CASPIAN
SEA
![](caspiansea.jpg)
Caspian
Sea
![](caspiansea1.jpg)
Caspian
Sea
The
Caspian Sea (Persian : Daryâ-ye Mâzandarân; "Sea
of Mazandaran", Russian : Kaspieyskoye more) is a large landlocked
salt lake on the border of Europe and Asia . With its surface of
371,000 km², it is the largest lake in the world. Because of
this size and the salty water, the lake is characterized as a sea
. It was considered an ocean by the ancient coastal inhabitants,
possibly because of its salinity and apparent boundlessness. There
are no outflowing waters from the Caspian Sea, therefore it is aendorheic
pelvis. The sea is named after the Caspians.
The
main rivers feeding the sea are the Volga, the Urals , the Terek
and the Kura. Each year, these drain some 350 km³ of fresh
water into the sea. The Volga supplies the largest part with 80%
of this. Because there are no outgoing rivers but a lot of water
evaporates, the salinity of the water gradually increases. The salinity
(salt content) is about 1.2%, slightly more than a third of the
average ocean salinity (3.5%). In the north, where most rivers flow
into the sea, the salinity is about half the average.
The
surface of the Caspian Sea is slightly smaller than the Black Sea,
but the sea is much less deep. The sea contains about 77,000 km
of water, much less than the more than 500,000 km³ of the Black
Sea. The sea is deepest, a maximum of one kilometer, in the southern
part and the northern basin is very shallow in most places, between
four and 25 meters. The two basins are separated by a shallower
part that connects the peninsulas Apsheron (Azerbaijan) and Cheleken
(Turkmenistan). To the sea belongs the almost closed inlet Garabogazköl
in Turkmenistan.
The
Caspian Sea will be approximately 28 meters below sea level in 2008,
which means that a large part of the coastal area, including the
Caspian Depression, is also below sea level. The water level is
not a constant: 2000 years ago it was about eight meters lower than
it is now and in the 13th century it was eight meters higher. The
water level has decreased by several centimeters per year since
1990 due to low rainfall and dams that hinder the water supply from
the Volga. According to scientists, this process will accelerate
and the water level will drop by nine to eighteen meters between
2020 and the year 2100. With a drop of 18 meters the sea loses more
than a third of its surface, with especially the shallow, northern
part drying up.
In
the north of the sea there is a continental climate with cold winters
and in the south a subtropical climate with a Mediterranean character.
The latter results in warm dry summers and mild winters. In winter
storms are not uncommon and the northern part of the sea freezes
over. The prevailing north wind carries ice to the south in winter
and spring. Summers are warm with little wind.
Economic
significance :
The sea is rich in oil reserves (which, due to economic interests,
complicates the determination of the sea borders between the different
countries). Azerbaijan is one of the oldest oil deposits and the
extraction of oil and natural gas is shifting to offshore fields.
On
March 9, 1916, Persian Prime Minister Sepahdar (Mohammad Vali Khan
Tonekaboni) awarded an oil concession to Russian businessman Akaki
Khoshtaria in the five northern provinces of Azerbaijan, Khorasan,
Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan. That concession was never ratified
by parliament, and in the wake of the Russian Revolution, the government
canceled it. Khoshtaria then sold its rights to the Anglo-Persian
Oil Company (APOC), later BP. It faced competition from the American
firms Standard Oil and theSinclair Oil Corporation.
From the 1940s, the Soviet Union began offshore exploitation off
the coast of Baku. Iran did not contest those activities and in
doing so lost some of its claim to the fields north of the Astari-Hassanqoli
line, for a time the de facto border between the Soviet Union and
Iran's spheres of influence in the Caspian Sea.
The
Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field is located 120 kilometers east of
Baku and is one of the largest oil fields in the country. To the
north near Kazakhstan is the even larger Kashagan oil field. Oil
extraction is seen as a threat to the environment. The sea is also
a source of carnallite, a raw material used for the production of
magnesium. Furthermore, the sturgeon population produces caviar
and the endangered Caspian seal is still there.
The
main port city is Baku in Azerbaijan and other important ports include
:
•
Aktau in Kazakhstan
• Astara in Iran
• Astrakhan in Russia
• Makhachkala in Russia (Dagestan)
•
Türkmenbasy in Turkmenistan (until 1993 known as Krasnovodsk,
as it was called by the Russians who founded it)
International law :
In modern times, the Persian- Russian treaties of the 18th-19th
centuries are the oldest provisions of the legal status of the Caspian
Sea (Treaty of Saint Petersburg 1723, Treaty of Rasht 1729, Treaty
of Golestan 1813, Treaty of Turkomanchai 1828). None of these treaties
contain maritime boundaries, although some have attempted to extend
the eastern coastal boundary lines of the 1881 and 1893 treaties
into the sea.
In
1921, the Russian Soviet Republic concluded a Treaty of Friendship
and Cooperation with Persia; this was followed by a series of bilateral
agreements between the Soviet Union and Iran until 1940. The provisions
of those treaties, which remained in force until recently, had many
gaps, were partially obsolete and unsuitable for the new political,
economic and environmental issues. In addition, after the collapse
of the Soviet Union in 1991, the successor states of Azerbaijan,
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan refused to recognize the treaties.
On
August 12, 2018, it was announced that the five riparian states
Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan had reached
an agreement after a week of consultations in the city of Aktau
(Kazakhstan) on a legal framework for the territorial rights of
the riparian states, and in particular the distribution of sea and
soil resources. A legal framework has been lacking since the dissolution
of the Soviet Union. The treaty gives the Caspian Sea, it is sea
and nothing more, a special status, because no treaties on international
or inland waters apply. The According to the agreement, territorial
waters will extend 15 miles offshore, with an additional 10 nautical
miles of fishing grounds. From there, the Caspian Sea would become
a common body of water. Many details have to be negotiated later.
The five riparian states did agree to exclude any military presence
of third countries in the Caspian Sea.
Pollution
:
Since the middle of the 20th century, research has been conducted
into the pollution of the Caspian Sea, originally mainly into hydrocarbons
from petroleum. From the end of the 1970s, the Soviet Union systematically
measured and studied the dynamics of pollutants in coastal areas
and in the open sea. The main causes of pollution are river supply,
oil and gas extraction, industrial and domestic wastewater and solid
waste discharges, and dredging and dumping of soil spoil.
Zones
of high concentrations of hydrocarbons in the northern part of the
sea are the shallow areas near the Volga delta and in the west.
Over the period 1978-2004, the initially high concentration of phenols
and detergents decreased steadily. A high concentration of ammonium
was found near the mouths of the rivers Volga, Terek and Sulak.
The main chlorinated pesticide was DDT (31 ng/l), but its concentration
also decreased sharply between the 1980s and the 1990s, becoming
immeasurable from 1992 onwards.
Data
on the pollution of the southern part of the sea comes from the
Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. There, petroleum pollution is
significantly stronger in the east than in the west, with average
winter concentrations of 0.19 and 0.15 mg/l respectively. Other
problem substances are phenols and detergents in the upper water
layers. In general, the southern Caspian Sea is considered highly
polluted.
Historical listing :
• In the Veds, the Caspian Sea is also called
Kashyapa Mira. (The sea of Kashyap : a famous Rishi).
•
The ancient Greeks called the sea the Hyrcanian Sea. This name refers
to the historical region of Hyrcania.
Source
:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspische_Zee