Caspian Sea, A Lake with Salt Water

Our Earth has various amazing places with their own beauty and uniqueness. People keep visiting these places, they are going all over the world, only for witnessing the different kinds of natural landscape.

One of those amazing places is the Dead Sea. There are some interesting facts about the Dead Sea. Its name literally shows the characteristic since there is no organisms can survive in the sea due to the high salinity. It’s so dense that people can float on the water surface without any swimming tool. You can’t drown in this sea because of some reasons. Some beauty companies use mud from the Dead Sea as the basic material for their products. The Dead Sea is actually a lake that is surrounded by several countries. Besides the Dead Sea, there is another lake in the world that, due to its large size, people assume it as a sea; the Caspian Sea, a lake with salt water.

The Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea has another name of Mazandaran Sea. The word “Caspian” is coming from Caspi by Persian language, it was used to name a tribe in the west of the Caspian Sea, Transkaukasia tribe. The Caspian Sea is actually a lake. It has some significant differences than other lakes, as it has characteristics of a sea, like having salty water, large dimension, and is surrounded by sands.

The Caspian Sea is located between Asia and Europe, precisely to the west and southwest of Ural Mountains. The Caspian Sea has an area of 371.000 km² and average water volume of 78.200 km³. In the north of the Caspian Sea, the Caspian Depression exists, it’s one of the lowest points on Earth. The Caspian Sea was formed in 5,5 million years ago, in the same location as Lake Aral. But those two lakes became two different lakes now.

The Caspian Sea is bordered by some countries, there are Russia (north to west), Azerbaijan (west), Iran (south), Turkmenistan (east), and Kazakhstan (northeast to north). It has some territories as well; north, central, and south territories. In the northwest, you could find some inhabited and small islands.

Facts of the Caspian Sea

1. The Caspian Sea, a lake with salt water, has such continental climate and is located in the dry part of the world. But, the northern part of the lake can be frozen during winter. The Caspian Sea is also considered as the largest lake in the world.
2. The Caspian Sea is an endorheic lake, it has no natural outflow to other external bodies of water. The decreasing water only occurs due to evaporation process. The water is coming from 130 rivers, and there is no river flow from east. The large water resources are coming from Volga River (north), Ural River (north), and Kura River (west). These rivers impact the salinity in the north and south of the Caspian Sea. There are 14 reasons why sea water is salty.
3. The Caspian Sea is categorized as a lake. In the beginning it was considered as a river due to its large dimension and salty water. The water body of the Caspian Sea has the same characteristics as a lake. A sea flows its water into other seas, meanwhile it doesn’t happen with the Caspian Sea. The salinity rate of the Caspian Sea is only one-third comparing to the salinity of a common sea.
4. The water volume of the Caspian Sea has been shrinking in years. Since 1996, it has been shrinking around 7 cm per year, it’s estimated to lost all the water in 75 years. This phenomenon occurs due to the farming activity around basin area and the dam construction along Volga River. This river supplies 80% of the Caspian Sea water.
5. Various kinds of animals are living in the Caspian Sea, such as green algae, blue algae, brown algae, red algae, and some fish species like sturgeon and salmon. Sturgeon is commonly known as a caviar producer, that has price as expensive as 50 million rupiah per kilogram. Iran an Russia are considered as the largest caviar producers in the world.
6. The Caspian Sea has significant resources of oil and natural gas. However, this condition creates regional conflict for countries around the Caspian Sea. Since 1992, only Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan who have been gaining profit from the oil and natural gas, and the production keeps increasing till 70%. Besides the Caspian Sea, you should also need to know about the Mariana Trench, the deepest trench in the world.

That’s the article of the Caspian Sea, a lake with salt water. Thank you for reading.