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3 days ago · Among the five Caspian nations, Kazakhstan is so far the most affected. A map of the Caspian Sea. ‘The climate here is tough, with very little rainfall, and the wind is relentless,’ says Amanjai Ibatulo, who lives in a large white house on the edge of Zhanbay, a small town on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan.
1 day ago · The inland route via the Caspian Sea is much shorter, but currently involves a large number of bottlenecks. Another option is a rail route to the east of the Caspian, but this involves a long ...
- Overview
- Physical features
- Shoreline features
- Submarine features
The Caspian Sea lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia.
What is unique about the Caspian Sea?
The Caspain Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water and the world's largest salt lake.
What countries border the Caspian Sea?
The Caspian Sea is bordered by five countries: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia.
How salty is the Caspian Sea?
The Caspian basin, as a whole, is usually divided into the northern, middle, and southern Caspian, based partly on underwater relief and partly on hydrologic characteristics. The sea contains as many as 50 islands, most of them small. The largest are Chechen, Tyuleny, Morskoy, Kulaly, Zhiloy, and Ogurchin.
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The shores of the northern Caspian are low and reflect the great accumulation of alluvial material washed down by the Ural, Terek, and, above all, Volga rivers, whose deltas are extensive. The western shore of the middle Caspian is hilly. The foothills of the Greater Caucasus Mountains loom close but are separated from the coast by a narrow marine plain. The Abşeron Peninsula, on which the city of Baku is sited, thrusts out into the sea there, while just to its south the floodplain of the Kura and Aras rivers forms the Kura-Aras Lowland along the western shore of the southern Caspian. The southwestern and southern Caspian shores are formed of the sediments of the Länkäran and Gīlān-Māzanderān lowlands, with the high peaks of the Talish and Elburz ranges rearing up close inland. The eastern shore of the southern Caspian is low, formed partly by sediments derived from the erosion of the cliffs along the sea. The shoreline there is broken sharply by the low, hilly Cheleken and Türkmenbashi peninsulas. Just to the north, behind the east shore of the middle Caspian, is the Kara-Bogaz-Gol (Garabogazköl), formerly a shallow gulf of the Caspian but now a large lagoonlike embayment that is separated from the sea by a man-made embankment. For the most part, the eastern shore of the middle Caspian is precipitous, with the sea destroying the margin of the limestone plateaus of Tüpqaraghan and Kendyrli-Kayasansk.
The major rivers—the Volga, Ural, and Terek—empty into the northern Caspian, with their combined annual flow accounting for about 88 percent of all river water entering the sea. The Sulak, Samur, Kura, and a number of smaller rivers flow in on the western shore of the middle and southern Caspian, contributing about 7 percent of the total flow into the sea. The remainder comes in from the rivers of the southern, Iranian shore. Apart from the Atrak (Atrek) River of southern Turkmenistan, the sea’s arid eastern shore is notable for a complete lack of permanent streams.
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The northern Caspian, with an area of 38,380 square miles (99,404 square km), is the shallowest portion of the sea, with an average depth of 13 to 26 feet (4 to 8 metres), reaching a maximum of 66 feet (20 metres) along the boundary with the middle Caspian. The bottom is formed of a monotonously rippling sedimentary plain, broken only by a line of ...
Aug 12, 2018 · Five countries agree to share the resource-rich Caspian Sea after more than two decades of dispute. ... In 2002, a survey found that the fish was rapidly disappearing and could soon become extinct.
Feb 22, 2024 · The northern Caspian, characterized by its shallow depths, gently slopes towards the south, where it meets the middle Caspian. In the middle, the sea becomes deeper compared to the north Caspian, with an average depth of about 623 feet (190 meters) and a maximum depth of more than 3,280 feet (1,000 meters), or about two-thirds of a mile (1 km).
- Marie Look
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake and sometimes referred to as a full-fledged sea. [2] [3] [4] An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia, south of the fertile plains of Southern Russia in Eastern Europe, and north of the mountainous Iranian Plateau.
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What makes the Caspian Sea unique?
6 days ago · Caspian Sea - Largest Lake, 5 Countries, Endorheic Basin: The relief of the Caspian Sea reflects its complex geologic structure. The northern Caspian Sea bottom is extremely old, dating to Precambrian times, or at least about 541 million years ago. The bottom of the northern and middle Caspian has a continental-type crustal structure. The northern portion is a section of the northern Caspian ...
