrek, Emba (its runoff enters the sea only in high-water years). Nine rivers have deltas; the largest are located at the mouths of the Volga and Terek.
The main feature of the Caspian Sea, as a drainless reservoir, is instability and a wide range of long-term fluctuations in its level. This most important hydrological feature of the Caspian Sea has a significant impact on all its other hydrological characteristics, as well as on the structure and regime of river mouths, on coastal zones. In the Caspian Sea level varied in the range of ~200 m: from -140 to +50 m BS; in from -34 to -20 m BS. From the first third of the 19th century and until 1977, sea level dropped by about 3.8 m - to the lowest point in the last 400 years (-29.01 m BS). In 1978–1995 The level of the Caspian Sea rose by 2.35 m and reached -26.66 m BS. Since 1995, a certain downward trend has dominated - to -27.69 m BS in 2013.
During major periods, the northern shore of the Caspian Sea shifted to Samarskaya Luka on the Volga, and perhaps even further. At maximum transgressions, the Caspian turned into a sewage lake: excess water flowed through the Kuma-Manych depression into the Sea of Azov and further into the Black Sea. In extreme regressions, the southern coast of the Caspian Sea was shifted to the Apsheron threshold.
Long-term fluctuations in the level of the Caspian are explained by changes in the structure of the water balance of the Caspian Sea. The sea level rises when the incoming part of the water balance (primarily river runoff) increases and exceeds the outgoing part, and decreases if the inflow of river waters decreases. The total water flow of all rivers averages 300 km 3 /year; while the five largest rivers account for almost 95% (the Volga provides 83%). During the period of the lowest sea level, in 1942–1977, the river flow was 275.3 km 3 / year (of which 234.6 km 3 / year is the flow of the Volga), precipitation - 70.9, underground flow - 4 km 3 /year, and evaporation and outflow to the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay - 354.79 and 9.8 km 3 /year. During the period of intensive sea level rise, in 1978-1995, respectively, 315 (Volga - 274.1), 86.1, 4, 348.79 and 8.7 km 3 / year; in the modern period - 287.4 (Volga - 248.2), 75.3, 4, 378.3 and 16.3 km 3 / year.
The intra-annual changes in the level of the Caspian Sea are characterized by a maximum in June–July and a minimum in February; the range of intra-annual level fluctuations is 30–40 cm. Surge-surge level fluctuations are manifested throughout the sea, but they are most significant in the northern part, where, with maximum surges, the level can rise by 2–4.5 m and the edge “retreat” by several tens of kilometers inland, and in case of surges - to drop by 1–2.5 m. Seiche and tidal level fluctuations do not exceed 0.1–0.2 m.
Despite the relatively small size of the reservoir in the Caspian Sea, there is strong excitement. The highest wave heights in the South Caspian can reach 10–11 m. Wave heights decrease from south to north. Storm waves can develop at any time of the year, but more often and more dangerously in the cold half of the year.
The Caspian Sea is generally dominated by wind currents; nevertheless, runoff currents play an appreciable role on the estuarine coasts of large rivers. Cyclonic water circulation prevails in the Middle Caspian, and anticyclonic circulation in the South Caspian. In the northern part of the sea, the patterns of wind currents are more irregular and depend on the characteristics and variability of the wind, bottom topography and coastlines, river runoff and aquatic vegetation.
The water temperature is subject to significant latitudinal and seasonal changes. In winter, it varies from 0–0.5 o C at the ice edge in the north of the sea to 10–11 o C in the south. In summer, the water temperature in the sea averages 23–28 o C, and in shallow coastal waters in the Northern Caspian it can reach 35–40 o C. At depths, a constant temperature is maintained: deeper than 100 m it is 4–7 o C.
In winter, only the northern part of the Caspian Sea freezes; in severe winter - the entire Northern Caspian and the coastal zones of the Middle Caspian. Freezing in the Northern Caspian lasts from November to March.
The salinity of water changes especially sharply in the northern part of the sea: from 0.1‰ on the estuarine coasts of the Volga and Urals to 10–12‰ on the border with the Middle Caspian. In the Northern Caspian, the temporal variability of water salinity is also great. In the middle and southern parts of the sea, salinity fluctuations are small: it is mainly 12.5–13.5‰, increasing from north to south and from west to east. The highest water salinity is in the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay (up to 300‰). With depth, the salinity of water increases slightly (by 0.1–0.3‰). The average salinity of the sea is about 12.5‰.
More than a hundred species of fish live in the Caspian Sea and the mouths of the rivers flowing into it. There are Mediterranean and Arctic invaders. The object of fishing is goby, herring, salmon, carp, mullet and sturgeon fish. The latter number five species: sturgeon, beluga, stellate sturgeon, spike and sterlet. The sea is capable of producing up to 500-550 thousand tons of fish annually if overfishing is not allowed. Of the marine mammals, the endemic Caspian seal lives in the Caspian Sea. Every year 5-6 million waterfowl migrate through the Caspian region.
The economy of the Caspian Sea is connected with oil and gas production, shipping, fishing, extraction of seafood, various salts and minerals (Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay), with the use of recreational resources. The explored oil resources in the Caspian Sea are about 10 billion tons, the total resources of oil and gas condensate are estimated at 18–20 billion tons. Oil and gas are being produced on an ever-increasing scale. The Caspian Sea is also used by water transport, including along the river-sea and sea-river routes. The main ports of the Caspian Sea: Astrakhan, Olya, Makhachkala (Russia), Aktau, Atyrau (Kazakhstan), Baku (Azerbaijan), Nowshahr, Bender-Enzeli, Bender-Torkemen (Iran) and Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan).
The economic activity and hydrological features of the Caspian Sea create a number of serious environmental and water management problems. Among them: anthropogenic pollution of river and sea waters (mainly with oil products, phenols and synthetic surfactants), poaching and reduction of fish stock, especially sturgeons; damage to the population and coastal economic activity due to large-scale and rapid changes in the level of the reservoir, the impact of numerous hazardous hydrological phenomena and hydrological and morphological processes.
The total economic damage for all the Caspian countries associated with the rapid and significant recent rise in the level of the Caspian Sea, the flooding of part of the coastal land, the destruction of coasts and coastal structures, was estimated at 15 to 30 billion US dollars. It took urgent engineering measures to protect the coast.
A sharp drop in the level of the Caspian Sea in the 1930s–1970s. led to less damage, but they were significant. The navigable approach channels became shallow, the shallow seashore at the mouths of the Volga and the Urals became heavily overgrown, which became an obstacle to the passage of fish into the rivers for spawning. It was necessary to build fish passages through the seasides mentioned above.
Among the unresolved problems is the lack of an international agreement on the international legal status of the Caspian Sea, the division of its water area, bottom and subsoil.
The Caspian Sea is the object of many years of research by specialists from all the Caspian states. Such domestic organizations as the State Oceanographic Institute, the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia, the Caspian Research Institute of Fisheries, the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, etc. took an active part in the study of the Caspian Sea.
The Caspian Sea is notable for the fact that its western coast belongs to Europe, and the eastern one is located on the territory of Asia. This is a huge body of salt water. It is called the sea, but, in fact, it is a lake, as it has no connection with the oceans. Therefore, it can be considered the largest lake in the world.
The area of the water giant is 371 thousand square meters. km. As for the depth, the northern part of the sea is rather shallow, while the southern part is deep. The average depth is 208 meters, but it does not give any idea of the thickness of the water mass. The entire reservoir is divided into three parts. These are the Northern, Middle and Southern Caspian. The northern one is the sea shelf. It accounts for only 1% of the total volume of water. This part ends behind the Kizlyar Bay near the island of Chechen. The average depth in these places is 5-6 meters.
In the Middle Caspian, the seabed noticeably decreases, and the average depth reaches 190 meters. The maximum is equal to 788 meters. This part of the sea contains 33% of the total volume of water. And the South Caspian is considered to be the deepest one. It absorbs 66% of the total water mass. The maximum depth was noted in the South Caspian depression. She is equal 1025 meters and is considered the official maximum sea depth to date. The Middle and South Caspian are approximately equal in area and occupy a total of 75% of the area of the entire reservoir.
The maximum length is 1030 km and the corresponding width is 435 km. The minimum width is 195 km. The average figure corresponds to 317 km. That is, the reservoir has an impressive size and is rightfully called the sea. The length of the coastline, together with the islands, reaches almost 7 thousand km. As for the water level, it is 28 meters below the level of the World Ocean.
The most interesting thing is that the level of the Caspian Sea is subject to cyclicity. The water goes up and down. Water levels have been measured since 1837. According to experts, over the past thousand years, the level has fluctuated within 15 meters. This is a very big number. And they associate it with geological and anthropogenic (human impact on the environment) processes. However, it has been noted that since the beginning of the 21st century, the level of the huge reservoir has been steadily rising.
The Caspian Sea is surrounded by 5 countries. These are Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan. Moreover, Kazakhstan has the longest coastline. Russia is in 2nd place. But the length of the coastline of Azerbaijan reaches only 800 km, but in this place there is the largest port in the Caspian Sea. This is, of course, Baku. The city is home to 2 million people, and the population of the entire Absheron Peninsula is 2.5 million people.
"Oil Rocks" - a city in the sea
These are 200 platforms with a total length of 350 kilometers
Notable is the settlement of oil workers, which is called " Oil Stones". It is located 42 km east of Absheron in the sea and is a creation of human hands. All residential and industrial buildings are built on metal overpasses. People serve drilling rigs pumping oil from the bowels of the earth. Naturally, there are no permanent residents in this village.
In addition to Baku, other large cities are located along the banks of the salt reservoir. At the southern tip is the Iranian city of Anzali with a population of 111 thousand people. This is the largest Iranian port in the Caspian. Kazakhstan owns the city of Aktau with a population of 178 thousand people. And in the northern part, directly on the Ural River, is the city of Atyrau. It is inhabited by 183 thousand people.
The Russian city of Astrakhan also has the status of a seaside city, although it is 60 km away from the coast and is located in the delta of the Volga River. This is a regional center with a population of over 500 thousand people. Directly on the seashore are such Russian cities as Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, Derbent. The latter belongs to the oldest cities in the world. People have been living in this place for more than 5 thousand years.
Many rivers flow into the Caspian Sea. There are about 130 of them. The largest of them are the Volga, Terek, Ural, Kura, Atrek, Emba, Sulak. It is the rivers, and not the precipitation, that feed the huge body of water. They give him up to 95% of water per year. The basin of the reservoir is 3.626 million square meters. km. These are all rivers with their tributaries flowing into the Caspian. The territory is huge, it includes bay Kara-Bogaz-Gol.
This bay is more correctly called a lagoon. It means a shallow body of water, separated from the sea by a sandy spit or reefs. There is such a spit in the Caspian. And the strait through which water flows from the sea is 200 km wide. True, people with their restless and ill-conceived activities almost destroyed Kara-Bogaz-Gol. They blocked off the lagoon with a dam, and its level dropped sharply. But after 12 years, the mistake was corrected and the strait was restored.
The Caspian has always been developed shipping. In the Middle Ages, merchants brought exotic spices and skins of snow leopards from Persia to Rus' by sea. Today, the reservoir connects the cities located on its banks. Ferry crossings are practiced. There is a water connection with the Black and Baltic Seas through rivers and canals.
Caspian Sea on the map
The reservoir is also important from the point of view fisheries, because sturgeon lives in it in large numbers and gives caviar. But today the number of sturgeons has significantly decreased. Ecologists propose to ban the capture of this valuable fish until the population recovers. But this issue has not yet been resolved. The number of tuna, bream, pike perch also decreased. Here it is necessary to take into account the fact that poaching is highly developed at sea. The reason for this is the difficult economic situation in the region.
And, of course, a few words must be said about oil. The extraction of "black gold" at sea began in 1873. The areas adjacent to Baku have become a real gold mine. There were more than 2 thousand wells here, and oil production and processing was carried out on an industrial scale. At the beginning of the 20th century it was the center of the international oil industry. In 1920, Azerbaijan was occupied by the Bolsheviks. Oil wells and factories were requisitioned. The entire oil industry came under the control of the USSR. In 1941, Azerbaijan supplied 72% of all oil produced in the socialist state.
In 1994, the "Contract of the Century" was signed. It marked the beginning of the international development of the Baku oil fields. The main Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline allows Azerbaijani oil to flow directly to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. It was put into operation in 2006. To date, oil reserves are estimated at 12 trillion. US dollars.
Thus, it is clear that the Caspian Sea is one of the most important economic regions of the world. The political situation in the Caspian region is rather complicated. For a long time there were disputes about maritime borders between Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran. There were many inconsistencies and disagreements, which negatively affected the development of the region.
This ended on August 12, 2018. On this day, the states of the "Caspian Five" signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. This document demarcated the bottom and subsoil, and each of the five countries (Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan) received its share in the Caspian basin. The rules for the implementation of navigation, fishing, scientific research, and the laying of pipelines were also approved. The boundaries of territorial waters received the status of state.
Yuri Syromyatnikov
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest lake on Earth, located at the junction of Europe and Asia, called the sea because of its size. The Caspian Sea is an endorheic lake, and the water in it is salty, from 0.05% near the mouth of the Volga to 11-13% in the southeast. The water level is subject to fluctuations, at present - about 28 m below the level of the World Ocean. The area of the Caspian Sea is currently approximately 371,000 sq. km, the maximum depth is 1025 m.
The length of the coastline of the Caspian Sea is estimated at about 6500 - 6700 kilometers, with islands - up to 7000 kilometers. The shores of the Caspian Sea in most of its territory are low-lying and smooth. In the northern part, the coastline is indented by water channels and islands of the Volga and Ural deltas, the shores are low and swampy, and the water surface is covered with thickets in many places. The east coast is dominated by limestone shores adjacent to semi-deserts and deserts. The most winding coasts are on the west coast in the area of the Apsheron Peninsula and on the east coast in the area of the Kazakh Gulf and Kara-Bogaz-Gol.
130 rivers flow into the Caspian Sea, of which 9 rivers have a mouth in the form of a delta. Large rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea are the Volga, Terek (Russia), Ural, Emba (Kazakhstan), Kura (Azerbaijan), Samur (Russian border with Azerbaijan), Atrek (Turkmenistan) and others.
The Caspian Sea washes the shores of five coastal states:
Russia (Dagestan, Kalmykia and Astrakhan region) - in the west and northwest, the length of the coastline is 695 kilometers Kazakhstan - in the north, northeast and east, the length of the coastline is 2320 kilometers Turkmenistan - in the southeast, the length of the coastline is 1200 kilometers Iran - in the south, the length of the coastline - 724 kilometers Azerbaijan - in the southwest, the length of the coastline is 955 kilometers
Water temperature
It is subject to significant latitudinal changes, most pronounced in winter, when the temperature varies from 0 - 0.5 °C at the ice edge in the north of the sea to 10 - 11 °C in the south, that is, the water temperature difference is about 10 °C. For shallow water areas with depths less than 25 m, the annual amplitude can reach 25 - 26 °C. On average, the water temperature near the western coast is 1 - 2 °C higher than that of the eastern coast, and in the open sea the water temperature is 2 - 4 °C higher than near the coasts.
The climate of the Caspian Sea is continental in the northern part, temperate in the middle part and subtropical in the southern part. In winter, the average monthly temperature of the Caspian varies from -8 -10 in the northern part to +8 - +10 in the southern part, in summer - from +24 - +25 in the northern part to +26 - +27 in the southern part. The maximum temperature recorded on the east coast is 44 degrees.
Animal world
The fauna of the Caspian is represented by 1809 species, of which 415 are vertebrates. 101 species of fish are registered in the Caspian Sea, and most of the world's stocks of sturgeon are concentrated in it, as well as such freshwater fish as vobla, carp, pike perch. The Caspian Sea is the habitat of such fish as carp, mullet, sprat, kutum, bream, salmon, perch, pike. The Caspian Sea is also inhabited by a marine mammal - the Caspian seal.
Vegetable world
The flora of the Caspian Sea and its coast is represented by 728 species. Of the plants in the Caspian Sea, algae predominate - blue-green, diatoms, red, brown, char and others, of flowering - zoster and ruppia. By origin, the flora belongs mainly to the Neogene age, however, some plants were brought into the Caspian Sea by man either consciously or on the bottoms of ships.
Mining of oil and gas
Many oil and gas fields are being developed in the Caspian Sea. The proven oil resources in the Caspian Sea are about 10 billion tons, the total resources of oil and gas condensate are estimated at 18-20 billion tons.
Oil production in the Caspian Sea began in 1820, when the first oil well was drilled on the Absheron shelf. In the second half of the 19th century, oil production began on an industrial scale on the Absheron Peninsula, and then on other territories.
In addition to oil and gas production, salt, limestone, stone, sand, and clay are also mined on the coast of the Caspian Sea and the Caspian shelf.
