Sea of Azov
|
The shallow Sea of Azov is clearly distinguished from the deeper Black Sea. |
The
Sea of Azov ( -
Azovskoye more; -
Azovs'ke more, ) is a northern section of the
Black Sea, linked to the larger body through the
Strait of Kerch. It is bounded on the north by
Ukraine, on the east by
Russia and on the west by the
Crimean
peninsula.
The
Black Sea deluge theory dates the genesis of the Sea of Azov to
5600 BC, and there are traces of
Neolithic settlement in the area now covered by it. In antiquity, it was known as the Maeotian Lake or Maeotian Sea (
Greek and Latin Palus Maeotis
).
The current name is popularly said to come from a certain Polovtsian prince named Azum
or Asuf'', who was killed defending a town in this region in 1067. Most scholars derive the name from the city of
Azov, or
Azak, meaning "low" in Turkish, a reference to its location.
The sea is 340 km long and 135 km wide and has an area of 37,555 km² (14,500 mi²). The main rivers flowing into the sea are the
Don and
Kuban; they ensure that the waters of the sea are comparatively low in salinity and almost fresh in places, and also bring huge volumes of silt into the sea. To the west also lie the 110 km
Arabat Spit and the highly saline marshy inlets of the
Sivash.
The Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world with an average depth of only 13 metres, and the deepest of only 15.3 metres; in fact, where the silt has built up, such as the
Gulf of Taganrog, the average depth is less than 1 metre. The prevailing current in the sea is a counter-clockwise swirl; the tides are variable but can peak at over 5 metres. In the winter large portions of the sea can be ice-bound.
Significant ports on the sea are
Berdyansk,
Mariupol,
Rostov-na-Donu,
Taganrog and
Yeysk. Two canals enter into the sea — the
Volga-Don Canal and a link to the
Caspian Sea through the
Manych Canal. The sea has a number of significant fisheries and has been exploited for gas and
oil extraction.
Historically the sea has had a rich variety of marine life, with over eighty fish species identified as well as 300 varieties of invertebrates. Diversity and numbers have been reduced by over-fishing and increasing levels of
pollution.
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Atlantis in the Sea of Azov. Eagle/Wind, 2003
