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Sep 19, 2024 · What makes the Red Sea unique? The Red Sea is renowned for its vibrant coral reefs, which are home to a diverse range of marine life. It is also known for its high salt content, which gives its waters a reddish hue .
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Red Sea, narrow strip of water extending southeastward from Suez, Egypt, for about 1,200 miles (1,930 km) to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects with the Gulf of Aden and thence with the Arabian Sea. Geologically, the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba (Elat) must be considered as the northern extension of the same structure. The sea separates the coasts of Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea to the west from those of Saudi Arabia and Yemen to the east. Its maximum width is 190 miles, its greatest depth 9,974 feet (3,040 metres), and its area approximately 174,000 square miles (450,000 square km).
The Red Sea contains some of the world’s hottest and saltiest seawater. With its connection to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, it is one of the most heavily traveled waterways in the world, carrying maritime traffic between Europe and Asia. Its name is derived from the colour changes observed in its waters. Normally, the Red Sea is an intense blue-green; occasionally, however, it is populated by extensive blooms of the algae Trichodesmium erythraeum, which, upon dying off, turn the sea a reddish brown colour.
The Red Sea lies in a fault depression that separates two great blocks of Earth’s crust—Arabia and North Africa. The land on either side, inland from the coastal plains, reaches heights of more than 6,560 feet above sea level, with the highest land in the south.
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At its northern end the Red Sea splits into two parts, the Gulf of Suez to the northwest and the Gulf of Aqaba to the northeast. The Gulf of Suez is shallow—approximately 180 to 210 feet deep—and it is bordered by a broad coastal plain. The Gulf of Aqaba, on the other hand, is bordered by a narrow plain, and it reaches a depth of 5,500 feet. From approximately 28° N, where the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba converge, south to a latitude near 25° N, the Red Sea’s coasts parallel each other at a distance of roughly 100 miles apart. There the seafloor consists of a main trough, with a maximum depth of some 4,000 feet, running parallel to the shorelines.
South of this point and continuing southeast to latitude 16° N, the main trough becomes sinuous, following the irregularities of the shoreline. About halfway down this section, roughly between 20° and 21° N, the topography of the trough becomes more rugged, and several sharp clefts appear in the seafloor. Because of an extensive growth of coral banks, only a shallow narrow channel remains south of 16° N. The sill (submarine ridge) separating the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is affected by this growth; therefore, the depth of the water is only about 380 feet, and the main channel becomes narrow.
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The Red Sea occupies part of a large rift valley in the continental crust of Africa and Arabia. This break in the crust is part of a complex rift system that includes the East African Rift System, which extends southward through Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania for almost 2,200 miles and northward for more than 280 miles from the Gulf of Aqaba to form the great Wadi Aqaba–Dead Sea–Jordan Rift; the system also extends eastward for 600 miles from the southern end of the Red Sea to form the Gulf of Aden.
The Red Sea valley cuts through the Arabian-Nubian Massif, which was a continuous central mass of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks (i.e., formed deep within the Earth under heat and pressure more than 540 million years ago), the outcrops of which form the rugged mountains of the adjoining region. The massif is surrounded by these Precambrian rocks overlain by Paleozoic marine sediments (542 to 251 million years old). These sediments were affected by the folding and faulting that began late in the Paleozoic; the laying down of deposits, however, continued to occur during this time and apparently continued into the Mesozoic Era (251 to 65.5 million years ago). The Mesozoic sediments appear to surround and overlap those of the Paleozoic and are in turn surrounded by early Cenozoic sediments (i.e., between 65.5 and 55.8 million years old). In many places large remnants of Mesozoic sediments are found overlying the Precambrian rocks, suggesting that a fairly continuous cover of deposits once existed above the older massif.
The Red Sea region receives very little precipitation in any form, although prehistoric artifacts indicate that there were periods with greater amounts of rainfall. In general, the climate is conducive to outdoor activity in fall, winter, and spring—except during windstorms—with temperatures varying between 46 and 82 °F (8 and 28 °C). Summer temper...
No water enters the Red Sea from rivers, and rainfall is scant; but the evaporation loss—in excess of 80 inches per year—is made up by an inflow through the eastern channel of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the Gulf of Aden. This inflow is driven toward the north by prevailing winds and generates a circulation pattern in which these low-salinity waters (the average salinity is about 36 parts per thousand) move northward. Water from the Gulf of Suez has a salinity of about 40 parts per thousand, owing in part to evaporation, and consequently a high density. This dense water moves toward the south and sinks below the less dense inflowing waters from the Red Sea. Below a transition zone, which extends from depths of about 300 to 1,300 feet, the water conditions are stabilized at about 72 °F (22 °C), with a salinity of almost 41 parts per thousand. This south-flowing bottom water, displaced from the north, spills over the sill at Bab el-Mandeb, mostly through the eastern channel. It is estimated that there is a complete renewal of water in the Red Sea every 20 years.
Below this southward-flowing water, in the deepest portions of the trough, there is another transition layer, only 80 feet thick, below which, at some 6,400 feet, lie pools of hot brine. The brine in the Atlantis II Deep has an average temperature of almost 140 °F (60 °C), a salinity of 257 parts per thousand, and no oxygen. There are similar pools of water in the Discovery Deep and in the Chain Deep (at about 21°18′ N). Heating from below renders these pools unstable, so that their contents mix with the overlying waters; they thus become part of the general circulation system of the sea.
The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez—leading to the Suez Canal.
Discover the fascinating world of the Red Sea, an aquatic wonderland known for its unique marine biodiversity and captivating ecosystems. With its rich history, vibrant coral reefs, and diverse marine life, the Red Sea offers an unparalleled experience for those seeking adventure and exploration.
Oct 25, 2018 · A variety of exotic threads are woven into the tapestry that produce the Red Sea’s unusual oceanographic phenomena: seasonal monsoons, desert sandstorms, wind jets through narrow mountain gaps, the Strait of Bab Al Mandeb that squeezes passage in and out of the sea—even locust swarms.
Feb 22, 2024 · The Red Sea boasts a rich biodiversity, being home to thousands of plant and animal species, including some that are unique in the world. How did the Red Sea get its name? The origin of the name is unknown, since its waters are not red in color.
Jan 1, 2015 · The Red Sea is the hottest and saltiest body of sea water on earth and a unique environment that thrives with coral reefs supporting its habitats. Due to the high evaporation and low precipitation, surface water salinities range from about 36.5 near Bab-al-Mandab to about 40–41 ‰ at the northern end of the main Red Sea basin (Alraddadi 2013 ).
