Is the Caspian Sea saltwater?
Caspian Sea
The sea has a surface area of 371,000 km (143,200 sq mi) (not including the detached lagoon of Garabogazköl) and a volume of 78,200 km(18,800 cu mi). It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12 g/l), about a third of the salinity of most seawater.
Kashagan Field
Interest in the Caspian Sea first began in 1992 when an exploration program was announced by the Kazakh government. They sought the interest of over 30 companies to partake in the exploration. In 1993 the Kazakhstancaspiishelf was formed which consisted of Eni, BG Group, BP/Statoil, Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Total S.A., along with the Kazakh government. This consortium lasted 4 years until 1997, when seismic exploration of the Caspian Sea was undertaken.
Common octopus
The common octopus is typically found in tropical waters throughout the world, such as the Mediterranean Sea and East Atlantic. They prefer the floor of relatively shallow, rocky, coastal waters, often no deeper than 200 meters. Although they prefer around 36 grams per liter, salinity throughout their global habitat is found to be between roughly 30 and 45 grams of salt per liter of water. They are exposed to a wide variety of temperatures in their environments, however their preferred temperature ranges from about 15 °C to 16 °C. In especially warm seasons, the octopus can often be found deeper than usual in order to escape the warmer layers of water. In moving vertically throughout the water, the octopus is subjected to various pressures and temperatures which affect the concentration of oxygen available in the water. This can be understood through Henry's Law, which states that the concentration of a gas in a substance is proportional to pressure and solubility, which is influenced by temperature. These various discrepancies in oxygen availability introduce a requirement for regulation methods.
Great Salt Lake
The salinity of the lake's main basin, Gilbert Bay, is highly variable and depends on the lake's level; it ranges from 5 to 27% (50 to 270 parts per thousand). For comparison, the average salinity of the world ocean is 3.5% (35 parts per thousand) and 33.7% in the Dead Sea. The ionic composition is similar to seawater, much more so than the Dead Sea's water; compared to the ocean, Great Salt Lake's waters are slightly enriched in potassium and depleted in calcium.
Caspian seal
Several recent cases of large numbers of Caspian seals dying due to canine distemper virus have been reported, in 1997, 2000, and 2001. In April 2000, a mass die-off of Caspian seals was first reported near the mouth of the Ural River in Kazakhstan. It spread south to the Mangistau region, and by the end of May, more than 10,000 seals had died along the Kazakhstan coast. High death rates were also recorded in May and June along the Apsheron peninsula of Azerbaijan and the Turkmenistan coast.
Cumacea
Cumaceans are mainly marine crustaceans. However, some species can survive in water with a lower salinity, like brackish water (e.g. estuaries). In the Caspian Sea they even reach some rivers that flow into it. A few species live in the intertidal zone.
Red Sea
The Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, owing to high evaporation. Salinity ranges from between ~36 ‰ in the southern part because of the effect of the Gulf of Aden water and 41 ‰ in the northern part, owing mainly to the Gulf of Suez water and the high evaporation. The average salinity is 40 ‰. (Average salinity for the world's seawater is ~35 ‰ on the Practical Salinity Scale, or PSU; that translates to 3.5% of actual dissolved salts.)
Hypersaline lake
The most saline lake outside of Antarctica is Lake Assal, in Djibouti, which has a salinity of 34.8% (i.e. 10 times saltier than ocean water). Probably the best-known hypersaline lakes are the Dead Sea (34.2% salinity in 2010) and the Great Salt Lake in the state of Utah, USA (5–27% variable salinity). The Dead Sea, dividing Israel and the Palestinian West Bank from Jordan, is the world's deepest hypersaline lake and the Araruama Lagoon in Brazil is the world's largest hypersaline lake. The Great Salt Lake, located in Utah, while having nearly three times the surface area of the Dead Sea, is shallower and experiences much greater fluctuations in level than the Dead Sea. At its lowest recorded levels, it approaches 7.7 times the salinity of ocean water, but when its levels are high, its salinity drops to only slightly higher than the ocean.
Caspian kutum
The Caspian kutum ("Rutilus kutum") or Caspian white fish is a member of the family Cyprinidae from brackish water habitats of the Caspian Sea and from its freshwater tributaries. It is typically a medium-sized fish, reaching 45–55 cm in length, rarely 70 cm, and weighing up to 4.00 kg, rarely 5.00 kg. It used to be very common and was harvested commercially. The population seems to have collapsed due to overfishing and marine pollution. Its flesh and roe are enjoyed as food, and highly prized in the Gilan and Mazandaran provinces in Iran.
Kura (Caspian Sea)
Steppe characterizes the arid reaches of the Kura River catchment, while meadows are often found in the alpine areas. The Kura River area is considered as part of the Kura-South Caspian Sea Drainages ecoregion. Some portions of the river flow through a semi-desert environment. Forest cover is sparse. Almost 60 species of fish inhabit the Kura River and its tributaries. Some common families include loach, bleak, trout and nase, and many of these fish are endemic to the region. Among rivers of the Caucasus, the Kura has the largest number of endemic species. The upper section of the river supports much more biodiversity than the lower half, which is typically more turbid and polluted. This pattern is also apparent in most of its tributaries, especially the larger ones that span more climate zones, such as the Aras and Alazani. There are many lakes and wetlands along the Kura's lower course, most of which are formed by flooding, and some of which are formed by irrigation runoff water. Many lakes also form at the mouths of small tributaries that do not reach the ultimate destination in the Caspian most of the time. The local name for these lakes translates to "dead lake" or "dead water", suggesting that these lakes do not support much biodiversity.
Allium caspium
Allium caspium is a species of onions named for the Caspian Sea. It is native to the southern parts of European Russia, as well as central and southwestern Asia
Lake Koshkar-Ata
Due to high evaporation rates and lack of water, Koshkar-Ata might dry out sometime in the future. The southern part of the lake is already exposed to the air which, due to strong winds in the area, could disperse the dangerous chemicals to other areas, including the Caspian Sea. The local authorities are concerned about the possibility of this happening; however, there is no hard evidence to suggest that this is indeed the case. High concentrations of manganese, strontium, molybdenum and lead, as well as other rare-earth metals and radionuclides, are present. Every year, millions of litres of water are being pumped into the lake, at a cost of ₸5.5 million (€34,000).
Caspian Sea
Over 130 rivers provide inflow to the Caspian, with the Volga River being the largest. A second affluent, the Ural River, flows in from the north, and the Kura River flows into the sea from the west. In the past, the Amu Darya (Oxus) of Central Asia in the east often changed course to empty into the Caspian through a now-desiccated riverbed called the Uzboy River, as did the Syr Darya farther north. The Caspian also has several small islands; they are primarily located in the north and have a collective land area of roughly . Adjacent to the North Caspian is the Caspian Depression, a low-lying region below sea level. The Central Asian steppes stretch across the northeast coast, while the Caucasus mountains hug the western shore. The biomes to both the north and east are characterized by cold, continental deserts. Conversely, the climate to the southwest and south are generally warm with uneven elevation due to a mix of highlands and mountain ranges; the drastic changes in climate alongside the Caspian have led to a great deal of biodiversity in the region.
Caspian Sea
Many rare and endemic plant species of Russia are associated with the tidal areas of the Volga delta and riparian forests of the Samur River delta. The shoreline is also a unique refuge for plants adapted to the loose sands of the Central Asian Deserts. The principal limiting factors to successful establishment of plant species are hydrological imbalances within the surrounding deltas, water pollution, and various land reclamation activities. The water level change within the Caspian Sea is an indirect reason for which plants may not get established.
Caspian Sea
In June 2007, in order to boost his oil-rich country's access to markets, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed a link between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. It is hoped that the "Eurasia Canal" (Manych Ship Canal) would transform landlocked Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries into maritime states, enabling them to significantly increase trade volume. Although the canal would traverse Russian territory, it would benefit Kazakhstan through its Caspian Sea ports. The most likely route for the canal, the officials at the Committee on Water Resources at Kazakhstan's Agriculture Ministry say, would follow the Kuma–Manych Depression, where currently a chain of rivers and lakes is already connected by an irrigation canal (Kuma–Manych Canal). Upgrading the Volga–Don Canal would be another option.
Caspian Sea
The collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent opening of the region has led to an intense investment and development scramble by international oil companies. In 1998, Dick Cheney commented that "I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."
Caspian lamprey
The Caspian lamprey is an anadromous fish which spends its adult life in the Caspian Sea and migrates up the Volga, Sura, and other rivers to spawn. It was at one time a common fish caught in nets and fish traps in the lower Volga for extracting fish oil and making candles and later for human consumption. In the early 1900s, 15 to 30 million fish were harvested annually from the lower Volga. It is now an uncommon fish because its migratory routes have been disrupted by dams and construction projects and it can no longer reach its spawning grounds.
Caspian barbel
The Caspian barbel ("Luciobarbus caspius") is a species of Cyprinid fish native to the Kura-Aras watershed in the wider Near East. In Persian, it is called zardak (زردک).
Caribbean Sea
The hydrology of the sea has a high level of homogeneity. Annual variations in monthly average water temperatures at the surface do not exceed . Over the past fifty years the Caribbean has gone through three stages: cooling until 1974; a cold phase with peaks during 1974–1976 and 1984–1986 then; a warming phase with an increase in temperature of per year. Virtually all temperature extremes were associated with the phenomena of El Niño and La Niña. The salinity of seawater is about 3.6% and its density is . The surface water colour is blue-green to green.
Caspian Sea
The wide and endorheic Caspian Sea has a north–south orientation and its main freshwater inflow, the Volga River, enters at the shallow north end. Two deep basins occupy its central and southern areas. These facts lead to horizontal differences in temperature, salinity, and ecology. The Caspian Sea spreads out over nearly 750 miles (1,200 km) from north to south, with an average width of 200 miles (320 km). It covers a region of around 149,200 square miles (386,400 square km)—bigger than the region of Japan—and its surface is about 90 feet (27 meters) below sea level. The sea bed in the southern part reaches as low as 1,023 m (3,356 ft) below sea level, which is the second lowest natural depression on earth after Lake Baikal (−1,180 m, −3,871 ft). The ancient inhabitants of its coast perceived the Caspian Sea as an ocean, probably because of its saltiness and large size.
List of rivers of Azerbaijan
The Caspian Sea is an endorheic basin, which is a closed drainage basin, because the Caspian Sea has no outflows to an ocean.
Caspian Sea
The Caspian area is rich in energy resources. Oil wells were being dug in the region as early as the 10th century to reach oil "for use in everyday life, both for medicinal purposes and for heating and lighting in homes". By the 16th century, Europeans were aware of the rich oil and gas deposits around the area. English traders Thomas Bannister and Jeffrey Duckett described the area around Baku as "a strange thing to behold, for there issueth out of the ground a marvelous quantity of oil, which serveth all the country to burn in their houses. This oil is black and is called nefte. There is also by the town of Baku, another kind of oil which is white and very precious [i.e., petroleum]."
History of Central Asia
The economic performance of the region since independence has been mixed. It contains some of the largest reserves of natural resources in the world, but there are important difficulties in transporting them. Since it lies farther from the ocean than anywhere else in the world, and its southern borders lay closed for decades, the main trade routes and pipelines run through Russia. As a result, Russia still exerts more influence over the region than in any other former Soviet republics. Nevertheless, the rising energy importance of the Caspian Sea entails a great involvement in the region by the US. The former Soviet republics of the Caucasus now have their own US Special Envoy and inter-agency working groups. Former US Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson had claimed that "the Caspian region will hopefully save us [the US] from total dependence on Middle East oil".
Caspian seal
Due to increased industrial production in the area, pollution has had an effect on the survival of the Caspian seal. From 1998 to 2000, the concentration of zinc and iron increased dramatically in the tissue of dead, diseased seals. This suggests these elements are causative agents in compromising the Caspian seal's immune system.
Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea
Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea is a regional convention signed by the official representatives of the five littoral Caspian states: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan in Tehran (Iran) on 4 November 2003. The Framework Convention, also called Tehran Convention, entered into force on 12 August 2006.
Caspian Depression
The southern region of the depression, or the north coast of the Caspian Sea, is characterized by large development of damp sites resulting from tidal phenomena. The depression is also home to a large number of insect species, with several thousand different species likely living in the region around the Caspian Sea. Studies have shown that water pollution, mostly coming from the Volga River, poses a serious threat to the biodiversity of the Caspian Depression. Water pollution is contributed mainly by industrial, agricultural, and household discharges.
Salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about of solids per liter of sea water, a salinity of 3.5%.
Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea
Due to the presence of numerous oil fields on the seabed of the Caspian Sea the question of legal status was very important; some countries even tried to develop fields in disputed regions, almost causing military incidents.
Endorheic basin
Endorheic regions, in contrast to exorheic regions which flow to the ocean in geologically defined patterns, are closed hydrologic systems. Their surface waters drain to inland terminal locations where the water evaporates or seeps into the ground, having no access to discharge into the sea. Endorheic water bodies include some of the largest lakes in the world, such as the Caspian Sea, the world's largest saline inland sea.
Nordic Seas
The first intermediate water is a remnant of the Atlantic Water from the East Greenland Current. This water has been cooled and covered by the Polar Surface Water. The temperature is around 2 °C with a salinity of 35 psu. The second intermediate water is the Arctic Intermediate Water. This water is cooler and fresher. The temperature is around -1.5 to 3 °C and has a salinity of approximately 34.88 psu. Depths are around 800 meters. This intermediate water is a salinity minimum layer in the Nordic Seas, which is unique in that is lies below a salinity maximum layer, the Atlantic Water. The third intermediate layer is called the upper Polar Deep Water. This water mass comes through the Fram Strait and is found in the East Greenland Current. This intermediate water has a temperature of -0.5 °C and a salinity of 34.85-34.9 psu.
Sea
The water in the sea was thought to come from the Earth's volcanoes, starting 4 billion years ago, released by degassing from molten rock. More recent work suggests much of the Earth's water may come from comets. A characteristic of seawater is that it is salty. Salinity is usually measured in parts per thousand (‰ or per mil), and the open ocean has about solids per litre, a salinity of 35 ‰. The Mediterranean Sea is slightly higher at 38 ‰, while the salinity of the northern Red Sea can reach 41‰. The constituents of table salt, sodium and chloride, make up about 85 percent of the solids in solution, there are also other metal ions such as magnesium and calcium and negative ions including sulphate, carbonate, and bromide. Despite variations in the levels of salinity in different seas, the relative composition of the dissolved salts is stable throughout the world's oceans. Seawater is too saline for humans to drink safely, as the kidneys cannot excrete urine as salty as seawater. In contrast, some landlocked hypersaline lakes have a much higher salinity, for example the Dead Sea has dissolved solids per litre (300 ‰).
Although the amount of salt in the ocean remains relatively constant within the scale of millions of years, various factors affect the salinity of a body of water. Evaporation and by-product of ice formation (known as "brine rejection") increase salinity, whereas precipitation, sea ice melt, and runoff from land reduce it. The Baltic Sea, for example, has many rivers flowing into it, and thus the sea could be considered as brackish. Meanwhile, the Red Sea is very salty due to its high evaporation rate.
Caspian lamprey
The Caspian lamprey is a slim-bodied, eel-like fish that grows to a length of about . The longest recorded specimen was long and weighed . Like other lampreys, it has no jaws, but it has a round oral disc surrounding the mouth. Inside this it has several radiating rows of tiny, backward-facing teeth. There is a single nostril near the eyes. There are no gill covers and the seven gill openings are visible just behind the head. The fish has no scales or paired fins, but has two elongated dorsal fins, the hindmost of which nearly joins onto the small tail fin. The Caspian lamprey is a silvery-grey colour.
Seawater
Seawater contains more dissolved ions than all types of freshwater. However, the ratios of solutes differ dramatically. For instance, although seawater contains about 2.8 times more bicarbonate than river water, the percentage of bicarbonate in seawater as a ratio of "all" dissolved ions is far lower than in river water. Bicarbonate ions constitute 48% of river water solutes but only 0.14% for seawater. Differences like these are due to the varying residence times of seawater solutes; sodium and chloride have very long residence times, while calcium (vital for carbonate formation) tends to precipitate much more quickly. The most abundant dissolved ions in seawater are sodium, chloride, magnesium, sulfate and calcium. Its osmolarity is about 1000 mOsm/l.
Archipelago Sea
In contrast to the terrestrial and coastal ecosystems of the islands, the sea itself has a relatively low biodiversity. The reason for this is the brackish nature of the water. The salinity is only 0.6% in the Archipelago. The salinity has also varied greatly during the past, making it difficult for species to adapt. However, the great number of individuals indicates a favourable environment. Typical fish species are the Baltic herring, pike, white-fish, perch and flounder.
Azerbaijan–Kazakhstan relations
One of priority directions in bilateral cooperation is co-ordination of legal status of the Caspian Sea. On November 29, 2001, Presidents of the two countries signed the "Agreement on Delimitation of the Bottom of the Caspian Sea" during a CIS summit in Moscow.
Caspian stellate tadpole-goby
The Caspian stellate tadpole-goby ("Benthophilus leobergius"), also known as the starry goby, is a species of gobiid fish endemic to the Caspian Sea basin. It is widespread along all coasts of the Caspian Sea with exception of the central-eastern, and in the lowest part of the Volga River. In the southern part of the basin, it is mentioned near the Ogurja Ada, in the Gorgansky Bay, and in the Sefīd-Rūd River. This species can reach a length of SL.
Caspian Sea
The Volga River, the largest in Europe, drains 20% of the European land area and is the source of 80% of the Caspian's inflow. Its lower reaches are heavily developed with numerous unregulated releases of chemical and biological pollutants. Although existing data is sparse and of questionable quality, there is ample evidence to suggest that the Volga is one of the principal sources of transboundary contaminants into the Caspian.
Persian sturgeon
The Persian Sturgeon has an elongated, bulky body with a bluish tint. This type of sturgeon is endemic to the Caspian and Black Sea basins, but primarily resides in the Caspian Sea. Populations may also occur in tributaries and rivers inbound to the Caspian Sea. Sturgeons are commercially important fishes valued for their meat but mainly for their roe. Formerly omnipresent in the region, heavy fishing of the sturgeon for caviar has forced it to Critically Endangered Species status.
Chesapeake Bay
Because the Bay is an estuary, it has fresh water, salt water and brackish water. Brackish water has three salinity zones: oligohaline, mesohaline, and polyhaline. The freshwater zone runs from the mouth of the Susquehanna River to north Baltimore. The oligohaline zone has very little salt. Salinity varies from 0.5 ppt (parts per thousand) to 10 ppt, and freshwater species can survive there. The north end of the oligohaline zone is north Baltimore and the south end is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The mesohaline zone has a medium amount of salt and runs from the Bay Bridge to the mouth of the Rappahannock River. Salinity there ranges from 10.7 ppt to 18 ppt. The polyhaline zone is the saltiest zone, and some of the water can be as salty as sea water. It runs from the mouth of the Rappahannock River to the mouth of the Bay. The salinity ranges from 18.7 ppt to 36 ppt. (36 ppt is as salty as the ocean.)
Caspian Sea
The word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi, an ancient people who lived to the southwest of the sea in Transcaucasia. Strabo wrote that "to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Caspiane, which was named after the Caspian tribe, as was also the sea; but the tribe has now disappeared". Moreover, the Caspian Gates, which is the name of a region in Iran's Tehran province, possibly indicates that they migrated to the south of the sea. The Iranian city of Qazvin shares the root of its name with that of the sea. In fact, the traditional Arabic name for the sea itself is Baḥr al-Qazwin (Sea of Qazvin).
Caspian seal
Caspian seals are primarily piscivorous. They eat a variety of food depending on season and availability. A typical diet for Caspian seals found in the northern Caspian sea consists of crustaceans and various fish species, such as "Clupeonella engrauliformis", "C. grimmi", "C. delicate caspia", Gobiidae, "Rutilus rutilus caspicus", "Atherina mochon pontica", and "Lucioperca lucioperca". Caspian seal adults eat about of fish a day and almost a metric ton of fish per year.
Kattegat
In the Kattegat, the salinity has a pronounced two-layer structure. The upper layer has a salinity between 18‰ and 26‰ and the lower layer – separated by a strong halocline at around – has a salinity between 32‰ and 34‰. The lower layer consists of inflowing seawater from the Skagerrak, with a salinity on level with most other coastal seawaters, while the upper layer consists of inflowing seawater from the Baltic Sea and has a much lower salinity, comparable to brackish water, but still a great deal higher than the rest of the Baltic sea. These two opposing flows transport a net surplus of seawater from the Baltic to the Skagerrak every year. During stronger winds, the layers in the Kattegat are completely mixed in some places, such as the Great Belt, so the overall salinity is highly variable in this small sea. This sets some unique conditions for the sealife here.
Caspian Flotilla
The Caspian Flotilla () is the flotilla of the Russian Navy in the Caspian Sea.
List of lakes by depth
Geologically, the Caspian Sea, like the Black and Mediterranean seas, is a remnant of the ancient Tethys Ocean. The deepest area is oceanic rather than continental crust. However, it is generally regarded by geographers as a large endorheic salt lake.
Kura (Caspian Sea)
People have inhabited the Caucasus region for thousands of years, and first established agriculture in the Kura Valley over 4,500 years ago. Large, complex civilizations eventually grew up on the river, but by 1200 CE, most were reduced to ruin by natural disasters and foreign invaders. The increasing human use, and eventual damage, of the watershed’s forests and grasslands contributed to a rising intensity of floods through the 20th century. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union started building many dams and canals on the river. Previously navigable up to Tbilisi in Georgia, it is now much slower and shallower, as it has been harnessed by irrigation projects and hydroelectric power stations. The river is now moderately polluted by major industrial centers like Tbilisi and Rustavi in Georgia.
Meromictic lake
While it is mainly lakes that are meromictic, the world's largest meromictic basin is the Black Sea. The deep waters below 50 metres (150 feet) do not mix with the upper layers that receive oxygen from the atmosphere. As a result, over 90% of the deeper Black Sea volume is anoxic water. The Caspian Sea is anoxic below 100 metres (300 feet). The Baltic Sea is persistently stratified, with dense, highly saline water comprising the bottom layer, and large areas of hypoxic sediments (see Baltic Sea hypoxia).
Eemian Sea
The Eemian Sea was a body of water located approximately where the Baltic Sea is now during the last interglacial, or Eemian Stage, Marine isotopic stage (MIS) 5e, roughly 130,000 to 115,000 years BP. Sea level was 5 to 7 metres higher globally than it is today, due to the release of glacial water in the early stage of the interglacial. Although “Eemian” rightly applies only to the northern European glacial system, some scientists use the term in a wider sense to mean any high-level body of water in the last interglacial.
The early Eemian Sea connected with the White Sea along the line of the present White Sea-Baltic Canal. Karelia was inundated and Lakes Ladoga and Onega were mere depressions in the shallow eastern end of the Eemian sea. At the other end the sea connected to the North Sea more broadly than its presently does. Much of northern Europe was under shallow water. Scandinavia was an island. The salinity of the Eemian Sea was comparable to that of the Atlantic. Scientists reach these conclusions from a study of types of micro-organisms fossilized in the clay sediments laid down in the Eemian Sea, and from the included pollen of "Corylus", "Carpinus" and "Betula".
Caspian turtle
The western Caspian turtle ("M. c. rivulata") ranges throughout southeastern Europe (former Yugoslavia to Greece, the Ionian Islands, Crete, and Cyprus), Bulgaria, eastern to south-central Turkey, coastal Syria, Lebanon, and Israel; records from the vicinity of Ankara and from Lake Emir are questioned by Fritz. This subspecies has narrow or fine reticulations on its carapace (which may be lost with age), and a totally black plastron and bridge. Age-related flavism may occur, resulting in a mainly yellow plastron with black reduced to the seams. This subspecies can be separated from melanistic "M. c. caspica" by differences in head, neck, and foreleg patterns. Its plastral formula usually is "abd > fem > pect > gul > an > hum" in both sexes, but variations of this have been described in Izmir populations.
Kraken Mare
At 400,000 km², Kraken Mare is thought to be the largest body of liquid in Titan's north polar region. The maximum depth appears to be 160 meters and shallow capillary waves 1.5 centimeters high moving at 0.7 meters per second have been detected. Its status as a sea of hydrocarbons (mainly liquid methane) was identified by radar imagery. Kraken Mare is thought to be larger than the Caspian Sea on Earth.
Saline water
Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly NaCl). The salt concentration is usually expressed in parts per thousand (permille, ‰) or parts per million (ppm). The United States Geological Survey classifies saline water in three salinity categories. Salt concentration in slightly saline water is around 1,000 to 3,000 ppm (0.1–0.3%), in moderately saline water 3,000 to 10,000 ppm (0.3–1%) and in highly saline water 10,000 to 35,000 ppm (1–3.5%). Seawater has a salinity of roughly 35,000 ppm, equivalent to 35 grams of salt per one liter (or kilogram) of water. The saturation level is dependent on the temperature of the water. At 20 °C one liter of water can dissolve about 357 grams of salt, a concentration of 26.3%. At boiling (100 °C) the amount that can be dissolved in one liter of water increases to about 391 grams, a concentration of 28.1%.
Lake Manych-Gudilo
A global sea level rise of roughly would cause the ocean surface to be higher than the highest point of an area between the ocean and the Caspian, forming a narrow channel straddling the lake in the area between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea, potentially placing the Caspian Depression area under water.
Seawater
Although the vast majority of seawater has a salinity of between 31 g/kg and 38 g/kg, that is 3.1-3.8%, seawater is not uniformly saline throughout the world. Where mixing occurs with fresh water runoff from river mouths, near melting glaciers or vast amounts of precipitation (e.g. Monsoon), seawater can be substantially less saline. The most saline open sea is the Red Sea, where high rates of evaporation, low precipitation and low river run-off, and confined circulation result in unusually salty water. The salinity in isolated bodies of water can be considerably greater still - about ten times higher in the case of the Dead Sea. Historically, several salinity scales were used to approximate the absolute salinity of seawater. A popular scale was the "Practical Salinity Scale" where salinity was measured in "practical salinity units (psu)". The current standard for salinity is the "Reference Salinity" scale with the salinity expressed in units of "g/kg".
Dead Kultuk
It had a distinct coastline in former times, but since the 1990s, with higher Caspian Sea levels, the water penetrates inland through the neck of the bay producing waterlogged marshes. Located at the mainland end of the bay, the Kaydak Inlet cuts deep into the coast extending east and then southwards. Nowadays both the bay and the inlet are filled with Caspian Sea water. Currently there are oil fields in the area.
Owing to its special colour the Dead Kultuk is the bay which appears in early maps of the Caspian Sea as 'Blue Sea' ( in maps in that language). The area was mapped by Fedor Ivanovich Soimonov during the Caspian Expedition, which surveyed the Caspian Sea from 1719 to 1727, but was not accurately described until G. S. Karelin did so in 1832.
Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea
The dispute began after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, as the Soviet Union (and subsequently Russia) and Iran were respecting mutual 1921 and 1940 treaties. However, according to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, these treaties did not address the exploitation of the seabed, thus a new UNCLOS treaty is necessary.
Caspian Sea
Over the centuries, Caspian Sea levels have changed in synchrony with the estimated discharge of the Volga, which in turn depends on rainfall levels in its vast catchment basin. Precipitation is related to variations in the amount of North Atlantic depressions that reach the interior, and they in turn are affected by cycles of the North Atlantic oscillation. Thus levels in the Caspian Sea relate to atmospheric conditions in the North Atlantic, thousands of miles to the northwest.
Fauna of Azerbaijan
The country's fresh water basins and the Caspian Sea account for 97 species of fish of which eight introduced and seven of these have become widespread and over 15 thousand species of invertebrates in Azerbaijan. Most can be found in the Kura River, surrounding lakes, as well as in the Mingechevir reservoir. Most of fish are anadromous or semi-anadromous (the young grow up in salt water and migrate to fresh water to breed after they reach maturity). The most valuable of anadromous fish are salmon, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon and beluga. Aspius, Chalcalburnus and eel are also anadromous fish. Sturgeon meat and caviar are highly valuable. Beside, the water basins of Azerbaijan contain such valuable fish species as bream, sazan, rutilus kutum and others. Such fish species as herring are fished in the Caspian Sea. Due to the construction of a number of hydrotechnical plants on the Kura river after 1959, the regulation of the river water flow, as well as the Caspian water pollution led to the significant reduction in the number of valuable fish species. Three hatcheries (Kuragzi, Alibayramli and Kur experimental sturgeon hatchery) for melioration and fish-farming purposes were launched to restore the fish reserves and to increase the number of fish in species. Azerbaijan's fish-farming establishments and hatcheries account for breeding of 20 million sturgeons, 600 thousand salmons, over 800 thousand. A new hatchery with the capacity of 20 million sturgeons was put in commission in Khyly in 2000.
Black Sea–Caspian Steppe
The region is about 900 km at its widest and about 500 km from north to south. Low rainfall makes the whole area grassland. Rainfall decreases to the east and north (20-30 inches in the west, 13 in Volgograd and 9 in Astrakhan). Most of the area is less than 500 feet in altitude, rising to over 1000 feet in the Stavropol Highland. The Manych Depression is not much more than 65 feet above sea level and the area around Astrakhan and part of Kalmykia is below sea level.
Rivers: Through the center runs the northwest-tending Kuma-Manych Depression. This was once a strait connecting the Black and Caspian Seas and is now marked by the Manych River which is basically a chain of lakes. It will probably be the route of the Eurasia Canal if that great engineering work is ever built. In the south the rivers that flow north from the Caucasus are caught by the west-flowing Kuban River and the east-flowing Terek River. Between these the rivers are caught by the Malka River which is an east-flowing tributary of the Terek. In the west, since the Caucasus Mountains run parallel and close to the Black Sea coast, no significant rivers from this area reach the Black Sea. The western point is the Taman Peninsula. North of the Taman Peninsula the Kuban River, the Beysug River and the Yeya Rivers reach the Sea of Azov, and the long Manych River and the shorter Sal River reach the lower Don. In the north much of the lower Don is under the Tsimlyansk Reservoir and the Volga has a broad flood plain and a large delta. North of the Manych Depression the low Ergeni Highland forms the watershed between the Don and Volga. It drops off quickly to the Caspian Depression. To the east of this the Sarpinsky Lakes are a chain of lakes in Kalmykia that would be a north-flowing river if there were more rainfall. On the east the only important rivers that reach the Caspian are the Volga, Kuma River and the Terek. In the center the Yegorlyk River and Kalaus River flow north to the Manych and the Kuma River flows northeast to the Caspian. In the east there are many shallow lakes. Since the land is flat and the rainfall barely sufficient for agriculture there are important irrigation canals, most leading from the Caucasus peidmont to the Manych Depression. The Great Stavropol Canal leads northeast from the Kuban to the Kalaus and beyond and the Nevinnomyssk Canal runs from the Kuban to the Egorlyk. The Kuma-Manych Canal feeds water from the Kuma to the East Manych and Chyornozemsky Canal irrigates the interior of Kalmykia. There numerous canals around the lower Terek.
Caspian plover
The Caspian plover breeds in western Asia in the area of the Caspian Sea. Its range includes southern Russia, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. Its habitat is steppes, desert verges, saltpans and saline soils amongst sparse shrubby vegetation up to an altitude of about . After breeding, it migrates to eastern and southern Africa, going as far as the Zambezi River. Its winter quarters are usually dry grassland, coastal dunes, saltmarshes, dry floodplains and sometimes cultivated land. This plover is a very rare vagrant to western Europe. It is also a rare vagrant to Australia.
Seawater
Scientific theories behind the origins of sea salt started with Sir Edmond Halley in 1715, who proposed that salt and other minerals were carried into the sea by rivers after rainfall washed it out of the ground. Upon reaching the ocean, these salts concentrated as more salt arrived over time (see Hydrologic cycle). Halley noted that most lakes that don't have ocean outlets (such as the Dead Sea and the Caspian Sea, see endorheic basin), have high salt content. Halley termed this process "continental weathering".
Caspian seal
In autumn and winter, Caspian seals prey mostly on sculpins, gobies, and crustaceans while inhabiting shallow waters in the northern part of the sea. During the summer, in the southern part of the Caspian Sea, they eat herring, roach, carp, sprat, and smelt. When Caspian seals live in estuaries, they eat large amounts of the freshwater species, "Sander lucioperca". Other prey include shrimp, crab, and silversides.
Caspian Sea
These affect aquatic plants of the Volga Delta, such as "Aldrovanda vesiculosa" and the native "Nelumbo caspica". About 11 plant species are found in the Samur River Delta, including the unique liana forests that date back to the Tertiary period.
Caspian seal
Caspian seals can be found not only along the shorelines, but also on the many rocky islands and floating blocks of ice that dot the Caspian Sea. As the ice melts in the warmer season, they can be found on the mouths of the Volga and Ural Rivers, as well as the southern latitudes of the Caspian where cooler waters can be found due to greater depth.
Criticism of communist party rule
Other criticisms of Communist rule focus on environmental disasters. One example is the gradual disappearance of the Aral Sea and a similar diminishing of the Caspian Sea because of the diversion of the rivers that fed them. Another is the pollution of the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea and the unique freshwater environment of Lake Baikal. Many of the rivers were polluted and several, like the Vistula and Oder rivers in Poland, were virtually ecologically dead. Over 70 percent of the surface water in the Soviet Union was polluted. In 1988, only 30 percent of the sewage in the Soviet Union was treated properly. Established health standards for air pollution was exceeded by ten times or more in 103 cities in the Soviet Union in 1988. The air pollution problem was even more severe in Eastern Europe. It caused a rapid growth in lung cancer, forest die-back and damage to buildings and cultural heritages. According to official sources, 58 percent of total agricultural land of the former Soviet Union was affected by salinization, erosion, acidity, or waterlogging. Nuclear waste was dumped in the Sea of Japan, the Arctic Ocean and in locations in the Far East. It was revealed in 1992 that in the city of Moscow there were 636 radioactive toxic waste sites and 1,500 in Saint Petersburg. According to the United States Department of Energy, socialist economies also maintained a much higher level of energy intensity than either the Western nations or the Third World. This analysis is confirmed by the Institute of Economic Affairs, with Mikhail Bernstam stating that economies of the Eastern Bloc had an energy intensity between twice and three times higher as economies of the West. Some see the aforementioned examples of environmental degradation are similar to what had occurred in Western capitalist countries during the height of their drive to industrialize in the 19th century. Others claim that Communist regimes did more damage than average, primarily due to the lack of any popular or political pressure to research environmentally friendly technologies.
Kaydak Inlet
In the same manner as the Dead Kultuk, the Kaydak Inlet had a distinct coastline in former times, but since the 1990s, with higher Caspian Sea levels, the water penetrates inland through the neck of the bay producing waterlogged marshes. Nowadays both the bay and the inlet are filled with Caspian Sea water. The water in the shallow inlet has striking colours, in which delicate tones of blue or of brown predominate according to the seasons.
The area was cartographed by Fedor Ivanovich Soimonov during the Caspian Expedition, which surveyed the Caspian Sea from 1719 to 1727, but was only accurately described later by G. S. Karelin in 1832.
Lake Baskunchak
The surface elevation of the lake is 21 m below sea level. It is fed by a river that draws from an area of 11,000 km². The salinity of the lake is about 300 g/l. Since the 8th century its salt was mined and traded along the Silk Road. Nowadays the lake's salt of distinct purity (99.8% NaCl) covers 80% of Russia's salt production. Depending on demand, 1.5 million to 5 million tons of salt are mined per year.
Caspian Sea
In the 18th century, during the rule of Peter I the Great, Fedor I. Soimonov, hydrographer and pioneering explorer of the Caspian Sea charted the until then little known body of water. Soimonov drew a set of four maps and wrote "Pilot of the Caspian Sea", the first report and modern maps of the Caspian, that were published in 1720 by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world and accounts for 40 to 44% of the total lacustrine waters of the world. The coastlines of the Caspian are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The Caspian is divided into three distinct physical regions: the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian. The Northern–Middle boundary is the Mangyshlak Threshold, which runs through Chechen Island and Cape Tiub-Karagan. The Middle–Southern boundary is the Apsheron Threshold, a sill of tectonic origin between the Eurasian continent and an oceanic remnant, that runs through Zhiloi Island and Cape Kuuli. The Garabogazköl Bay is the saline eastern inlet of the Caspian, which is part of Turkmenistan and at times has been a lake in its own right due to the isthmus that cuts it off from the Caspian.
Water
Sea water contains about 3.5% sodium chloride on average, plus smaller amounts of other substances. The physical properties of sea water differ from fresh water in some important respects. It freezes at a lower temperature (about ) and its density increases with decreasing temperature to the freezing point, instead of reaching maximum density at a temperature above freezing. The salinity of water in major seas varies from about 0.7% in the Baltic Sea to 4.0% in the Red Sea. (The Dead Sea, known for its ultra-high salinity levels of between 30–40%, is really a salt lake.)
Messinian salinity crisis
Even today, the Mediterranean is considerably saltier than the North Atlantic due to its near isolation by the Strait of Gibraltar and its high rate of evaporation. If the Strait of Gibraltar closes again (which is likely to happen in the near future on a geological time scale), the Mediterranean would mostly evaporate in about a thousand years, after which continued northward movement of Africa may obliterate the Mediterranean altogether.
In the 19th century, the Swiss geologist and paleontologist Karl Mayer-Eymar (1826–1907) studied fossils embedded between gypsum-bearing, brackish, and freshwater sediment layers, and identified them as having been deposited just before the end of the Miocene Epoch. In 1867, he named the period the Messinian after the city of Messina in Sicily, Italy. Since then, several other salt-rich and gypsum-rich evaporite layers throughout the Mediterranean region have been dated to the same period.
Salmo ciscaucasicus
Salmo ciscaucasicus or the Caspian salmon is a salmonid fish endemic to the Caspian Sea and inflowing rivers . It was described in 1967 originally as a subspecies of "Salmo trutta". "S. ciscaucasicus" lives on the western shore of the lake from northern Azerbaijan to the Ural River, while the main breeding river is Terek. It lives at depths down to 50 metres. Males can reach a maximum standard length of 130 centimetres.
Short-snout pugolovka
The short-snout pugolovka ("Benthophilus leptorhynchus") is a deepwater species of goby widespread in the central part of the Caspian Sea at the depth of , with salinity 10–13.5‰. It is found along the western coast of the Caspian Sea from the mouth of the Sulak River to Baku at south. This species can reach a length of TL.
Coral Sea
The surface water temperature varies on the south of the sea from 19 °C in August to 24 °C in February. It is rather warm and stable at 27–28 °С in the north all through the year. Water salinity is 34.5–35.5‰ (parts per thousand). The water is mostly very clear, with the visibility of about 30 metres (100 ft) near the reefs.
Deep ocean water
Deep ocean water (DOW) is the name for cold, salty water found deep below the surface of Earth's oceans. Ocean water differs in temperature and salinity. Warm surface water is generally saltier than the cooler deep or polar waters; in polar regions, the upper layers of ocean water are cold and fresh. Deep ocean water makes up about 90% of the volume of the oceans. Deep ocean water has a very uniform temperature, around 0-3°C, and a salinity of about 3.5% or as oceanographers state as 35 ppt (parts per thousand).
Environment of Azerbaijan
The Caspian Sea is the largest lake on Earth by both area and volume, with a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres (143,244 mi²) and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres (18,761 mi³). It is a landlocked endorheic body of water and lies between Asia and Europe. It has a maximum depth of about . It is called a sea because when the Romans discovered it they tasted the water and found it to be salty. It has a salinity of approximately 1.2 percent, about a third the salinity of sea water.
Caspian seal
Caspian seals are shallow divers, with diving depths typically reaching and lasting about a minute, although deeper and longer dives have been recorded, with at least one individual seen at depths in excess of . They are gregarious, spending most of their time in large colonies.
Water (1985 film)
The story is set in the fictional Caribbean island and British colony of Cascara. Widely ignored by the British Government, media, and general public, local Governor Baxter Thwaites is having an easy life in his small and peaceful colony. That peace is disturbed when an abandoned oil rig starts delivering water - at the standard of the finest table water brands (and laxative companies, as it contains a substance that makes you "shit like clockwork"). Different parties, including Downing Street, the Cascara Liberation Front, the White House, French bottled water producers, and the Cubans take interest in the future of the island and threaten to destroy the cosy way of life enjoyed by the island's inhabitants.
Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline
The project is heavily criticized by Russia and Iran, current transit countries for Turkmen gas. Alexander Golovin, special envoy on Caspian issues, has stated that a major gas pipeline would pose a serious, dangerous risk to the prosperity of the entire region. According to the Russian Natural Resources Ministry, any gas or oil pipelines across the floor of the Caspian Sea would be environmentally unacceptable. Russia has also taken the legal position that a potential pipeline project, regardless of the route it takes on the seabed, would require the consent of all five Caspian littoral states in order to proceed. Iran has pointed out that treaties signed by Iran and the Soviet Union in 1921 and 1940 are still in force and that any action taken without the consent of all the littoral states would be illegal. In regard of the decision taken by the EU on 12 September 2011, Russia expressed its "disappointment" as it "seems to have been adopted without taking into account the internationally accepted legal and geopolitical situation in the Caspian basin," and as Caspian Sea littoral state, Russia could veto any international agreement allowing for the pipeline to be built.
Caspian Sea
The earliest hominid remains found around the Caspian Sea are from Dmanisi dating back to around 1.8 Ma and yielded a number of skeletal remains of Homo erectus or Homo ergaster. More later evidence for human occupation of the region came from a number of caves in Georgia and Azerbaijan such as Kudaro and Azykh Caves. There is evidence for Lower Palaeolithic human occupation south of the Caspian from western Alburz. These are Ganj Par and Darband Cave sites.
Exploration of Saturn
In July 2006, "Cassini" saw the first proof of hydrocarbon lakes near Titan's north pole, which was confirmed in January 2007. In March 2007, additional images near Titan's north pole discovered hydrocarbon "seas", the largest of which is almost the size of the Caspian Sea.
Tver Oblast
The region is a watershed of the Caspian Sea and Baltic Sea . [1 ] In the south, Belsky district has several tributaries of the upper reaches of the river Vop, the right tributary of the Dnieper River (basin of the Black Sea). Go to the Caspian Sea basin owns 70% of the region, the Baltic Sea - 29.7%.
Caspian seal
The Caspian seal ("Pusa caspica") is one of the smallest members of the earless seal family and unique in that it is found exclusively in the brackish Caspian Sea. They are found not only along the shorelines, but also on the many rocky islands and floating blocks of ice that dot the Caspian Sea. In winter, and cooler parts of the spring and autumn season, these marine mammals populate the Northern Caspian. As the ice melts in the warmer season, they can be found on the mouths of the Volga and Ural Rivers, as well as the southern latitudes of the Caspian where cooler waters can be found due to greater depth.
Volga–Baltic Waterway
The Volga–Baltic Waterway, formerly known as the Mariinsk Canal System (Russian: Мариинская водная система), is a series of canals and rivers in Russia which link the Volga River with the Baltic Sea via the Neva River. Volga–Baltic Waterway connects the biggest lake on Earth, the Caspian Sea to the World Ocean. Its overall length between Cherepovets and Lake Onega is .
Caspian Sea
Today, oil and gas platforms abound along the edges of the sea.Countries on the Caspian region, such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, illustrate the examples of natural-resource-based economies. A resource-based economy is defined as one where the natural resources, gas and oil, compose more that 10 percent of the particular country's GDP and 40 percent of exports' All the Caspian region economies are highly dependent on the mineral wealth. The world energy markets got influenced by Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, as they became strategically crucial in this sphere, thus attracting the largest share of FDI (foreign direct investment).
Salt
In 2013, total world production of salt was 264 million tonnes, the top five producers being China (71 million), the United States (40 million), India (18 million), Germany (12 million) and Canada (11 million).
The manufacture of salt is one of the oldest chemical industries. A major source of salt is seawater, which has a salinity of approximately 3.5%. This means that there are about of dissolved salts, predominantly sodium () and chloride () ions, per kilogram (2.2 lbs) of water. The world's oceans are a virtually inexhaustible source of salt, and this abundance of supply means that reserves have not been calculated. The evaporation of seawater is the production method of choice in marine countries with high evaporation and low precipitation rates. Salt evaporation ponds are filled from the ocean and salt crystals can be harvested as the water dries up. Sometimes these ponds have vivid colours, as some species of algae and other micro-organisms thrive in conditions of high salinity.
Caspian seal
Another study in 2000 using 18 Caspian seal corpses found several concurrent bacterial infections that could have contributed to the illness of the affected seals. These include "Bordetella bronchiseptica", "Streptococcus phocae", "Salmonella dublin", and "S. choleraesuis". "Corynebacterium caspium", a new bacterium, was identified in one of the seals, and poxvirus, "Atopobacter phocae", "Eimeria"- and "Sarcocystis"-like organisms, and a "Halarachne" species were identified in Caspian seals for the first time. The study also asserts that the “unusually mild” winter that preceded the die-off in 2000 could have contributed to its cause “through increased ambient air pressure and accelerated disappearance of ice cover at the breeding areas in the northern Caspian Sea.”
Kura (Caspian Sea)
Most of the Kura River runs in the broad and deep valley between the Greater Caucasus and Lesser Caucasus mountains, and the major tributary, the Aras, drains most of the southern Caucasus and the mountain ranges of the extreme northern Middle East. The entirety of Armenia and most of Azerbaijan are drained by the Kura River, but the Kura does not pass through Armenia at all. Also in the Kura watershed are Turkey, Georgia, and a bit of northern Iran. Most of the elevation change in the river occurs within the first . While the river starts at above sea level, the elevation is by the time it reaches Khashuri in central Georgia, just out of the mountains, and only when it reaches Azerbaijan.
Caspian Sea
Six sturgeon species, the Russian, bastard, Persian, sterlet, starry and beluga, are native to the Caspian Sea. The last of these is arguably the largest freshwater fish in the world. The sturgeon yield roe (eggs) that are processed into caviar. Overfishing has depleted a number of the historic fisheries. In recent years, overfishing has threatened the sturgeon population to the point that environmentalists advocate banning sturgeon fishing completely until the population recovers. The high price of sturgeon caviar, however, allows fishermen to afford bribes to ensure the authorities look the other way, making regulations in many locations ineffective. Caviar harvesting further endangers the fish stocks, since it targets reproductive females.
Dead Sea
Its surface and shores are below sea level, Earth's lowest elevation on land. It is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. With a salinity of 342 g/kg, or 34.2% (in 2011), it is one of the world's saltiest bodies of water – 9.6 times as salty as the ocean – and has a density of 1.24 kg/litre, which makes swimming similar to floating. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea's main, northern basin is long and wide at its widest point.
Caspian Depression
The depression lies at the southern end of the Ryn Desert, and is in both Kazakhstan and Russia. Most of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia lies in the Caspian Depression. The Volga River and the Ural River flow into the Caspian Sea through this region. The deltas of the Ural and Volga Rivers are extensive wetlands. The North Caspian depression is part of the continental or semi-arid desert biome. The area receives of rain per year, on average, and less than 10% of the region is irrigated.
Laptev Sea
The sea is characterized by the low water temperatures, which ranges from in the north to in the south-eastern parts. The medium water layer is warmer, up to 1.5 °С because it is fed by the warm Atlantic waters. It takes them 2.5–3 years to reach the Laptev Sea from their formation near Spitsbergen. The deeper layer is colder at about −0.8 °С. In summer, the surface layer in the ice-free zones warms up by the sun up to 8–10 °С in the bays and 2–3 °С in the open sea, and remains close to 0 °С under ice. The water salinity is significantly affected by the thawing of ice and river runoff. The latter amounts to about 730 km and would form a 135 cm freshwater layer over the entire sea; it is the second largest in the world after the Kara Sea. The salinity values vary in winter from 20–25‰ (parts per thousand) in the south-east to 34‰ in the northern parts of the sea; it decreases in summer to 5–10‰ and 30–32‰ respectively.
Cordylophora caspia
"C. caspia" is native to brackish and fresh water habitats around the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. From there it has spread, on the hulls of ships or by some other means, via channels and inland waterways to most of the temperate and tropical world. It arrived in the Baltic Sea in the early nineteenth century and spread rapidly to the estuaries and inland waterways of Western Europe, reaching Ireland by 1842. By 1885 it had made its way to Australia and by 1944 to Panama. It has not reached Antarctica.
Geography of Kazakhstan
By contrast, the water level of the Caspian Sea has been rising steadily since 1978 for reasons that scientists have not been able to explain fully. At the northern end of the sea, more than 10,000 square kilometres of land in Atyrau Province have been flooded. Experts estimate that if current rates of increase persist, the coastal city of Atyrau, eighty-eight other population centers, and many of Kazakhstan's Caspian oil fields could be submerged by 2020.
Earth
The average salinity of Earth's oceans is about 35 grams of salt per kilogram of sea water (3.5% salt). Most of this salt was released from volcanic activity or extracted from cool igneous rocks. The oceans are also a reservoir of dissolved atmospheric gases, which are essential for the survival of many aquatic life forms. Sea water has an important influence on the world's climate, with the oceans acting as a large heat reservoir. Shifts in the oceanic temperature distribution can cause significant weather shifts, such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation.
Mediterranean Sea
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean and Red Sea. The Red Sea is higher than the Eastern Mediterranean, so the canal serves as a tidal strait that pours Red Sea water into the Mediterranean. The Bitter Lakes, which are hyper-saline natural lakes that form part of the canal, blocked the migration of Red Sea species into the Mediterranean for many decades, but as the salinity of the lakes gradually equalised with that of the Red Sea, the barrier to migration was removed, and plants and animals from the Red Sea have begun to colonise the Eastern Mediterranean. The Red Sea is generally saltier and more nutrient-poor than the Atlantic, so the Red Sea species have advantages over Atlantic species in the salty and nutrient-poor Eastern Mediterranean. Accordingly, Red Sea species invade the Mediterranean biota, and not vice versa; this phenomenon is known as the Lessepsian migration (after Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer) or Erythrean invasion. The construction of the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in the 1960s reduced the inflow of freshwater and nutrient-rich silt from the Nile into the Eastern Mediterranean, making conditions there even more like the Red Sea and worsening the impact of the invasive species.
Caspian Sea
Negotiations among the five littoral states have been ongoing, amidst ebbs and flows, for the past 20 years, with some degree of progress being made at the fourth Caspian Summit held in Astrakhan in 2014.
Tadpole goby
They are distributed in the fresh and brackish waters of basins of the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov, up to salinities of about 20 ‰. They typically live in habitats such as the deep waters of the Caspian (salinity about 13 ‰) and in the deltas, estuaries and coastal waters of the Ponto-Caspian.
Caspian Sea
The level of the Caspian has fallen and risen, often rapidly, many times over the centuries. Some Russian historians claim that a medieval rising of the Caspian, perhaps caused by the Amu Darya changing its inflow to the Caspian from the 13th century to the 16th century, caused the coastal towns of Khazaria, such as Atil, to flood. In 2004, the water level was below sea level.
Caspian turtle
"Mauremys caspica" occurs in large numbers in almost any permanent freshwater body within its range. It also lives in irrigation canals and is quite tolerant of brackish water. The turtles at one Iraq site lacked the ability to swim. Instead, they would crawl out of the water periodically to breathe and then slide back in again. A captive from there could not be induced to swim. Reed thought this behavior to be an adaptation to the extreme variability in the supply of surface water in the area.
Kura (Caspian Sea)
The Kura (; ; , "Mt’k’vari"; , "Kur"; , "Cyrus"; , "Kuruš" ) is an east-flowing river south of the Greater Caucasus Mountains which drains the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus east into the Caspian Sea. It also drains the north side of the Lesser Caucasus while its main tributary, the Aras drains the south side of those mountains. Starting in northeastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea at Neftçala. The total length of the river is .
Caspian gudgeon
The Caspian gudgeon ("Gobio holurus") is a freshwater fish species in the family Cyprinidae. It is a small fish, less than 10 cm, which is distributed in the drainages of the Western Caspian Sea basin (Kuma, Terek and Sulak river drainages) in Russia and adjacent countries. It is widespread and not threatened, but there is no information about its biology.
Arctic Ocean
In large parts of the Arctic Ocean, the top layer (about ) is of lower salinity and lower temperature than the rest. It remains relatively stable, because the salinity effect on density is bigger than the temperature effect. It is fed by the freshwater input of the big Siberian and Canadian streams (Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Mackenzie), the water of which quasi floats on the saltier, denser, deeper ocean water. Between this lower salinity layer and the bulk of the ocean lies the so-called halocline, in which both salinity and temperature are rising with increasing depth.
Because of its relative isolation from other oceans, the Arctic Ocean has a uniquely complex system of water flow. It is classified as a mediterranean sea, which as “a part of the world ocean which has only limited communication with the major ocean basins (these being the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans) and where the circulation is dominated by thermohaline forcing”. The Arctic Ocean has a total volume of 18.07×10 km, equal to about 1.3% of the World Ocean. Mean surface circulation is predominately cyclonic on the Eurasian side and anticyclonic in the Canadian Basin.