Description of the Sea of Azov: area, depth and wildlife

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

The Sea of Azov is a shelf semi-enclosed body of water, and it belongs to the system of the Mediterranean Sea of the Atlantic Ocean. In general, this natural reservoir is a mixing zone of the Black Sea and river waters, therefore, some researchers consider it as a bay (shallow) of the Black Sea or a spacious, vast estuary of the river.

From this article you can learn about the area of the Sea of Azov, its location, the origin of the name, and more. others

Sea of Azov: general information

This body of water is the northeastern basin of the Black Sea. The Kerch Strait connects them.

By its morphological features, Azov belongs to flat types and is a shallow water body with not very high slopes.

There is a rather small area and depth of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov (the latter is not more than 14 meters, and its average depth is only about 8 meters). Moreover, more than 1/2 of the territory has a depth of up to 5 meters. And this is the main feature.

Excluding Taganrog Bay andSivash Sea of Azov has an elliptical shape elongated to the southwest from the northeast. It is the smallest natural body of water in the World Ocean.

Two great rivers flow into it - Kuban and Don - and many (more than 20) smaller ones, which mostly flow from its northern coast.

Parameters of the Sea of Azov: area

The Sea of Azov basin has an area of about 570 thousand square meters. km. Its largest length is 343 km, and the widest part is 231 km. 2686 kilometers - the length of the entire coastline.

Area of the Sea of Azov in sq. km. is about 37,600 (this does not include the area of islands and spits, occupying 107.9 sq. km). The average volume of all water is 256 km³. As noted above, approximately 43% of the territory falls on areas of depth from 5 to 10 meters.

Origin of the name

The sea received its modern, relatively new name several centuries ago from the name of the Turkish city of Azov. The latter, in turn, comes from the name of the local feudal lord (Azak or Azum).

But even earlier the ancient Greeks called it "Meotis limne", which means "lake of the Meots" (the peoples who lived on the shores). The Romans called it ironically - "Palus Meotis", which means "swamp of the Meots." And this is not surprising for the Sea of Azov. The area, and especially its depth, is not very large.

The Arabs called "Baral-Azov" and "Nitshlakh", and the Turks - "Bahr-Assak" (Dark blue sea) and "Baryal-Assak". There were many more names in antiquity, alldo not count.

Azov in Russia became famous in the 1st century AD. e., and the name was given to him - the Blue Sea. After the Tmutarakan principality was formed, it was called Russian. Then the sea was repeatedly renamed (Mayutis, Salakar, Samakush, etc.). In the 13th century, the sea was approved with the name of the Saksinsk Sea. The Tatar-Mongol conquerors gave him the name "Chabak-dengiz" (bream or chabach) and "Balyk-dengiz" (in translation - "fish sea"). As a result of the transformation of the last name (chabak - dzybakh - zabak - azak - azov), today's name arose (dubious version). All speculations about the origin cannot be described here.

Animal species, water volumes, area: comparisons of the Sea of Azov with other seas

The Aral Sea is almost 2 times larger than the Azov Sea, and the Black Sea is almost 11 times larger, and, accordingly, it is 1678 times larger in terms of water volume.

And yet, this area could easily accommodate two European states, such as Luxembourg and Belgium.

It is also interesting to compare the number of species of Mediterranean plants and animals in different seas, looking from west to east. In the Mediterranean - more than 6000 species of various organisms, in the Black - 1500, in the Azov - about 200, in the Caspian - about 28, and only 2 species of organisms live in the Aral. This explains the fact that all of them, sometime in the distant past, gradually separated from the Mediterranean Sea.

The water expanses of the Sea of Azov, the area of the coastline territories contain a huge amountvariety of animal species.

There are a lot of various waterfowl on the shores: ducks, geese, steppe waders, geese, lapwings, mute swans, black-headed gulls and many others. etc. In the sea and in the mouths of the rivers flowing into it, as well as on the estuaries, a total of 114 species (together with subspecies) of fish live. This body of water is also called the Sea of Clams.

And in terms of biological productivity, it ranks first in the world.

Underwater relief

The relief of the sea bottom is simple. The depths here generally increase gradually as you move away from the coast, and, naturally, the deepest places are in the very center. Almost flat bottom near Azov.

The entire territory of the Azov Sea arose thanks to large bays. There are no large islands on it. There are small shoals (Turtle, Biryuchy Islands, etc.).

Climate

The area of almost the entire surface of the water warms up quickly in April-May. From June to September, the average water temperature is more than 20°C, and in July-August it reaches 30°C. And in Sivash (for comparison) the water warms up to 42 degrees.

The bathing season lasts 124 days. During this favorable period, there are only a few days of relatively low or very high water and air temperatures.

Due to the small size of the Sea of Azov (area, depth, volume), its influence on the climate of the land surrounding it is rather weak and barely noticeable only in a narrow strip (coastal).

The water here heats up quickly in summer and in the same waycools down in winter. The sea freezes completely only in the most severe winters. Moreover, throughout the winter, ice forms and thaws several times, as thaws often occur in these places.

In conclusion, some interesting facts

There are some very interesting and curious facts from history.

1. For many millions of years, the sea was part of a huge ocean called Tethys by geologists. Its endless expanse stretched from Central America across the Atlantic Ocean, part of Europe, the Black, Mediterranean, Caspian and Aral Seas and further east through India to the Pacific Ocean.

2. The Russian prince Gleb in 1068 measured the distance from Kerch to Taman on the ice. The inscription on the Tmutarakan stone indicates that the distance from Korchevo to Tmutarakan (the ancient name of Kerch and Taman, respectively) was about 20 km. It turns out that in 939 years the distance has increased by 3 km.

3. Sea water contains little s alt (another feature). As a result, water freezes fairly easily. Therefore, the sea is not navigable from the end of the year (December) until the very middle of April.