Seas, like people, are absolutely not similar to each other. They are unique not only in their appearance, size, depths, but also in the contours of the coast lines, the composition of the animal and flora and even by the color of the water and character.
The most peculiar are the historical destinies of the seas, inextricably linked with the history of the peoples who lived on their shores and sailed in boats and ships on their waters. Sea of Azov also has its own, only its inherent features and characteristics. First of all, the size of this smallest sea is unique. It is one and a half times less than the Aral, the Caspian - ten times and the Black - eleven times ...
But in history, the small sea occupies a rather prominent place. It received its current name around the middle of the 13th century - on behalf of the ancient shopping center Azak, who grew up on the site of the ancient Tanais, destroyed by the Golden Horde. But, since the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov was at the crossroads of the historical paths of peoples, it, like, perhaps, none of the reservoirs the globe has gone by many names in the past. The ancient Greeks called it Meotida, which means “nurse”, the Romans called it Palus Meotis (“Meotian swamp”) for its shallow water, the Scythians - Kargulak (“rich in fish”), the Meotians Timirinda (“mother of the sea”). The Genoese and Venetians called it. Mare Fane, Arabs - Bahr-el-Azov, Slavs - Surozh or Blue ...
And in 1696, when the Russian armies liberated the Sea of Azov from the Turkish aggressors and reached the shores of Azov, the smallest sea became the cradle of the first navy in the history of Russia.
The current outlines of the Sea of Azov and its neighboring seas acquired only during the Tertiary period, that is, about a million years ago, when a person first appeared on earth. Prior to that, it was part of a huge ancient proto-ocean, called Tethys by geologists. But then in the ocean as a result of geological changes appeared big islands- modern mountain ranges Carpathians, Crimea, Caucasus, Asia Minor. They connected with each other, forming separate closed pools. One of these basins included the Aral, Caspian, and Azov seas and occupied the southern part of Ukraine.
Mountain-building changes continued on its shores and islands, as a result of which this region of the globe acquired its current shape: the bottom Sea of Azov rose and froze, determining its shallowness and associated natural features, without which the Sea of Azov would simply turn into a large bay of the Black Sea. The maximum depth of the sea does not exceed 14 meters, the volume is only 320 cubic kilometers, and the area is 37,800 square kilometers. The sea has the greatest length along its northern shores: the distance from the mouth of the Don to the Arabat Spit is about 400 kilometers. The greatest width is 200 kilometers.
In addition, the Sea of Azov, unlike closed seas such as the Aral and Caspian, is connected through the Kerch Strait and the Black Sea with the world's oceans. This means that the level of the Azov waters is relatively constant, but their salinity is much lower than in the ocean and the Black Sea. This is again due to the shallowness of the sea: it is desalinated by the Don and Kuban, as well as small rivers of the Northern Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, carrying their nutrient-rich waters into the sea.
The geographical location and shallow water of the Sea of Azov contribute to good warming of its water, so that its average annual temperature is 11.5 degrees: in winter it drops sharply below zero, and in summer it evens out in air temperature up to 28 degrees. In the coastal zone near Primorsko-Akhtarsk and Taganrog, there were cases when the water warmed up to 32 degrees! The climate of the Sea of Azov basin is continental, the average annual rainfall is low - 300-500 millimeters. And only a small sea - a sensitive natural air conditioner - softens the climate of the sultry Tauride steppes and turns the entire coast into a resort area.
In addition, the Sea of Azov is a natural "museum" of coastal forms. Throughout the coastline you will see chains of sandbanks and small islands. Among the largest islands are Biryuchy, Sandy and Turtle. By the way, the latter is an artificial outpost at the entrance to the Taganrog port, and Russian soldiers poured it at the behest of Peter I, the founder of Taganrog.
But the main and scientifically most interesting feature of the coast of the Sea of Azov is its sandbars, which are pushed out into the open sea for tens of kilometers by narrow sandy stripes. The largest of them are located on the northern coast. These are the Beglitskaya spit, the length of which is 3 kilometers, the Curve - 10 kilometers, the Belosaraiskaya - 14 kilometers, the Berdyansk - 23 kilometers, the Obitochnaya - 30 kilometers and Fedotov - 45 kilometers.
The Sea of Azov (Ukrainian Sea of Azov, Crimean Azaq deñizi) is the northeastern lateral basin of the Black Sea, with which it is connected by the Kerch Strait (Cimmerian Bosphorus in ancient times, 4.2 kilometers wide). The Sea of Azov belongs to the seas of the Atlantic Ocean.
In ancient times, the Greeks called it the Meotian Lake (Greek Μαιῶτις), the Romans Palus Maeotis, the Scythians Kargaluk, the Meotians Temerinda (the mother of the sea); Arabs Nitshlach or Baral-Azov, Turks Barial-Assak or Bahr-Assak (Dark Blue Sea; in modern Turkish Azakdenizi), Genoese and Venetians Mare delle Zabacche (Mare Tane).
The extreme points of the Sea of Azov lie between 45°12′30″ and 47°17′30″ N. latitude and between 33°38′ (Sivash) and 39°18′ east. longitude. Its greatest length is 343 kilometers, its greatest width is 231 kilometers; the length of the coastline is 1472 kilometers; surface area - 37,605 square kilometers (this area does not include islands and spits, occupying 107.9 square kilometers.).
According to morphological features, the Sea of Azov belongs to flat seas and is a shallow water reservoir with low coastal slopes.
The greatest depth does not exceed 14 meters, and the average depth is about 8 meters. At the same time, depths up to 5 meters occupy more than half of the volume of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. Its volume is also small and equal to 320 cubic meters. For comparison, let's say that the Aral Sea exceeds the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov in area by almost 2 times. The Black Sea is almost 11 times larger than the Sea of Azov in terms of area, and 1678 times in volume. And yet the Sea of Azov is not so small, it would freely accommodate two such European states as the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Its greatest length is 380 kilometers, and its greatest width is 200 kilometers. Total length The coastline of the sea is 2686 kilometers.
The underwater relief of the Sea of Azov is very simple, the depths generally slowly and smoothly increase with distance from the coast, and the greatest depths are in the center of the sea. Its bottom is almost flat. The Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov forms several bays, of which the largest are Taganrog, Temryuk and the strongly isolated Sivash, which is more correctly considered an estuary. There are no large islands in the Sea of Azov. There are a number of shoals, partially flooded with water and located near the coast. Such, for example, are the islands of Biryuchy, Turtle and others.
Sea of Azov - the origin of the name
In Rus', the Sea of Azov became known in the 1st century AD, and was called the Blue Sea. After the formation of the Tmutarakan principality, the modern Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov began to be called Russian. With the fall of the principality, the sea was renamed several times (Samakush, Salakar, Mayutis, etc.). At the beginning of the XIII century. the name of the Saksinsk Sea was approved. The Tatar-Mongolian conquerors replenished the collection of the names of Azov: Balyk-dengiz (fish sea) and Chabak-dengiz (chabache, bream sea). According to some sources, Chabak-dengiz as a result of the transformation: chabak - dzybakh - zabak - azak - azov - happened modern name sea (which is doubtful). According to other sources, azak is a Turkic adjective meaning "low, low", according to other sources, "azak" (Turkic "mouth of the river"), which was transformed into Azau, and then into Russian Azov. In the interval of the above names, the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov also received the following: Barel-Azov ("Dark Blue River"); the Thracian Sea (the Thracians meant the Genoese and the Venetians); Surozh Sea (Surozh was the name of the modern city of Sudak in the Crimea); Kaffa Sea (Kaffa is an Italian colony on the site of the modern city of Feodosia in the Crimea); Cimmerian Sea (from the Cimmerians); Akdengiz (Turkish meaning White Sea).
The most reliable should be considered that the modern name of the sea comes from the name of the city of Azov. According to the etymology of the word “azov”, there are a number of hypotheses: after the name of the Polovtsian prince Azum (Azuf), who was killed during the capture of the city in 1067; by the name of the Osos (Asses) tribe, which in turn allegedly came from the Avestan, meaning "fast"; the name is compared with the Turkic word azan - “lower”, and the Circassian uzev - “neck”. The Turkic name of the city of Azov is Auzak. But even in the 1st c. AD Pliny, listing the Scythian tribes in his writings, mentions the Asoki tribe, similar to the word Azov. It is generally accepted that the modern name of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov came to Russian toponymy at the beginning of the 17th century. thanks to the chronicle of Pimen. Moreover, at the beginning it was assigned only to its part (Taganrog Bay), and only during the Azov campaigns of Peter I, the name of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov was assigned to the entire reservoir. The sea gave its name to the villages of Azovskaya and Priazovskaya and the city of Azov (in the lower reaches of the Don River, Rostov Region), the village of Priazovskiy and the farm of Azovka.
The history of the study of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov
In the history of the study of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, there are three stages:
1. Ancient (geographical) - from the time of Herodotus to the beginning of the 19th century.
2. Geological and geographical - XIX century. - 40s of XX century.
3. Complex - the middle of the XX century. - Today.
The first map of Pontus Euxine and Maeotis was made by Claudius Ptolemy, he also determined geographical coordinates for cities, estuaries, capes and bays of the coast of the Sea of Azov.
In 1068, the Russian prince Gleb measured the distance between Kerch and Taman on the ice. As evidenced by the inscription on the Tmutarakan stone, the distance from Tmutarakan to Korchevo ( ancient name Tamini and Kerch) was approximately 20 kilometers (for 939 years this distance has increased by 3 kilometers.).
From the XII-XIV centuries. the Genoese and Venetians began to draw up portolans (pilots and sea charts of the Black and Azov Seas).
Sea of Azov - geological past
The Sea of Azov, in terms of its geological age, is a young basin. It acquired outlines close to modern ones in the Quaternary period. Many millions of years ago, the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov was part of the ocean, which geologists call Tethys. Its vast expanse stretched from Central America through Atlantic Ocean, the southern part of Europe, the Mediterranean, Black, Caspian and Aral Seas and further east through India to the Pacific Ocean.
The history of the Sea of Azov is closely connected with the geological past of the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Black and Caspian Seas. Under the influence of internal forces, the earth's crust first fell, then rose in the form of mountain ranges, which then, cut off by the work of flowing waters and weathering, turned into plains. As a result of these processes, the waters of the World Ocean either flooded individual areas of land, or exposed them, or, as geologists say, transgressions (advance) and regressions (retreat) of the seas were observed.
At the same time, the outlines of the continents and seas naturally changed. At the same time, there were changes in climate, flora and fauna both on land and in the sea.
Only in the Cenozoic era (the era of new life) did the outlines of the continents and individual seas, including the Sea of Azov, become what we see them on modern maps.
The Cenozoic era, as is known, consists of two periods - Tertiary and Quaternary, or Anthropogene. In the latter, a person already appears. In the Anthropogene, the formation of the Sea of Azov ended, and, consequently, its modern appearance was created literally before the eyes of prehistoric man.
During the Anthropogene, the sea basin, which included the Black, Azov and Caspian Sea, repeatedly changed its outlines, area, depth, was crushed into parts and restored again.
Different phases of the development of this basin in the Anthropogen received conventional names: the Chaudin, Ancient Euxinian, Uzunlar, Karangat, Novoeuksinskoe seas.
Chaudinsky lake-sea existed at the beginning of the era of great glaciation - more than 500,000 years ago. Sediments of this sea were found at Cape Chauda Kerch Peninsula(hence the name of the sea), they are also on the coast of the Taman Peninsula. Fauna ( animal world) of the heavily desalinated Chaudin Sea was very close to the fauna of the Baku Sea, which at that time was part of the Caspian Sea Basin. This circumstance led scientists to the conclusion that the Chaudinsky and Baku basins were connected to each other along the valley of the Manych River.
Having existed for a relatively short time, the Chaudin Sea gave way to the Ancient Euxinian Sea. It was a heavily desalinated lake-sea. It belongs to the first half of the Quaternary period. Deposits of the Ancient Euxinian Sea are known on the Kerch Peninsula, in the Taganrog region, on the Caucasian coast, on the Manych River. The great similarity of the fauna indicates that the sea was connected with the ancient Caspian and Baku basins.
In ancient Euxinian times, the Black Sea was connected to the Mediterranean through the Dardanelles. The so-called Uzunlar Sea came to replace the Ancient Euxinian Sea. Due to the penetration of the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the Uzunlar Sea is gradually salinized and its level rises. The latter led to the flooding of the lower parts of the coast and estuaries. The formation of the estuaries of the Dnieper, Don and other rivers of the Azov-Black Sea basin dates back to this time. The Manych Strait, which previously connected the Ancient Euxinian and Ancient Caspian Seas, ceases to exist at this time.
The Uzunlar Sea was replaced by the salty Karangat Sea, the formation of which was accompanied by large subsidence in the area of the Sea of Azov and the Crimea.
These sinkings caused the transgression of saline waters and the penetration into the Karangat basin of marine fauna richer in species than the modern Black Sea.
During the last glaciation, the Karangat Sea was replaced by the semi-fresh Novoevksinsky lake-sea. At that time, the Khvalyn Sea stretched in the neighboring Caspian region, which, judging by the similarity of the faunas of both seas, connected with the Novoevksinsky. The New Euxinian regressive stage in the development of the sea gave way to the Old Black Sea and New Black Sea stages of its expansion.
The last, New Black Sea, stage of the development of the Sea of Azov is divided by scientists into several independent stages, namely: the stage of maximum development of the New Black Sea transgression, when the sea level was 2.5-3 m higher than the current one, the Meotic stage, which took place already at the beginning of historical time, and nymphal stage. In the Meotic stage, the Sea of Azov, according to the description of the ancient Greeks, was a freshwater and marshy lake. In the Nymphean stage, the formation of the modern outlines of the coastline took place, and in particular the formation of most of the spits of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov.
Sea of Azov - geography
Bathymetry of the Sea of Azov
The underwater relief of the Sea of Azov is relatively simple. As you move away from the coast, the depths slowly and smoothly increase, reaching 14.4 meters in the central part of the sea. The main area of the bottom of the Sea of Azov is characterized by a depth of 5-13 meters. The area of greatest depths is located in the center of the sea. The location of the isobaths, which is close to symmetrical, is disturbed by their slight elongation in the northeast towards the Taganrog Bay. The isobath of 5 meters is located about 2 kilometers from the coast, moving away from it near the Taganrog Bay and in the bay itself near the mouth of the Don. In the Taganrog Bay, the depths increase from the mouth of the Don (2-3 meters) towards the open part of the sea, reaching 8-9 meters at the border of the bay with the sea.
In the relief of the bottom of the Sea of Azov, systems of underwater heights are noted, elongated along the eastern (Zhelezinskaya bank) and western (Marskaya and Arabatskaya banks) coasts, the depths above which decrease from 8-9 to 3-5 meters. The underwater coastal slope of the northern coast is characterized by wide shallow water (20-30 kilometers) with depths of 6-7 meters, for south coast- a steep underwater slope to depths of 11-12 meters. The catchment area of the Sea of Azov Basin is 586,000 square kilometers.
sea shores mostly flat and sandy, only on south coast there are hills of volcanic origin, which in some places turn into steep frontal mountains.
Sea currents are dependent on the very strong northeast and southwest winds blowing here and therefore change direction very often. The main current is a circular current along the shores of the Sea of Azov counterclockwise.
Geographical features of the Sea of Azov
Large or of particular interest listed geographic features in clockwise order along the coast of the Sea of Azov, starting from the Kerch Strait.
Bays and estuaries of the Sea of Azov:
Ukraine:
In the southwest: Kazantip Bay, Arabatsky Bay;
In the west: Sivash Bay;
In the north-west: Utlyuk estuary, Molochny estuary, Obitochny - bay, Berdyansk bay;
Russia:
In the northeast: the Taganrog Bay, the Miussky Estuary, the Yeysky Estuary;
In the east: Yasenskiy bay, Beisugskiy estuary, Akhtarskiy estuary;
In the south-east: Temryuk Bay.
Spit and capes of the Sea of Azov:
Ukraine:
In the south-west: Cape Khroni, Cape Zyuk, Cape Chagany and Cape Kazantip (Kazantip Bay);
In the west: Arabatskaya Strelka spit (Sivash Bay);
In the north-west: Fedotova Spit and Spit Biryuchy Ostrov (Utlyuk Estuary), Obitochnaya Spit (Obitochny Bay), Berdyansk Spit (Berdyansk Bay);
In the northeast: Belosarayskaya Spit, Curve Spit;
In the Kerch Strait: Tuzla Spit.
Russia:
In the northeast: Beglitskaya spit;
In the east: Cape Chumbursky, Glafirovskaya spit, Long spit, Kamyshevatskaya spit, Yasenskaya spit (Beisugsky estuary), Achuevskaya spit (Akhtarsky estuary);
In the southeast: Cape Achuevsky and Cape Kamenny (Temryuk Bay).
In the Kerch Strait: Chushka Spit.
Rivers flowing into the Sea of Azov:
Ukraine:
In the northwest: Maly Utlyuk, Molochnaya, Korsak, Lozovatka, Obitochnaya, Berda, Kalmius, Gruzsky Elanchik;
Russia:
In the northeast: Wet Elanchik, Mius, Sambek, Don, Kagalnik, Wet Chuburka, Eya;
In the southeast: Protoka, Kuban.
Sea of Azov coast
The coast of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov is less picturesque and diverse than the Black Sea. But it also has its own unique beauty. The steppes come close to the sea, and in some places the floodplains overgrown with reeds. The shores are treeless, they are either low and gentle, with a sandy-shell beach, or low, but steep, composed of yellow loess-like loams. The coastline of the sea forms rather smooth bends, and only long sandy spits give it some indentation. A large number of Kos is one of characteristic features shores of the Sea of Azov.
Western coast of the Sea of Azov
The western shore of the Sea of Azov is represented by a long oblique - the Arabat arrow. It stretched along the seashore for 112 kilometers, separating the shallow Sivash Bay from it. The width of this flat sand-shell spit ranges from 270 meters in the southern and middle parts to 7 kilometers in the northern, where there are several small hills. The Arabat Spit is a huge natural beach. Parallel to it, a series of long shoals stretched. They are perfectly visible from the walls of the old Genoese fortress, located near the village of Arabat, or directly from the elevated native shore. In calm sunny weather, the greenish-blue waves of the sea with a slight noise gently run onto the sandy-shell beach and the light foam of the surf borders it, like a narrow white lace. Rolling on the wing, white-winged gulls glide low over the water. In the distance, on the spit, salt extracted from Sivash dazzlingly shines under the rays of the hot sun. The Sea of Azov is beautiful even in a storm. When the fierce nordost blows, it darkens, becomes severe. With an angry noise, boiling with white foam, steep-walled waves fall on the shores. You can spend hours admiring the foamy expanse of the sea, the swift running and the stormy surf of the waves of the Sea of Azov.
Any person who has visited the Sea of Azov will forever have memories of its discreet, but soul-stirring beauty.
Hot mineral waters have been discovered on the Arabat Spit, which are superior to Matsesta in their chemical composition and medicinal properties. Based on these healing waters, it is planned to create new resort- Azov Matsesta.
Southern coast of the Sea of Azov
The southern coast of the Sea of Azov is represented by the territory of the Kerch and Taman peninsulas, between which the Kerch Strait is located, connecting the Azov and Black Sea. The Kerch Peninsula is the eastern tip of Crimea. Its area is about 3 thousand square kilometers. In the bowels of the peninsula, large deposits of iron ores have been discovered that feed the metallurgy of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, oil and natural gas. The northern and northeastern parts of the Kerch Peninsula are composed of marls, clays, limestones; Tertiary sandstones occur in places. The western part of the Kerch Peninsula is flat, the eastern part is hilly. Within the limits of the peninsula, the southern coast of the Sea of Azov for the most part breaks off steeply into the sea, leaving only a narrow strip of the beach. In some places, the steep banks are composed of bryozoan limestones, which staunchly resist the onslaught of sea waves. Such, for example, is Cape Kazantip, at the base of which lies a bryozoan reef - an atoll. To the west of this cape is Arabatsky Bay, to the east - Kazantipsky. To the east of Cape Kazantip stretches a low-lying alluvial stretch of coast. The shores of both bays are composed of soft clayey rocks. South of Cape Kazantip - Aktash salt lake. This is a relic lake. It is a remnant of the Kazantip Bay, which once jutted far into the land.
In the middle of the Kerch Peninsula, a low Parpach ridge stretches from west to east. Between this ridge and the coast of the Sea of Azov there is a wide longitudinal valley. In its lower parts there are salt lakes, and in particular Lake Chokrakskoye, known for its healing properties, as well as a number of mud volcanoes.
To the east of the Kazantip Bay, near the Kerch Strait, the coast of the Sea of Azov is calmer, here it is characterized by capes composed of hard bryozoan limestones, for example, capes Zyuk, Tarkhan and others.
The Kerch Strait, which connects the Black and Azov Seas, is shallow and relatively narrow. Its width ranges from 4 to 15 kilometers. The length of the strait is 41 kilometers. The depth is about 4 meters.
In ancient times, the Kerch Strait was called the Cimmerian Bosporus. The name itself contains a hint of the shallowness of the strait, since the “bosporus” in translation into Russian means “bull ford”.
The Crimean coast of the strait is steep in places. In its northern part is the port city of Kerch.
The Caucasian coast of the Kerch Strait is low, sandy, sometimes with dunes. The fairway of the strait is cluttered with reefs, sandbars and coastal shoals, which previously hampered navigation. Now a channel has been dug in the strait for the passage of ships with a large draft.
Taman Peninsula, which is part of Krasnodar Territory, covers an area of approximately 1900 square kilometers. Of these, a little more than 900 square meters fall on land. kilometers, and the rest of the territory - estuaries and plavni.
Its nature is unique. From a geological point of view, this is a young peninsula, since it was formed in the Quaternary period. Back in the 1st century AD. in its place there were about five islands, the transformation of which into a peninsula occurred, apparently, in the 5th century AD. under the influence of the accumulative activity of the Kuban River, mud volcanoes and tectonic uplifts. The formation of the Taman Peninsula continues to this day.
The surface of the peninsula is a hilly plain with low domed elevations, elongated in the form of interrupted ridges from the southwest to the northeast. Scattered almost everywhere mud volcanoes and ancient cemeteries - barrows. The landscape is enlivened by numerous estuaries. The floodplains, overgrown with reeds and sedge, are also widespread.
The Taman Peninsula contains in its bowels such natural resources as oil, combustible gases, iron ores, salt, building materials in the form of limestone, clay and gravel.
The climate of the peninsula is moderately warm. The sun generously supplies it with the warmth of its rays, but there is little precipitation here - only 436 millimeters per year - and therefore there is a lack of moisture.
On the peninsula - fertile chernozem-like and chestnut soils, covered with drought-resistant steppe, and along the valley of the Kuban River - with floodplain vegetation.
The shores of the Taman Peninsula are quite diverse, but two types of shores prevail: high, steep - abrasion, that is, formed as a result of the destructive work of sea waves, and low, flat - accumulative. The latter were formed from sandy-argillaceous deposits as a result of the activity of sea waves and currents.
The shore of the Taman Bay, from Cape Tuzla up to the village of Taman, is elevated and steep. On average, its height here ranges from 15 to 30 meters. To the east of the village of Taman, the coast goes down and remains low throughout the southern and east coast bay. Only in some places there are steep cliffs, and then often due to the cultural layer of ancient Phanagoria.
The northern shore of the bay is also elevated and in some places abruptly breaks off to the sea.
Spit Chushka, composed largely of quartz sand and broken shells, has low banks.
Further to the east, the coast of the Taman Peninsula is high (up to 50-60 meters above the level of the Sea of Azov) and often has a stepped landslide character. It is composed mainly of loess-like clay and is bordered by a strip of beach, consisting of sandy-clay deposits, in places with an admixture of shells, pebbles and rubble.
Then, up to the village of Golubitskaya, the shore of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov either lowers or rises again, but, starting from this village, it becomes low, and in the area of the delta of the Kuban River it acquires a swampy character.
It is interesting to note that in the area of the village of Kuchugury on the low coast of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, eolian landforms are observed in the form of low (1-3 meters) sandy mounds - dunes formed under the influence of northern winds.
An attraction of the Taman Peninsula are mud volcanoes (salses), of which there are up to 25. Many of them look like low cones with truncated tops. Some salsas are temporarily inactive. The rest emit dirt and gases such as methane, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen.
Eruptions of mud volcanoes are usually calm and quiet, but sometimes they resemble eruptions of real volcanoes, as they are accompanied by an explosion, and then the products of volcanic activity are scattered hundreds of meters from the crater, and liquid mud forms large streams.
A very interesting phenomenon is represented by mud volcanoes at the bottom of the Sea of Azov near the shores of the Taman Peninsula. So, intense mud volcanic activity was observed near the village of Golubitskaya. One of the eruptions was noted on September 6, 1799. An underground rumble was heard, then a deafening crack was heard and over the sea, 300 meters from the shore, a column of fire and black smoke rose. The eruption continued for about two hours, leading to the formation of an island of mud with a diameter of over 100 meters and a height of up to 2 meters. A few months later, he disappeared, washed out by the waves of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov.
Similar eruptions were repeated later - in 1862, 1906, 1924, 1950 and 1952. In 1952, to the west of the village of Golubitskaya, 5 kilometers from the coast, also as a result of mud volcanic activity, a mud island was formed, which was later washed away by the waves of the Sea of Azov.
Eastern coast of the Sea of Azov
The eastern shore of the Sea of Azov, from Temryuk to Primorsko-Akhtarsk, for about 100 kilometers, is a low-lying delta of the Kuban River with numerous estuaries, channels, extensive floodplains overgrown with reeds and sedge. The Kuban River, originating from the glaciers of Mount Elbrus, is one of the largest and most abundant rivers. North Caucasus. Its length is 870 kilometers. The catchment area is 57,900 square kilometers. Its delta was formed on the site of the Gulf of the Sea of Azov, deeply protruding into the land. Tens of thousands of years ago, this bay extended to the place where Krasnodar is now located. The huge lagoon was separated from the sea by an embankment and then gradually filled with river sediments. A certain role in the formation of the southwestern part of the delta was also played by the activity of mud volcanoes (salses) of the Taman Peninsula, which at that time still had the appearance of an archipelago of small islands. The eruptions of mud volcanoes brought channels between the islands and, along with river sediments, gradually filled the lagoon.
The formation of the delta continues in our time, and it experiences subsidence, which at Achuev is 5-6 millimeters per year, and in other places of the delta - 3 millimeters per year.
The Kuban River annually discharges into the Sea of Azov an average of 11.4 billion cubic meters of water, containing in total over 3 million tons of dissolved substances and a lot of turbidity. The water in the river is muddy all year round, but it carries a lot of sediment during the period of floods, which in the Kuban are observed on average 6-7 per year. The total amount of solids carried by the river (the so-called solid runoff) is 8.7 million tons per year. Over 52,000 freight wagons would be required to transport such a load. Due to these sediments, the Kuban delta is growing. Now the Kuban delta, covering an area of 4,300 square kilometers, begins at the so-called Raz-der, near the city of Slavyansk, where an arm of the Protoka separates from the Kuban to the right (to the north). The latter carries about 40-50% of the Kuban water and flows into the Sea of Azov near Achuev.
Below the Protoka, not far from the mouth, the Kuban is still divided into a number of branches, of which the largest are the Petrushin sleeve and the Cossack erik. The Petrushin branch, representing here the main navigable channel of the Kuban River, goes past Temryuk and flows into the Sea of Azov.
Cossack erik is the left-bank branch of the Kuban, it carries its waters to the large Akhtanizovsky estuary, which has a connection with the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov through the Peresyp arm.
The modern delta of the Kuban River is a whole labyrinth of shallow lakes or estuaries, interconnected by channels, or, in the local language, eriks, which form bizarre loops between low-lying areas of swampy land.
In the Kuban Delta, vast areas are occupied by floodplains that stretch for tens of kilometers. The floodplains of the Kuban delta, adjacent to the Sea of Azov, are called the Sea of Azov. They are divided by the Protoka river into two massifs: the Azov floodplains proper in the western part and the Angelino-Cheburgolsky in the eastern part.
The Azov floodplains are bizarre labyrinths of swamps and estuaries of various sizes with fresh, semi-salty and salt water, overgrown with surface and underwater vegetation. The former is dominated by reeds, reeds, sedges, cattails and burdocks. Underwater, or “soft” vegetation of estuaries is charophytes, pondweeds, hornwort, water lilies, etc.
In the Azov estuaries there are thickets of a wonderful plant - lotus. During the flowering period, large pink flowers of amazing beauty rise on stems above the spreading emerald leaves, spreading a strong aroma. This tropical newcomer, brought to us from Africa, is a useful medicinal and food plant.
The estuaries of the Kuban delta are rich in fish. More than 70 species of fish are found here, including ram, bream, pike perch, shad, sprat, carp weighing up to 15 kilograms, catfish weighing up to 100 kilograms.
To the north of Primorsko-Akhtarsk, up to the Don delta, floodplains are found only in the mouths of the Azov steppe rivers - Beisug and Chelbas.
The shores of the Sea of Azov are represented in this area by low and gently sloping sandbars, but for the most part the coast here is steep or steeply descending to the sea. It is complex, like the coastal plain, with loess and loess-like loams and clays of the late glacial period. Loess is a rock that is easily washed away by waves, and therefore the seashore here is quickly destroyed. The average rate of destruction along the entire coast is 3 meters per year. Maximum up to 18 meters. The soils of this part of the Sea of Azov are represented by fertile chernozems, calcareous Western Ciscaucasian. Previously, this whole area was a feather-grass-forb steppe, on which herds of wild tarpan horses and herds of swift-footed saigas grazed. There were even moose. Now these lands are plowed up, and in the summer an boundless yellow-green sea of \u200b\u200bcorn sways here, fields of corn and sunflowers are spread out.
In addition to the Kuban River, such steppe rivers (counting from south to north) flow into the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov from the east, such as Kirpili, pouring their waters into the Kirpilsky estuary; Beisug, which flows into the Beisug estuary; Chelbas, flowing into the sweet estuary; Eya, which carries water to the large Yeisk estuary, and, finally, the small rivers Wet Chuburka and Kagalnik, which flow directly into the Sea of Azov.
A characteristic feature of the landscape of the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, as noted above, is the presence of numerous estuaries.
Don Delta
In its northeastern part, the Sea of Azov forms a vast, strongly elongated Taganrog Bay, into which one of the largest rivers in the European part of Russia, the Don, flows. Its length is 1870 kilometers, and the catchment area is 422,000 square kilometers. Don annually takes out to the sea an average of about 28.6 cubic kilometers of water. Significant masses of river water greatly desalinate the Taganrog Bay, and the sediment carried by the river shallows it and leads to the growth of the Don Delta, which covers an area of 340 square kilometers. The modern Don delta begins 6 kilometers below Rostov-on-Don, where the non-navigable branch of the Dead Donets separates from the river to the right.
There is always a lot of activity on the Don River; various and numerous ships float up and down the stream. The calm expanse of the mighty river is cut through by passenger ships, cargo ships and fishing boats.
Below the village of Elizavetinskaya, the Don begins to wind strongly along a wide low-lying valley, breaking up into numerous branches and channels, which, in the local language, are called eriks. There are more and more of these branches and eriks as we approach the Sea of Azov.
The landscape here is unique. Everywhere you can see islands slightly rising above the water with intricately indented shores, covered with dense thickets of reeds. Islets close to the sea are constantly flooded with sea water, the vegetation on them is scarce or completely absent. With strong western winds, the waters of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov rush to the mouth of the Don, prop up the river waters, the Don overflows its banks, flooding not only the delta, but also the site almost 100 kilometers upstream.
East winds blowing downstream of the Don have the opposite effect. There is a surge of water, and sometimes so strong that not only the branches of the river, but also the Taganrog Bay become shallow, which disrupts normal navigation. The amplitude of surge phenomena is +3, -2 meters.
The Don brings to the Sea of Azov an average of about 14 million tons of river sediment and about 9.5 million tons of dissolved minerals. Due to sediments, the Don Delta is growing, gradually moving further and further into the sea at a speed of about 1 kilometer per century.
Northern coast of the Sea of Azov
The northern coast of the Sea of Azov stretched from the mouth of the Don to the city of Genichesk. A number of small rivers flow into the Sea of Azov in this section. Originating in the spurs of the Donetsk Ridge, the rivers Mius and Kalmius carry their waters to the sea. Originating on the low Azov Upland, the rivers Berdya, Obitochnaya, Korsak and a number of small rivers that dry up in summer flow into the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. The northern coast is characterized by the presence of a number of sand spits, elongated mainly from the north and northeast to the south and southwest, and the spits bend to the west with their ends, for example, Curve, Belosaraiskaya, Berdyanskaya.
Between the spits and the native coast of the Sea of Azov, bays and estuaries are formed, for example, Berdyansk and Obitochny. If we exclude alluvial spits, then the rest of the northern shore of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov is a flat steppe, for the most part descending to the sea by a cliff. The spits and the narrow coastal strip of the Sea of Azov are composed mainly of Quaternary marine deposits. To the north, the plain is composed of loess, loess-like loams and clays of the late glacial period. Fertile chernozems have developed on these rocks. Even in the last century, boundless feather grass-forb steppes stretched here, and in the western half - feather grass-fescue steppes. Tarpans, feral camels grazed in them, and even earlier there were even noble deer and elks. There were beavers in the rivers. During the flowering period, these steppes, according to N.V. Gogol, represented a green-golden ocean, over which millions of flowers splashed. However, such steppes have long disappeared, they are almost completely plowed up. They were replaced by endless fields of wheat, corn, sunflowers, orchards and vineyards.
Sea of Azov - water
The hydrochemical features of the Sea of Azov are formed primarily under the influence of an abundant inflow of river waters (up to 12% of the water volume) and difficult water exchange with the Black Sea. The salinity of the Sea of Azov before the regulation of the Don was three times less than the average salinity of the ocean. Its value on the surface varied from 1 ppm at the mouth of the Don to 10.5 ppm in the central part of the sea and 11.5 ppm near the Kerch Strait. After the creation of the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric complex, the salinity of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov began to increase (up to 13 ppm in the central part). Average seasonal fluctuations in salinity rarely reach 1%.
Water contains little salt. For this reason, the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov freezes easily, and therefore, before the advent of icebreakers, it was not navigable from December to mid-April.
During the 20th century, almost everything is more or less major rivers, flowing into the Sea of Azov, were blocked by dams to create reservoirs. This led to a significant reduction in the discharge of fresh water and silt into the Sea of Azov.
Water regime of the Sea of Azov
The water regime of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov depends mainly on the influx of fresh river water, precipitation over the sea and the salt water of the Black Sea entering it, on the one hand, and on the flow of water from the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov for evaporation and runoff through the Kerch Strait into the Black Sea - with another. The water balance of the Sea of Azov is as follows. Don, Kuban and other rivers flowing into the Sea of Azov bring 38.8 cubic kilometers of water. The average long-term volume of atmospheric precipitation on its surface is 13.8 cubic kilometers. 31.2 cubic kilometers of Black Sea water flows through the Kerch Strait annually, in addition, 0.3 cubic kilometers of water enters the sea through the Thin Strait from Sivash. The total inflow of water is only 84.1 cubic kilometers. The flow of water from the Sea of Azov consists of 35.3 cubic kilometers of evaporation from its surface, 47.4 cubic kilometers of flow through the Kerch Strait into the Black Sea, and 1.4 cubic kilometers of flow through the Thin Strait into Sivash. The total discharge of the waters of the Sea of Azov is also 84.1 cubic kilometers. With a small size, the Sea of Azov receives a relatively large amount of river water, the amount of which is about 12% of its volume. The ratio of river runoff to the volume of the Sea of Azov is the largest of all the seas of the globe. The excess of the inflow of river and atmospheric waters over evaporation from the sea surface would lead to its increasing desalination and increase in its level if there were no water exchange with the Black Sea. As a result of this water exchange, salinity was established in the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, favorable for valuable commercial fish to live in it.
Oxygen regime
Due to the shallowness of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, its waters, as already noted, usually mix well, therefore oxygen is present in sufficient quantities in the entire water column. The content of dissolved oxygen reaches 7-8 cubic centimeters per liter. However, in the summer, there is often a lack of oxygen. This is due to a number of factors. Of great importance is the slowing down of the vertical circulation of water in hot summers with calm, when the upper, somewhat desalinated layer of sea water becomes lighter than those lying deeper, and there is no excitement. This prevents aeration of the lower horizons. Favorable conditions for the occurrence of oxygen deficiency are also created by silt deposits rich in organic matter. If, after considerable excitement, comes calm weather, then the disturbed particles of silt are suspended in the near-bottom layer of water for a long time and a lot of oxygen is spent on the oxidation of organic substances.
The lack of oxygen causes the phenomenon of the so-called "zamora", that is, the death of part of the animals of the sea that inhabit the bottom and the water column.
Chemical composition
A large influx of river waters into the Sea of Azov and its difficult water exchange with the Black Sea are reflected in the chemical composition of the Azov water. The Don, Kuban and other rivers flowing into the Sea of Azov bring into it over 15 million tons of salts, which are dominated by HCO3, SO4 and Ca ions. More than 760 thousand tons of salts enter the sea with atmospheric precipitation, with almost the same ratio of ions as in river waters. But water rich in Cl, Na, and K ions comes from the Black Sea. It brings over 556 million tons of salts to the Sea of Azov. Yes, salt water from the Sivash brings about 6 million tons of salts. As a result of mixing these waters of different composition and the removal of more than 570 million tons of salts from the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov to the Black and Sivash forms the modern chemical composition of the waters of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov.On average, the surface layers of the waters of the open part of the sea contain the following number of ions (in grams per 1 kilogram of water): sodium - 3.496, potassium - 0.132, magnesium - 0.428, calcium - 0.172, chlorine - 6.536, bromine - 0.021, sulfate ion - 0.929, bicarbonate ion - 0.169, and a total of 11.885.
A comparison of the waters of the Sea of Azov and the ocean shows the similarity of their chemical composition. In the water of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, chlorides predominate, as in the ocean. But unlike ocean water, the salinity of the Sea of Azov is much lower and the constancy of the ratio of the main salt-forming elements characteristic of the ocean is somewhat disturbed. In particular, compared with the ocean, the relative content of calcium, carbonates and sulfates in the Azov water is increased, and chlorine, sodium and potassium is reduced.
At present, the salinity of the Azov waters is distributed as follows. At the depths of the Kerch region of the Sea of Azov, where more salty Black Sea water enters, salinity reaches 17.5%. The entire central part of the sea is very uniform in salinity, here it is 12-12.5%. Only a small area here has a salinity of 13°/oo. In the Taganrog Bay, salinity decreases to 1.3% towards the mouth of the Don.
In spring and early summer, due to the melting of ice and a large influx of river water, salinity decreases. In autumn and winter, it is almost the same from the surface to the bottom of the sea for a long distance. The highest salinity is observed in a separate shallow bay of the Sea of Azov Sivash, the lowest - in the Taganrog Bay. In addition to minerals, the waters of the Sea of Azov contain many biogenic elements (that is, elements of organic origin) brought into the sea mainly by rivers. These elements include phosphorus, nitrogen and silicon. Scientists have calculated that the rivers and waters of the Black Sea and atmospheric precipitation bring 17139 tons of phosphorus, 75316 tons of nitrogen and 119694 tons of silicon to the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. Some of these substances are taken out to the Black Sea, some are withdrawn from the sea along with the caught fish, but most of them are deposited in the soil at the bottom of the Sea of Azov. So, about 13 thousand tons of phosphorus, about 31 thousand tons of nitrogen and over 82 thousand tons of silicon are deposited.
The richness of the Sea of Azov in biogenic substances creates favorable conditions for the development of life in this sea. This is due to shallow water, high biological productivity. All this creates favorable conditions for recovery processes.
Sea of Azov - climate and temperature regime
The climate of the Sea of Azov is significantly influenced by the vast steppes surrounding it in southern Ukraine, Ciscaucasia and Crimea with their rather dry climate. In the Sea of Azov, the average July temperatures range from +22 to +24°, January temperatures from 0 to +6°, and the average annual precipitation is 300-500 mm.
Of course, the Sea of Azov also has a certain positive effect on the climate of the territories surrounding it, going towards a softening of continentality. However, due to the small area of the Sea of Azov, this influence is not particularly strong and affects mainly the coastal areas, not extending far into the depths of the wall spaces.
In relation to major meteorological processes, the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov is in unfavorable conditions, namely: in winter, a front of increased atmospheric pressure passes to the north of it (the so-called “Voyeikov axis”), from which cold continental air rushes to the sea, which leads to freezing of the Azov Sea. seas.
Eastern and northeastern winds blow over the Sea of Azov in winter, and southern, southwestern and western winds blow in summer, usually associated with the passage of subtropical cyclones and the establishment of a monsoon stream from the Atlantic Ocean.
In summer, when the barometric pressure regime is set close to normal or slightly higher than normal, and cyclones pass less frequently, local circulation develops in the sea in the form of breezes, that is, winds blowing from the sea to land during the day, and from land to sea at night.
The Sea of Azov is characterized by relatively cold but short winters, mild summers with even temperature distribution, warm autumns compared to spring, and high relative air humidity. The average annual air temperature in the Sea of Azov ranges from +9 to +11°. In summer, the temperature for all areas is almost the same. The maximum temperature in July is +35 - +40°. The transition from summer to winter is gradual. The first frosts in the Taganrog Bay on the northern coast come in October, and in the southern part of the sea - in the first half of November. In winter, the temperature can drop to -25 - -30°, and only in the Kerch region does frost usually not exceed -8° (although in some years it can also reach -25 - -30°). In the coldest month of the year, in January, average monthly temperature air at sea ranges from -1° on the southern coast of the Sea of Azov to -6° on the north.
Relative humidity in the Sea of Azov is high all year round. Even in the warmest months, it averages at least 75-85%.
Frequent winds increase evaporation, which for the entire Sea of Azov is about 1000 millimeters per year.
The lowest temperatures of the surface water layer are observed in the northern and eastern parts of the Sea of Azov. Winter temperatures - for December-February here range from 0 to +1°, summer - for July-August - from +22 to +25°. The temperature of the surface layer of the Sea of Azov in the western and southern coastal regions is higher and fluctuates from 0 to +3°C in winter, and rises to +26°C in summer.
The average annual water temperature of the Sea of Azov in the north is +11°, and in the south about +12°. In summer, the sea warms up very strongly and often near the coast the water temperature reaches + 30 - + 32 °, and in the middle part + 24 - + 25 °. In winter, when the water cools below zero, the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov is covered with ice. Freezing in other years lasts 4-4.5 months, from December to March. The thickness of the ice reaches 80-90 cm. First of all, ice appears in the Taganrog Bay, then in the Utlyuk, Yeysk, Beisug and Akhtar estuaries.
The coastal parts of the Sea of Azov and the Taganrog Bay are covered with a continuous ice cover. In the central part of the Sea of Azov and in the Kerch region, ice is floating.
Sea of Azov - wildlife
Along the banks of rivers and reservoirs, on the spits of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov there are a lot of waterfowl - geese, ducks, steppe waders, lapwings, red-breasted geese, mute swans, curlews, black-headed gulls, gull-gulls, ferns. The marsh turtle, lake frog, pond frog, some mollusks - coil, pond snail, meadow grass, crayfish and about 30 species of fish live in steppe reservoirs.
The catch of fish per hectare of the surface in the Sea of Azov is 80 kilograms, for comparison, in the Black Sea - 2 kilograms, in the Mediterranean - 0.5 kilograms.
The Sea of Azov is called sea of shellfish. It is an important food source for fish. The most important representatives of molluscs are the cockle, sendesmia, mussel.
In terms of biological productivity, the Sea of Azov ranks first in the world. The most developed are phytoplankton and benthos. Phytoplankton consists (in%) of: diatoms - 55, peridinium - 41.2, and blue-green algae - 2.2. Among the biomass of benthos, mollusks occupy a dominant position. Their skeletal remains, represented by calcium carbonate, have a significant share in the formation of modern bottom sediments and accumulative surface bodies.
The ichthyofauna is of particular interest. More than 70 species of various fish live directly in the Sea of Azov, including: beluga, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, flounder, mullet, tyulka, anchovy, ram, fish, shemaya, various types of gobies.
Tyulka is the most numerous fish in the Sea of Azov, its catch in some years reached 120 thousand tons. If we distribute all the Azov seals among 6.5 billion inhabitants of the planet, then each will get 15 fish.
In the Sea of Azov and in the mouths of the rivers flowing into it, as well as in the estuaries, there are 114 species and subspecies of fish.
The following groups of fish are distinguished:
Fish spawning in floodplains (migratory fish) - sturgeons (beluga, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, fish, shemaya). These are the most valuable species of commercial fish.
Fish spawning in the lower reaches of the rivers (semi-anadromous fish) - pike perch, bream, ram, carp.
Fish that do not leave the sea area (marine) - sprat, goby, flounder.
Fish migrating to the Black Sea (marine) - anchovy, herring.
Among the Azov fish there are predators - pike perch, sterlet, beluga. But the bulk of the fish feed on plankton - sprat, anchovy, goby, bream. In the late 60-70s, the salinity of the sea reached 14% due to the arrival of the Black Sea waters, along with which jellyfish entered the sea, the main diet of which is also plankton.
It is interesting to see how the number of Mediterranean animal and plant species decreases from west to east. More than 6,000 species of organisms are found in the Mediterranean Sea, 1,500 in the Black Sea, 200 in the Azov Sea, 28 in the Caspian Sea, and only 2 species of Mediterranean organisms in the Aral Sea. This suggests that these seas gradually separated from the Mediterranean Sea in the distant past.
Mullet, herring and anchovies in the spring they go from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov for feeding. In autumn, when the water temperature drops to 6°, the fish returns to the Black Sea. Sturgeon fish spawn in the rivers Don, Kuban, Dnieper.
flounder- flat fish, often lying on the ground, are distinguished by the ability to quickly change color to match the color of the underlying surface. In the skin of a flounder there are separate colored cells that, when moving, change its color. Scientists put colored glasses on flounders, and the fish tried to copy the color of their glasses. Interestingly, blind flounders are always black. They seem to see darkness in front of them and accordingly change the color of the body. For some reason, flounder is considered one-eyed. This is not true, she actually has two eyes. The weight of a flounder is up to 15 kilograms, it lives up to 25 years. Interestingly, its fry have a body shape flattened in a vertical plane; gradually one side of the body of the fish begins to develop faster than the other, and the flounder, as it were, lies on its side.
Beluga besides heavy weight differ in longevity. They live 70 - 80 years. True, compared with a pike living up to 200 years, and sea turtle living 400 - 500 years, the age of the beluga is small, but compared to the life expectancy of other marine fish, it is still significant. Probably, not many people know that the age of fish is determined by the scales and by the cut of the bones. On these parts of the body of the fish there are annual rings, the same as on trees. Beluga spawns in the same rivers as other sturgeons. Their caviar is highly valued.
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The Sea of Azov is located in the south of the European part of Russia. It is connected by a narrow (up to 4 km) and shallow (4–3 m) Kerch Strait with.
The Sea of Azov is the shallowest and one of the smallest seas in the world. Its area is 39 thousand km2, the volume of water is 290 km3, the average depth is 7 m, and the maximum depth is 15 m.
The sea has a relatively simple outline. The northern coast is flat, steep, with alluvial sand spits. In the west, it separates from the sea a bay, which is connected to the sea by the Genik Strait. In the southeast, the delta of the Kuban River stretches for 100 km with extensive floodplains and numerous channels. The Kuban River flows into the Temryuk Bay. In the northeast, the largest bay of the sea, Taganrog, juts out into the land for 140 km, the top of which is the delta of the Don River.
Shallow shores of the sea pass into a flat flat bottom. Depths gradually increase with distance from the coast. The greatest depths are in the central part of the sea, the depths in the Taganrog Bay are from 2 to 9 m. Mud volcanoes are known in the Temryuk Bay.
Almost all river runoff into the sea (more than 90%) comes from the Don and Kuban rivers. The vast majority of runoff falls on the spring-summer season.
The main exchange of the waters of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov occurs through the Kerch Strait with. According to long-term average data, about 49 km3 of water annually flows out of the Sea of Azov as surface runoff. The resulting runoff of water from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea is about 15 km3/year.
The climate of the Sea of Azov, deeply penetrating into the land, is continental. It is characterized by cold winters, dry and hot summers. In the autumn-winter season, the weather is determined by the influence of the spur of the Siberian anticyclone with a predominance of eastern and northeastern winds at a speed of 4–7 m/s. Strengthening the impact of this spur causes strong winds (up to 15 m/s) and is accompanied by cold air intrusions. The average monthly temperature in January is –1…–5°С, during northeastern storms it drops to –25…–27°С.
Warm, clear weather with light winds prevails in spring and summer. In July, the average monthly temperature throughout the sea is 23–25°С, and the maximum temperature is over 30°С. During this season, especially in spring, Mediterranean cyclones quite often pass over the sea, accompanied by western and southwestern winds at a speed of 4–6 m/s, and sometimes squalls.
The main types of bottom sediments common in the Sea of Azov are silts, silts, sands, shell rocks and sediments of a mixed type.
Silts accumulate in the deepest parts, in a hydrodynamically calm environment and occupy the maximum areas of distribution. Silts are transitional varieties bordering the central part of the reservoir and accumulating at a slight distance from the shore and in the apex of the Taganrog Bay. Sands and shell rocks are most widespread on accumulative forms, sand and shell banks, as well as spits and beaches.
The small size and shallow depths of the sea contribute to rapid development wind waves. A few hours after the start of the wind, the wave reaches a steady state and just as quickly fades when the wind stops. The waves are short, steep, in the open sea they reach a height of 1–2 m, sometimes up to 3 m.
Interannual fluctuations in sea level, determined by long-term changes in the components of the water balance, are several centimeters. Seasonal level changes mainly depend on the mode. The annual course of the level is characterized by its increase in the spring-summer months and decrease in autumn and winter, the range of fluctuations is on average 20 cm.
The winds prevailing over the sea cause significant surge fluctuations in the level. The most significant level rises were noted in Taganrog - up to 6 m.
With sharp changes in the wind in the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, seiches can occur - free standing fluctuations in the level. In the water areas of ports, seiches are excited with periods of several hours.
Currents in the sea are excited mainly by the wind. The slope of the level, created as a result of the action of the wind, causes compensatory currents. In the pre-estuary areas of the Don and Kuban rivers, runoff currents are traced.
Under the action of the western and south-western winds, a clockwise circulation of waters is formed in the sea. Cyclonic circulation is also excited by easterly and northeasterly winds, which are stronger in the northern part of the sea. With the same winds, but stronger in the southern part of the sea, the currents have an anticyclonic character. With weak winds and calm, slight currents of variable directions are noted.
Since weak and moderate winds prevail over the sea, currents with speeds up to 10 cm/s have the highest frequency. At strong winds (15–20 m/s), the current velocities are 60–70 cm/s.
In the Kerch Strait, with northern winds, a current from the Sea of Azov is observed, and with winds with a southern component, Black Sea water enters the sea. The prevailing current velocities in the strait increase from 10–20 to 30–40 cm/s in its narrowest part. After strong winds, compensatory currents develop in the strait.
Ice forms annually on the Sea of Azov, and the ice coverage strongly depends on the nature of winter. In moderate winters, by the beginning of December, ice forms in the Taganrog Bay. During December, fast ice is established along the northern coast of the sea, and a little later - along the other coasts. The width of the fast ice strip is from 1.5 km in the south to 6 km in the north. In the central part of the sea, only at the end of January - beginning of February, floating ice appears, which then freezes into ice fields of high density (9–10 points). The ice cover reaches its maximum development in the first half of February, when its thickness is 30–40 cm, in the Taganrog Bay - 60–80 cm.
Ice conditions during the winter are unstable. When changing cold and warm air masses and wind fields over the sea, ice fields are repeatedly broken and drifted, and hummocks are formed. In mild winters, the central part of the sea is usually free of ice; ice is observed only along the coast, in bays and estuaries.
Clearing of the sea from ice in moderate winters occurs during March, first in the southern regions and estuaries, then in the north and last of all in the Taganrog Bay. The average duration of the ice period is 4.5 months.
In winter, almost throughout the entire water area, the water temperature on the surface is negative or close to zero, only near the Kerch Strait it rises to 1–3°C. In summer, throughout the sea, the temperature on the surface is uniform - 24–25 ° С. The maximum values in July-August in the open sea reach 28°C, and near the coast they can exceed 30°C.
The shallowness of the sea contributes to the rapid spread of wind and convective mixing to the bottom, which leads to the alignment of the vertical temperature distribution: its difference in most cases does not exceed 1°C. However, in summer, when there is calm, a layer of temperature jump is formed, which limits the exchange with the bottom layers.
The spatial distribution of salinity under conditions of natural inflow of river waters was rather uniform, horizontal gradients were observed only in the Taganrog Bay, at the outlet of which salinity 6–8‰ prevailed. In the water area high seas salinity was within 10–11‰. Vertical gradients were observed sporadically in almost all areas, mainly due to the inflow of Black Sea waters. Seasonal changes did not exceed 1‰, only in the Taganrog Bay they increased under the influence of the intra-annual runoff distribution.
Hydrocarbon fields of the Sea of Azov
Two areas are distinguished in the Sea of Azov: the oil and gas Indolo-Kuban, which corresponds to the trough of the same name in the structure of the basement and sedimentary cover, and the gas-bearing West Ciscaucasian, which includes almost the entire rest of the water area, with the exception of the eastern part of the Taganrog Bay. The latter is assigned to the Central Ciscaucasian gas-bearing region.
The oil and gas potential of the Sea of Azov is associated with a wide range of deposits. It includes pre-Cretaceous (Triassic) deposits of the transitional (intermediate) complex and Cretaceous-Cenozoic sequences of the sedimentary cover of the Scythian plate. According to the data of deep exploratory drilling and well testing, five oil and gas bearing and promising complexes have been identified in the water area: pre-Cretaceous, Lower Cretaceous, Upper Cretaceous-Eocene, Maikop and Middle Miocene-Pliocene. At the same time, industrial productivity was established only in the deposits of the Maikop series and the Middle-Upper Miocene, in which gas deposits were discovered.
In the West Ciscaucasian region, in the zone of the Azov swell, Maikop deposits are productive in the Morskaya, Small, West-Beisugskaya, Beisugskaya and Strelkovaya areas. The gas content of the Middle-Upper Miocene deposits was established in the Obruchevskaya, Signalnaya, Zapadno-Beisugskaya and Oktyabrskaya areas. It should be noted that in the Beisugskaya area, which is, as it were, the boundary between the local uplifts of the Azov and Kanevsko-Berezansky swells, the main gas reserves are associated with the Eocene sandy-clayey formations of the Tikhoretskaya and Cherkasskaya formations; Lower Cretaceous deposits are also productive, although their gas reserves are insignificant.
In the offshore part of the Indolo-Kuban region, industrial gas content has been established in the Middle Miocene clay-carbonate formations in the Severo-, Severo-Bulganakskaya, Severo- and Vostochno- and Seismic exploration areas.
All gas deposits identified in the water area are located in the depth interval of 300–1500 m, reservoir pressures in them are close to hydrostatic ones, the initial well flow rates are small and amount to a few tens of thousands of m3/day.
The volume of predicted hydrocarbon resources in the Sea of Azov, estimated in 2002, amounted to about 1.5 billion tons of reference fuel (CF), including 757.4 million tons of fuel equivalent in the Russian sector of the Sea of Azov. Of these, in the Indolo-Kuban trough - 35.7 million tons of coal fuel, at the Timashovskaya step - 372.8 million tons of coal fuel, on the Azov swell - 342.1 million tons of coal fuel and in the North Azov trough - 6.9 million tons of coal fuel.
Until recently, the Sea of Azov was the most productive fishing reservoir in the world. The ichthyofauna of the Sea of Azov has a complex genesis and includes representatives of various faunal complexes - Mediterranean, Ponto-Caspian, boreal-Atlantic and freshwater. Currently, it includes 103 species and subspecies of fish. Of these, 14 species are rare, endangered and vulnerable - 7. The number of marine species is 39, freshwater - 8, anadromous and catadromous migrants - 14, brackish water - 42. The average catch per unit of its water area was 70–80 kg/ha. In the second half of the 1930s, the annual catches of “white” and “red” fish, together with herring, reached 140–170 thousand tons.
This was mainly determined by exceptionally favorable physical-geographical and, in particular, hydrometeorological conditions, which include:
- the inland location of the Sea of Azov in temperate latitudes on the southern margin of the Russian Plain;
- temperate continental climate;
- a large influx of total solar radiation (from 4.9 to 5.3 thousand MJ / m2), positive for the year, causing a relatively high average annual and summer (11.5 ° C and 24–25 ° C, respectively);
- the nature that determines, in particular, the intense wind mixing of waters;
- a large, relative to the volume of the sea, inflow of nutrient-rich river waters, which leads to a positive freshwater balance;
- reduced, approximately three times, in comparison with the waters of the ocean, salinity;
- high concentrations of biogenic salts in its waters (total nitrogen on average 1000 mg/m3, including mineral - 120 mg/m3; total phosphorus - 65 mg/m3, including mineral - 9 mg/m3; silicon - 570 mg/m3; m3).
To a large extent, the high fish productivity of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov was associated with the presence of huge areas (most of which are now lost as a result of hydraulic engineering), floodplain and estuary spawning grounds for anadromous and semi-anadromous fish, whose reproduction was ensured by a high and long spring (55% of the annual volume in the natural period and 29% in modern) or spring-summer flood.
Characterized by low inertia and rapid response to the variability of river runoff and processes that determine the large spatial and temporal variability of not only hydrophysical and parameters, but also biological characteristics.
At present, due to the impact of economic activity (mainly irrational fishing), commercial catches in the Azov Sea basin do not exceed 40 thousand tons, and the basis of the catches are only low-value fish species: sprat, anchovy, gobies, as well as an acclimatized species - pilengas. Such valuable fish species as sturgeon, herring, fish, shemaya, bream, carp, etc., which in the recent past formed the basis of fishing, have now almost completely lost their commercial value.
The regulation of the Don River in 1952 (the creation of the Tsimlyansk Reservoir), the reduction in runoff by 13–15 km3 per year, and other consequences of economic activity in the sea basin caused serious negative changes in the sea ecosystem.
The decrease in the annual runoff of the Don River by 30%, a significant reduction in the volume of floods caused a decrease in the area of spawning grounds, violated the conditions for the reproduction of freshwater species.
The amount and composition of biogenic substances entering the sea and their distribution throughout the year have changed greatly. Most of the suspended matter settles in the Tsimlyansk reservoir; their quantity introduced into the sea in spring and early summer has significantly decreased; the supply of mineral forms of phosphorus and nitrogen was reduced, and the number of organic forms, which are more difficult to assimilate by organisms, increased sharply. Nutrients reaching the sea are mainly consumed in the Taganrog Bay and are carried out to the open sea in small quantities.
The pollution of river and sea waters has increased with various harmful chemicals - phenols, in some areas of the sea - with oil products. The greatest pollution is observed in the mouth areas of the Don and Kuban rivers and in the water areas adjacent to large ports. These environmental changes have led to a sharp drop in the biological productivity of the sea. The forage base of fish has decreased several times, and the total catches, mainly of valuable fish species, have decreased.
The water management situation in the sea basin is very tense. Currently, an average of about 28 km3 of river water per year enters the sea. With such a volume of runoff, it is possible to maintain its salinity within 13–14‰. A further increase in water consumption in the basin of the reservoir is unacceptable, as this will cause an irreversible increase in salinity to the level of the Black Sea and will lead to a deterioration in the conditions for the habitat of the most valuable marine organisms.
The Sea of Azov, especially its Russian part, is a zone favorable for the accumulation of various pollutants, primarily because the bottom of this basin is almost completely covered with silts of various compositions that accumulate various pollutants. At the same time, most of the main sources of these pollutants are concentrated in the Russian part of this basin. These are, first of all, the large rivers Don and Kuban, as well as a number of port cities, among which there is such a large center as Rostov-on-Don. Almost all such sources are located in the Taganrog Bay, and Mariupol, which is one of the main polluters, is located on the territory, its influence is also felt in the Russian part of the bay. In addition, the Taganrog Bay has the largest length of abrasion shores in the Sea of Azov, many sections of which are subject to catastrophic erosion. Thus, the Taganrog Bay and its shores are the least ecologically stable in the entire Sea of Azov. Smaller pollution zones associated with the removal of pollutants from land are outlined on the pre-estuary seashore of the Kuban and at the mouth of its Ponura channel, where water comes from rice paddies.
An important place in the Sea of Azov in terms of the nature of pollution is occupied by a special strip of water area - the route of passage of ships from the Kerch Strait to the Taganrog Bay. The zone of Kuban floodplains from Primorsko-Akhtarsk to Temryuk is a special area in the sense of ecological danger on the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov. Over the past 100 years, this entire area has twice been subjected to catastrophic flooding during storm surges from the northwest.
Recreational resources
The total length of the Sea of Azov (within Russia) is about 1000 km and covers a vast territory within Rostov region and Krasnodar Territory. The coastal zone of the sea has favorable natural and climatic conditions for the development of recreational economy. Recreational resources of the flat territory and the Eastern Sea of Azov, of course, lose popular resorts the Black Sea, but upon closer examination, they can make a certain contribution to solving the problems of treatment and active rest population. At present, it is expedient to use the territory for the creation of recreational types of systems proper (that is, only for recreation), the organization of medical resort areas is possible only on the basis of deposits of mineral waters and therapeutic mud. Favorable natural conditions(sunshine, warm sea, sandy beaches, the presence of balneological sources) create a relatively favorable combination for the organization of recreation, tourism and, possibly, treatment, designed to meet the needs of various groups of the population. To improve the recreational qualities of the territory, it is necessary to resume work on the preparation of a regional program for recreational nature management, the creation of a network of medical and recreational enterprises that use the local natural potential and are designed primarily for local resident, as well as measures to develop norms and recommendations for the rational use of the coastal zone.
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The Sea of Azov is an inland sea in eastern Europe. This is the shallowest sea in the world, its depth does not exceed 13.5 meters. According to morphological features, it belongs to flat seas and is a shallow water body with low coastal slopes. The sea shores are mostly flat and sandy, only on the southern coast there are hills of volcanic origin, which in some places turn into steep frontal mountains. In terms of distance from the ocean, the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov is the continental sea of \u200b\u200bthe planet. The coastline is indented with bays and spits, the territory of which is a protected or resort-recreational area. The shores of the Sea of Azov are low-lying, composed of sand and shell deposits. The large rivers Don, Kuban and numerous small rivers Mius, Berda and others flow into the Sea of Azov.
SalinityThe salinity level of the Sea of Azov is formed primarily under the influence of an abundant influx of river waters (up to 12% of the volume of water) and difficult water exchange with the Black Sea. The water contains very little salt in the northern part of the Sea of Azov. For this reason, the sea freezes easily. In winter, partial or complete freezing is possible, while ice is carried into the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait.
The underwater relief of the sea is relatively simple. With distance from the shore, the depth slowly and smoothly increases, reaching 13 m in the central part of the sea. The main area of the bottom is characterized by depths of 5-13 m. The location of the isobaths, which is close to symmetrical, is disturbed by their slight elongation in the northeast towards the Taganrog Bay. The 5 m isobath is located about 2 km from the coast, moving away from it near the Taganrog Bay and in the bay itself near the mouth of the Don. In the Taganrog Bay, the depths increase from the mouth of the Don (2-3 m) towards the open part of the sea, reaching 8-9 m at the border of the bay with the sea. western (Sea and Arabat banks) coasts, the depths over which decrease from 8–9 to 3–5 m. The underwater coastal slope of the northern coast is characterized by wide shallow water (20–30 km) with depths of 6–7 m, underwater slope to depths of 11-13 m.
Sea currents are dependent on the very strong northeast and southwest winds blowing here and therefore change direction very often. The main current is a circular current along the shores of the Sea of Azov counterclockwise.
FaunaThe ichthyofauna of the Sea of Azov currently includes 103 species and subspecies of fish belonging to 76 genera, and is represented by anadromous, semi-anadromous, marine and freshwater species.
Anadromous species of fish feed in the sea until puberty, and enter the river only for spawning. The breeding period in the rivers and or on the sites usually does not exceed 1-2 months. Among the Azov anadromous fish there are the most valuable commercial species, such as beluga, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, herring, fish and shemaya.
Semi-anadromous species for breeding come from the sea into the rivers. However, in rivers they can linger for a longer time than anadromous (up to a year). As for the juveniles, they leave the spawning grounds very slowly and often stay in the river for the winter. Semi-anadromous fish include mass species such as pike perch, bream, ram, sabrefish and some others.
Marine species breed and feed in salty waters. Among them, species that constantly live in the Sea of Azov stand out. These are pilengas, flounder-kalkan, glossa, tyulka, perkarina, three-spined komashka, fish-needles and all kinds of gobies. And finally there is large group marine fish entering the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea, including those that make regular migrations. These include: Azov anchovy, Black Sea anchovy, Black Sea herring, red mullet, golden mullet, sharp-nosed mullet, black sea trout, horse mackerel, mackerel, etc.
Freshwater species usually constantly live in one area of the reservoir and do not make large migrations. These species usually inhabit desalinated water areas of the sea. Here you can find such fish as sterlet, silver carp, pike, ide, bleak, etc.
In terms of the number of plant and animal organisms, the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov has no equal in the world. In terms of productivity, the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov is 6.5 times superior to the Caspian Sea, 40 times the Black Sea, and 160 times mediterranean sea. But in size it is 10 times smaller than Black.
MineralsGeologists unanimously agree that the subsoil of the Sea of Azov is very rich. Zircon, rutile, ilmenite were found here. Under the bottom of the sea are minerals containing a good half of the periodic table. There are underwater mud volcanoes in the southeastern part of the sea. Commercial reserves of natural gas have been found in the depths of the Sea of Azov.
