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- Overview
- Physical features
- Shoreline features
- Submarine features
The Caspian Sea lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia.
What is unique about the Caspian Sea?
The Caspain Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water and the world's largest salt lake.
What countries border the Caspian Sea?
The Caspian Sea is bordered by five countries: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia.
How salty is the Caspian Sea?
The Caspian basin, as a whole, is usually divided into the northern, middle, and southern Caspian, based partly on underwater relief and partly on hydrologic characteristics. The sea contains as many as 50 islands, most of them small. The largest are Chechen, Tyuleny, Morskoy, Kulaly, Zhiloy, and Ogurchin.
Britannica Quiz
The shores of the northern Caspian are low and reflect the great accumulation of alluvial material washed down by the Ural, Terek, and, above all, Volga rivers, whose deltas are extensive. The western shore of the middle Caspian is hilly. The foothills of the Greater Caucasus Mountains loom close but are separated from the coast by a narrow marine plain. The Abşeron Peninsula, on which the city of Baku is sited, thrusts out into the sea there, while just to its south the floodplain of the Kura and Aras rivers forms the Kura-Aras Lowland along the western shore of the southern Caspian. The southwestern and southern Caspian shores are formed of the sediments of the Länkäran and Gīlān-Māzanderān lowlands, with the high peaks of the Talish and Elburz ranges rearing up close inland. The eastern shore of the southern Caspian is low, formed partly by sediments derived from the erosion of the cliffs along the sea. The shoreline there is broken sharply by the low, hilly Cheleken and Türkmenbashi peninsulas. Just to the north, behind the east shore of the middle Caspian, is the Kara-Bogaz-Gol (Garabogazköl), formerly a shallow gulf of the Caspian but now a large lagoonlike embayment that is separated from the sea by a man-made embankment. For the most part, the eastern shore of the middle Caspian is precipitous, with the sea destroying the margin of the limestone plateaus of Tüpqaraghan and Kendyrli-Kayasansk.
The major rivers—the Volga, Ural, and Terek—empty into the northern Caspian, with their combined annual flow accounting for about 88 percent of all river water entering the sea. The Sulak, Samur, Kura, and a number of smaller rivers flow in on the western shore of the middle and southern Caspian, contributing about 7 percent of the total flow into the sea. The remainder comes in from the rivers of the southern, Iranian shore. Apart from the Atrak (Atrek) River of southern Turkmenistan, the sea’s arid eastern shore is notable for a complete lack of permanent streams.
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The northern Caspian, with an area of 38,380 square miles (99,404 square km), is the shallowest portion of the sea, with an average depth of 13 to 26 feet (4 to 8 metres), reaching a maximum of 66 feet (20 metres) along the boundary with the middle Caspian. The bottom is formed of a monotonously rippling sedimentary plain, broken only by a line of ...
The sea stretches 1,200 km (750 mi) from north to south, with an average width of 320 km (200 mi). Its gross coverage is 386,400 km 2 (149,200 sq mi) and the surface is about 27 m (89 ft) below sea level. Its main freshwater inflow, Europe's longest river, the Volga, enters at the shallow north end.
Jan 28, 2021 · The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest water body that is enclosed or bordered by land on all sides. This massive lake is located between Asia and Europe. The Caspian Sea may have derived its name from the Caspi people who lived in South Caucasus. However, the Persians and Greeks referred to the sea as the Hyrcanian Ocean.
- John Misachi
- Fact
- 211 m
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The Caspian Sea is situated about 500 km east of the Black Sea, between southeastern Europe and Western Asia, east of the Caucasus Mountains, south of the vast Eurasian Steppe, and west of the Karakum and Kyzylkum Deserts of Central Asia.
People also ask
Where is the Caspian Sea located?
Is the Caspian Sea landlocked?
What is the largest city in the Caspian Sea?
Is the Caspian Sea an endorheic basin?
Feb 22, 2024 · This map of the Caspian Sea region shows that the body of water is landlocked. 200mm / Getty Images. One of Earth's most interesting natural features, the Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water on the planet, defying conventional classifications to be both a sea and a lake.
