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 body of water is a mixing zone of the Black Sea and river waters, so some researchers consider it as a bay (shallow) of the Black Sea or a spacious, vast river estuary.
From this article you can find out what is the area of the Sea of Azov, its location, the origin of the name and many others. other
Sea of Azov: general information
This pond is a northeastern Black Sea basin. The Kerch Strait connects them together .
By its morphological characteristics, Azov belongs to flat types and represents a shallow water body with not very high slopes of the coasts.
A rather small area and depth of the Sea of Azov is noted (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 and Sivash, the Sea of Azov has an elliptical shape elongated to the southwest from the northeast. In the oceans it is the smallest natural reservoir.
Two great rivers flow into it - the Kuban and Don - and many (over 20) smaller ones, which for the most part flow down from its northern shore.
Parameters of the Sea of Azov: area
The Sea of Azov basin has an area of about 570 thousand square meters. km Its length is the largest 343 km, and the widest part - 231 km. 2686 kilometers - the length of the entire coastline.
Area of the Sea of Azov in apt. km It is about 37600 (this does not include the area of islands and streamers, which occupy 107.9 sq. km). The average volume of all water is 256 km 3 . As noted above, approximately 43% of the territory is located in depths of 5 to 10 meters.
origin of name
The sea got 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 Meot” (peoples who lived on the banks). The Romans called it ironically - “Palus Meotis”, which means “the meot swamp”. 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 “Nitshlah”, and the Turks called “Bahr-Assak” (the Dark Blue Sea) and “Baryal-Assak”. There were many more names in antiquity, all can not be counted.
Azov in Russia became famous in the 1st century BC. e., and his name was given - the Blue Sea. After the principality of Tmutarakan was formed , it was called Russian. Then the sea was renamed many times (Mayutis, Salakar, Samakush, etc.). In the 13th century, the sea was approved with the name Saxin Sea. The Tatar-Mongol conquerors gave him the name Chabak-Dengiz (bream or shepherd) and Balyk-Dengiz (translated - "sea of fish"). As a result of the transformation of the last name (chabak - dzybakh - zabak - azak - azov), the current name arose (dubious version). All assumptions 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 almost 11 times larger than the Black Sea , and, accordingly, it is 1678 times larger in water volumes.
Nevertheless, two European states, such as Luxembourg and Belgium, could freely accommodate in this area.
It is 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 6,000 species of various organisms, in the Black - 1,500, 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 they all once in the long past gradually separated from the Mediterranean Sea.
The water expanses of the Sea of Azov, the area of the coastline accommodate a huge number of different species of animals.
On the shores there are many diverse waterfowl: 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, 114 species (together with subspecies) of fish live in total. Still this reservoir is called the Sea of mollusks.
And in biological productivity, it takes 1st place in the world.
Underwater relief
Simple relief of the bottom of the sea. The depths here mainly increase gradually as you move away from the coast, and, naturally, the deepest places are in the very center. Almost flat bottom at Azov.
The entire territory of the Sea of Azov arose thanks to large bays. There are no large islands on it. There are small shallows (Turtle Islands, Biryuchiy, etc.).
Climate
The area of almost the entire surface of the water in April-May quickly warms up. From June to September, the average water temperature is more than 20 ° C, and in July-August reaches 30 ° C. And in Sivash (for comparison), the water warms up to 42 degrees.
The swimming season lasts 124 days. In this favorable period, only a few days there is a relatively low or very high temperature of water and air.
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 slightly noticeable only in a narrow strip (coastal).
The water here heats quickly in the summer and cools in the same way in the winter. Completely the sea freezes 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. The sea for many millions of years was part of a vast ocean called the geologists of Tethys. Its endless expanse stretched from Central America through the Atlantic Ocean, part of Europe, the Black, Mediterranean, Caspian and Aral Seas and further east through India to the Pacific Ocean.
2. 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 Korchev to Tmutarakan (the ancient name of Kerch and Tamani respectively) was about 20 km. It turns out that over 939 years this distance has increased by 3 km.
3. Sea water contains little salt (another feature). In this regard, the water freezes quite easily. Therefore, the sea is not navigable from the end of the year (December) to the very middle of April.