The Black Sea is a marginal sea located between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bordered by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Black Sea is supplied by major rivers, principally the Danube, Dnieper and Dniester. Consequently, while six countries have a coastline on the sea, its drainage basin includes parts of 24 countries in Europe. Living Black Sea
The Black Sea, not including the Sea of Azov, covers , has a maximum depth of ,Maximum depth— and a volume of . Most of its coasts ascend rapidly. These rises are the Pontic Mountains to the south, the southwest-facing peninsulas, the Caucasus Mountains to the east, and the Crimean Mountains to the mid-north. In the west, the coast is generally small floodplains below foothills such as the Strandzha; Cape Emine, a dwindling of the east end of the Balkan Mountains; and the Dobruja Plateau considerably farther north. The longest east–west extent is about . Important cities along the coast include (clockwise from the Bosporus) the northern suburbs of Istanbul, Burgas, Varna, Constanța, Odesa, Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, Yalta, Kerch, Novorossiysk, Sochi, Poti, Batumi, Rize, Trabzon, Ordu, Samsun and Zonguldak.
The Black Sea has a positive water balance, with an annual net outflow of per year through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles into the Aegean Sea. While the net flow of water through the Bosporus and Dardanelles (known collectively as the Turkish Straits) is out of the Black Sea, water generally flows in both directions simultaneously: Denser, more saline water from the Aegean flows into the Black Sea underneath the less dense, fresher water that flows out of the Black Sea. This creates a significant and permanent layer of deep water that does not drain or mix and is therefore anoxic. This anoxic layer is responsible for the preservation of ancient shipwrecks which have been found in the Black Sea, which ultimately drains into the Atlantic Ocean, via the Turkish Straits and the Aegean Sea into the Mediterranean Sea, and from it to the Atlantic proper through the Strait of Gibraltar. The Bosporus strait connects it to the small Sea of Marmara which in turn is connected to the Aegean Sea via the strait of the Dardanelles. To the north, the Black Sea is connected to the Sea of Azov by the Kerch Strait.
The water level has varied significantly over geological time. Due to these variations in the water level in the basin, the surrounding shelf and associated aprons have sometimes been dry land. At certain critical water levels, connections with surrounding water bodies can become established. It is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the World Ocean. During geological periods when this hydrological link was not present, the Black Sea was an endorheic basin, operating independently of the global ocean system (similar to the Caspian Sea today). Currently, the Black Sea water level is relatively high; thus, water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Black Sea undersea river is a current of particularly saline water flowing through the Bosporus Strait and along the seabed of the Black Sea, the first of its kind discovered.
Name
Modern names Current names of the sea are usually equivalents of the English name 'Black Sea', including these given in the countries bordering the sea: , , , , , ,
, Laz and , , or simply , , , "Sea"
, , , ,
Such names have not yet been shown conclusively to predate the 13thcentury.
In Greece, the historical name 'Euxine Sea', which holds a different literal meaning (see below), is still widely used: , ; the name , , is also used. It is also known among Pontic Greeks as .
The Black Sea is one of four seas named in English after common color terms – the others being the Red Sea, the White Sea and the Yellow Sea.
Historical names and etymology The earliest known name of the Black Sea is the 'Sea of Zalpa', so-called by both the Hattians and their conquerors, the Hittites. The Hattic city of Zalpa was "situated probably at or near the estuary of the Marrassantiya River, the modern Kızıl Irmak, on the Black Sea coast."
The principal Greek name Póntos Áxeinos is generally accepted to be a rendering of the Iranian word ('dark-colored'). Ancient Greek voyagers adopted the name as , identified with the Greek word ('inhospitable'). The name ('Inhospitable Sea'), first attested in Pindar (), was considered an ill omen and was euphemized to its opposite, ('Hospitable Sea'), also first attested in Pindar. This became the commonly used designation in Greek, although in mythological contexts the 'true' name remained favored.
Strabo's Geographica (1.2.10) reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often simply called 'the Sea' ( ). He thought that the sea was called the 'Inhospitable Sea' by the inhabitants of the Pontus region of the southern shoreline before Greek colonization due to its difficult navigation and hostile barbarian natives (7.3.6), and that the name was changed to 'hospitable' after the Milesians colonized the region, bringing it into the Greek world.
Popular supposition derives 'Black Sea' from the dark color of the water or climatic conditions. Some scholars understand the name to be derived from a system of Turkic color symbolism representing the cardinal directions, with black or dark for north, red for south, white for west, and green or light blue for east. Hence, 'Black Sea' meant 'Northern Sea'. According to this scheme, the name could only have originated with a people living between the northern (black) and southern (red) seas: this points to the Achaemenids (550–330 BC). However, this interpretation has been contested.Karatay, Osman. (2011). "On the origins of the name for the 'Black Sea'." Journal of Historical Geography, Volume 37, Issue 1, Pages 1–11. The emergence of the current name in Greek may also be due to phonetic affinity in mare maius, mare Maggiore ('Great Sea') with the Greek word mavros ('black').
In the Greater Bundahishn, a Middle Persian Zoroastrian scripture, the Black Sea is called . In the 10th-century Persian geography book , the Black Sea is called 'Georgian Sea' (). The Georgian Chronicles use the name ('Sea of Speri') after the Kartvelian tribe of Speris or Saspers. Medieval Russian chroniclers used the name Pontskoye more (), although the Russian explorer Ignaty Smolnyanin () used the name 'Great Sea'. Until the 15th–16th centuries, the name 'Russian Sea' () was also used. The name emerged in the 10th century following incursions into Constantinople, "because Russians used to trample the city often".
Other modern names such as and (both meaning 'Black Sea') originated during the 13th century. A 1570 map from Abraham Ortelius's labels the sea ('Great Sea'), compare Latin .
English writers of the 18th century often used Euxine Sea ( or ). During the Ottoman Empire, it was called either (Perso-Arabic) or (Ottoman Turkish), both meaning 'Black Sea'.
Geography The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows:
The area surrounding the Black Sea is commonly referred to as the Black Sea Region. Its northern part lies within the Chernozem belt (black soil belt) which goes from eastern Croatia (Slavonia), along the Danube (northern Serbia, northern Bulgaria (Danubian Plain) and southern Romania (Wallachian Plain) to northeast Ukraine and further across the Central Black Earth Region and southern Russia into Siberia.
The littoral zone of the Black Sea is often referred to as the Pontic littoral or Pontic zone.
The largest bays of the Black Sea are Karkinit Bay in Ukraine; the Gulf of Burgas in Bulgaria; Dnieprovska Gulf and Dniestrovsky Liman, both in Ukraine; and Sinop Bay and Samsun Bay, both in Turkey.
Coastline and exclusive economic zones {| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right;" |+ Coastline length and area of exclusive economic zones |- ! scope="col" | Country ! scope="col" | Coastline length (km) ! scope="col" | Exclusive economic zones area (km2) |- ! scope="row" | | 1,329 | 172,484 |- ! scope="row" | | 2,782 | 132,414 |- ! scope="row" | | 800 | 67,351 |- ! scope="row" | | 354 | 35,132 |- ! scope="row" | | 310 (without Abkhazia 100) | 22,947 |- ! scope="row" | | 225 | 29,756 |- ! scope="row" | | 210 | – |- class="sortbottom" style="background:#9acdff;" ! scope="row" | Total | style="background:#9acdff; font-weight:bold;" | 5,800 | style="background:#9acdff; font-weight:bold;" | 460,084 |} Drainage basin
The largest rivers flowing into the Black Sea are:
Danube Dnieper Don Dniester Kızılırmak Kuban Sakarya Southern Bug Çoruh/Chorokhi Yeşilırmak Rioni Yeya Mius Kamchiya Enguri/Egry Kalmius Molochna Tylihul Velykyi Kuialnyk Veleka Rezovo Kodori/Kwydry Bzyb/Bzipi Supsa Mzymta
These rivers and their tributaries comprise a Black Sea drainage basin that covers wholly or partially 24 countries:
Unrecognized states:
Islands
Some islands in the Black Sea belong to Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine:
St. Thomas Island – Bulgaria St. Anastasia Island – Bulgaria St. Cyricus Island – Bulgaria St. Ivan Island – Bulgaria St. Peter Island – Bulgaria Sacalinu Mare Island – Romania Sacalinu Mic Island – Romania K Island – Romania and Ukraine Utrish Island Krupinin Island Sudiuk Island Kefken Island Oreke Island Giresun Island – Turkey Dzharylhach Island – Ukraine Zmiinyi (Snake) Island – Ukraine
Climate
Short-term climatic variation in the Black Sea region is significantly influenced by the operation of the North Atlantic oscillation, the climatic mechanisms resulting from the interaction between the north Atlantic and mid-latitude air masses. While the exact mechanisms causing the North Atlantic Oscillation remain unclear, it is thought the climate conditions established in western Europe mediate the heat and precipitation fluxes reaching Central Europe and Eurasia, regulating the formation of winter cyclones, which are largely responsible for regional precipitation inputs and influence Mediterranean sea surface temperatures (SSTs).
The relative strength of these systems also limits the amount of cold air arriving from northern regions during winter. Other influencing factors include the regional topography, as depressions and storm systems arriving from the Mediterranean are funneled through the low land around the Bosporus, with the Pontic and Caucasus mountain ranges acting as waveguides, limiting the speed and paths of cyclones passing through the region.Brody, L. R., Nestor, M.J.R. (1980). Regional Forecasting Aids for the Mediterranean Basin . Handbook for Forecasters in the Mediterranean, Naval Research Laboratory. Part 2.
Geology and bathymetry