How does the Sea of ​​Azov differ from the Black Sea. Taman and Dinskaya bays of the Black Sea. Settlements scattered around the bay

Black Sea coastline

The Black Sea is located in the northern temperate zone of the Earth, stretching from north to south between points with coordinates 46°,32′ and 40°55′ north latitude.

But if we keep in mind climatic features, then coastline The Black Sea belongs to two zones. Northern and west coast correspond to the temperate zone, and the southern coast of Crimea, the coast of the Caucasus and Turkey - to the subtropical zone, and South part The Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and the Colchis lowland belong to the humid subtropics with an annual precipitation of 1400-2500 millimeters. One of the distinctive features of the subtropics is mild winters, allowing year-round plant growth.

The length of the Black Sea coastline is about 4,790 kilometers. This is not a constant, once forever established value. Not only the length, but also the entire appearance of the banks constantly changes under the influence of both natural forces and the will of man. Among natural factors affecting sea shores, the main role is played by waves and currents. Inaccessible coastal cliffs, picturesque bays, islets, “velvety” smooth beaches, harbors covered with sand and silt, eroded road embankments, villages and resorts destroyed by landslides - all this is the result of the activity of the sea surf and currents.

This is what a prominent specialist in this field of marine science, Professor V.P., writes about the “life” of sea shores in the annotation to his book “The Shores of the Black and Azov Seas”. Zenkovich. Thanks to the works of V.P. Zenkovich, his employees and colleagues, the Black Sea shores are now the most studied. This made it possible to successfully carry out major works to strengthen and improve them in a number of places. Description of the shores of the Black Sea by V.P. Zenkovich is not only a valuable source scientific information first-hand, but also a poetic story about that very specific zone where the sea meets the land.

Thus, the famous “velvet sands”, sandy stripes of sea beaches, as well as numerous estuaries stretch all the way from the Danube to Ochakov. Clay cliffs are also not uncommon here. They are constantly destroyed by the sea surf, and from time to time large-scale landslides occur. Nowadays, thanks to the development of science about sea shores, landslide phenomena have been tamed by a system of powerful shore protection structures.

From Ochakov to Western Crimea the shores are also characterized by their sandy beaches and low cliffs. Between the Dnieper-Bug Estuary and Karkinitsky Bay there are extensive sand spits (Kinburnskaya, Tendrovskaya) and islands (Dolgiy, Krugly, Dzharylgach). This for the most part sparsely populated or completely uninhabited places, the kingdom of birds, all kinds of small animals, deer, and on Tendra - even wild horses. Here is the Black Sea State Reserve of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, where a lot of work is being done to study seagulls and other birds, their role in the life of the sea and land. Nearby are large bays of the Black Sea: Yagorlytsky, Tendrovsky, Dzharylgachsky, Karkinitsky, which in their own way natural features- shallow water, protection from waves, remoteness from settlements, from powerful sources of pollution, high biological productivity and others - are considered the most promising places for the development of underwater farms in the Black Sea.

The southern coast of Crimea is mountainous. Crimean mountains are not particularly high, but their peak plateaus - yails - lie very close to the sea and fall into sheer cliffs several hundred meters high. Sheltering the coasts from northern winds, they create here climatic conditions subtropics. The beaches of the southern coast of Crimea are not sandy, but pebble and much narrower than those on the northwestern coast of the Black Sea. The underwater landscape of the southern coast of Crimea is very beautiful: clear water, many rocks (some of them rise above the surface of the sea) and blocks overgrown with algae, mussels and other organisms. The species diversity of fauna and flora makes these places convenient for getting to know the inhabitants of the sea, especially for scuba divers.

The southern coast of the Kerch Peninsula, like the southern coast of Taman, is distinguished by wide sandy beaches and shallow waters of the coastal strip of the sea, somewhat reminiscent of the northwestern coast. Salty seaside reservoirs are found here again. On the Kerch Peninsula there are Uzunlarskoye, Koyashskoye and Tobechikskoye lakes, on the Taman Peninsula there are the Tsokur, Kiziltashsky, Bugazsky and Vityazevsky estuaries. And the water is more turbid than that on the southern coast of Crimea, and desalinated by the runoff of the Azov Sea through Kerch Strait. From Anapa to the southeast to Batumi the Caucasian coast stretches with a predominance of pebble beaches. The coastal mountains are covered with dense forest, there are numerous evergreen trees and shrubs, and citrus fruits. Great depths come close to the shore. Mountain rivers bring little turbidity, and the sea water is clear, like off the southern coast of Crimea.

Black Sea coast Turkey is mountainous, with narrow, mostly pebble beaches and rapidly increasing depths.

The coasts of Romania and Bulgaria resemble those of the north-west and are also famous for their wide sandy beaches. As in the Odessa region, clay cliffs predominate here, salt lakes and estuaries are found, and the sea is desalinated by the runoff of the Danube.

Getting acquainted with the wildlife of the Black Sea coast is greatly facilitated by visiting local history museums, available in all cities, as well as botanical gardens and marine aquariums.

Among the botanical attractions on the Black Sea coast, mention should be made of the botanical garden of Odessa State University, founded in 1867, the Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Crimea, created in 1812, the Arboretum in Sochi, founded at the end of the last century, the yew-boxwood grove located two kilometers from the sea up the along the Khosta River, - the remnant of an ancient relict flora, a subtropical park in Gagra, a reserve of Pitsunda relict long-leaved pine at Cape Pitsunda, the Sukhumi Botanical Garden, and finally the Batumi Botanical Garden, founded in 1912, one of the largest and most famous in our country.

Marine aquariums are less ancient and famous than botanical gardens. They are very helpful in getting to know the inhabitants of the Black Sea, their appearance and habits. In our country, marine aquariums have been created in Sevastopol at the Institute of Biology south seas, in Kerch at the Azov-Black Sea Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography, in Sochi in the Arboretum and in Batumi at the Georgian branch of the All-Union Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography. The Black Sea fauna is most fully represented in the Sevastopol Aquarium, opened back in 1897 at the biological station and subsequently modernized several times. Today it is a very popular institution demonstrating the inhabitants of the Black and other seas. There is a central round pool with a diameter of 9.2 and a depth of 1.5 meters, as well as 12 wall aquariums with a volume of up to 7 cubic meters. At the same time, several dozen species of Black Sea fish, crabs, mollusks and other animals can be observed in the aquarium.

The first scientific demonstration dolphinarium in our country has recently been opened in Batumi, where there is an opportunity to get acquainted with the Black Sea dolphins and the work that scientists and trainers do with them.

There are several nature reserves located on the Black Sea coast. The largest of them is the Black Sea State Reserve of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences, with an area of ​​more than 60 thousand hectares, founded in 1927. It is located between the Dnieper-Bug estuary and the Karkinitsky Bay on the sands of the Kinburn and Tendrovskaya spits, the islands of Krugloy, Dolgoy, Orlov, Babin and others. The area of ​​land occupied by the reserve is 12,606 hectares. The remaining area is shallow sea water.

The biggest attraction of the Black Sea Nature Reserve is a large colony of black-headed or Mediterranean gulls, numbering up to 200,000 pairs. This beautiful white bird with a shiny black head (the so-called “nuptial plumage”; in winter the gull’s head is white), during the nesting period it is found in many places - in Greece, Asia Minor, Romania and even in Mongolia, but its largest colony is located in the Black Sea Nature Reserve. The black-headed gull deserves protection not only as one of the decorations of the sea coast, where there are fewer and fewer deserted places near the sea, but also as a human assistant in the fight against agricultural pests. The fact is that, in addition to small fish and marine invertebrates, this gull feeds on insects, which it hunts in the steppe. Scientists have calculated that over the summer, black-headed gulls from the Black Sea Nature Reserve, along with their chicks, eat over 5 thousand tons of insects, thereby preventing annual loss agriculture in amounts up to 2 million rubles. An excellent example of a combination of nature conservation and a biological method of pest control that is safe for humans!

Another protected area on the Black Sea coast is located around Cape Kaliakra in Bulgaria. On the secluded coastal cliffs of this steep cape, the only seal species in the Black Sea breeds - the monk seal. It is listed in the International Red Book of Rare and Endangered Species. According to Bulgarian scientists, only a few pairs of seals remain there today, under strict state protection.

Yes, it is now becoming increasingly difficult for birds and animals to find secluded places on the shores of the Black Sea. People love them so much that sometimes it seems that a little more time will pass and all coastal settlements will merge into a continuous ring of cities and resorts. In any case, there is talk about resort development of the entire coastline as early as this century. Of course, the sea should help people in relaxation and treatment, this is indisputable. But what are the reasonable limits of this “human load” per unit of coastline has not yet been calculated. This is one of the most immediate and important tasks of science. In the meantime, the ranks of all kinds of recreation centers, camps, camping grounds, medical institutions, sports centers, beaches, boat berths and other forms of “sea use” are growing unhindered, why not introduce such a term, by analogy with “nature management”? Our relations with the sea need to be built in such a way as to ensure a gentle regime for it. After all (in addition to these seasonal recreational and medical facilities), around the circumference of the Black Sea there are about forty settlements of the rank of ports with a population of about 4 million people and with a certain negative impact on the marine environment. Thus, according to statistics, one permanent resident of the Black Sea coast has about 1 meter of coastline. But in the summer the population at least doubles, and then the share of coastline per person is reduced to half a meter. And if we take into account that “sea use” is not evenly distributed along the coast, then in settlements, resorts and other places the “personal” section of the coast is sometimes reduced to a few centimeters. This is a tense ecological situation that requires a person to be especially thrifty and attentive to the natural environment around him, to meet with which he sometimes travels thousands of kilometers and nurtures so many rosy plans throughout the year. And since the concept of “nature conservation” implies, first of all, the protection of its living inhabitants, let’s move on to getting to know them.

Yu.P. Zaitsev

Photo beautiful places Crimea

Located in the depths of the continent, the Black Sea is the most isolated part of the World Ocean. In the southwest it communicates with the Sea of ​​Marmara through the Bosphorus Strait, the border between the seas runs along the line Cape Rumeli - Cape Anadolu. The Kerch Strait connects Chernoye and.

The area of ​​the Black Sea is 422 thousand km2, volume - 555 thousand km3, average depth- 1315 m, greatest depth - 2210 m.

The coastline, with the exception of the north and northwest, is slightly indented. The eastern and southern shores are steep and mountainous, the western and northwestern shores are low and flat, steep in places. The only large peninsula is Crimean.

The length of the Russian coast of the Black Sea (from the Kerch Strait to the mouth of the Psou River) is about 400 km. The entire region of the Black Sea coast of Russia can be divided into two large regions - Taman and Western Caucasus.

In the northwestern part of the sea there are the largest bays - Karkinitsky, Kalamitsky. Besides them on south coast The seas are Sinop Bay and Samsun Bay, and on the western side there is Burgas Bay. The small islands of Zmeiny and Berezan are located in the northwestern part of the sea, Kefken - east of the Bosphorus.

Black Sea is located in the middle latitudes, approximately between 41 and 47 degrees northern latitude and 28 and 42 degrees east longitude. The northern shores belong to Ukraine, the eastern to Russia, Georgia and Abkhazia, the southern to Turkey, and the western to Romania and Bulgaria. For almost 400 km, the Black Sea washes Krasnodar region, beneficially influencing its climate. Through the Straits Bosphorus, Dardanelles and through Sea of ​​Marmara the Black Sea waters merge with the Mediterranean, and through Kerch Strait With Sea of ​​Azov.

Black Sea known to mankind since ancient times! Over the course of thousands of years and centuries, it has changed several names. The first Greek navigators called it Pont Aksinsky, that is, inhospitable. However, later the ancient Greeks changed their minds and began to call it Pont Aksinsky, that is hospitable sea. In Rus' in the old days Black Sea called Pontic, and Russian by sea.

Scientists explain the modern name in different ways. Some called the Turks Karadeniz, that is, the inhospitable “Black” Sea, because all the conquerors who came to its shores received decisive rebuff from the tribes that inhabited it. According to another hypothesis, the name is associated with storms and the fact that the water in it darkens during a storm. And there is a third version, which is related to the fact that metal objects lowered to great depths of the Black Sea turn black under the influence of hydrogen sulfide.

The ancient Greeks, sailing along the Black Sea shores, saw here the settlements of the Scythians, Taurians, and in the east - the Colchians. The Greeks named the Black Sea coast of Kavakaz after the names of these tribes Colchis, Crimea - Tavrida, and the Northern Seaside region - Scythia.

Bays of the Black Sea

There are few bays in the Black Sea, the largest of which are Odessa, Karkinitsky, Kalamitsky, Feodosia, Tamansky and Sinopsky. The most convenient bays for receiving ships are Tsemesskaya and Gelendzhikskaya.

The Black Sea is poor in islands, the largest - Serpentine(0.17 sq. km). The most significant of the peninsulas are Crimean, Kerch and Taman.

Characteristics of the Black Sea

total area The Black Sea is 413,488 sq km. Water volume 537,000 cubic meters. km. The sea represents deep depression oblong in shape with a fairly flat bottom and steep slopes (from 6 to 20 degrees). The greatest depth is 2245 m, the average is 1271 m.

They flow into the Black Sea Danube, Dniester, Southern Bug, Dnieper, Rioni, Chorokh, and within Krasnodar region- over 80 small rivers. Half of the river flow comes from the Danube. The annual runoff from land into the Black Sea is 400 cubic meters. km, the same amount evaporates from the surface of the sea. The Black Sea receives 175 cubic meters per year. km of salty Mediterranean water and 66 cu. km of Azov water of low salinity.

Most of all, the Black Sea water contains sodium chloride (77.8% of the total salt content), magnesium chloride (10.9%), calcium sulfate (3.6%). In addition, the Black Sea water contains about 60 more chemical elements: iodine, bromine, silver, radium etc.

The Black Sea is the warmest in our country. The winter temperature in the open part is + 6..7 degrees Celsius, in the southern part + 8..10, in the northwestern part it often drops to -1 and ice fast ice forms there. In summer, the water temperature averages +24 degrees; near Sochi it can warm up to +28 degrees Celsius. At a depth of 50-70 meters the temperature is stable at +6-7 degrees.

Surface currents in the Black Sea are weak, their speed usually does not exceed 0.5 m/s. The main causes of surface currents are river runoff and wind.

Ebbs and flows in Black and Seas of Azov very weakly expressed. Their amplitude is 3-10 cm. Secular changes in sea level - an increase of 20-50 cm per hundred years.

During storms in the Black Sea, waves up to 10 m high and 150 m long develop. Usually the wave sizes are much smaller.

The force of the waves hitting the shore is enormous. In the Sochi area it reaches 20 tons per 1 sq. m.

Flora of the Black Sea quite rich and varied. In coastal waters there are thickets of brown algae - cystorhiza. On sandy and muddy shallows there are entire underwater fields of sea grass - zosters. Deeper there are extensive thickets of red algae - phyllophores.

The fauna of the Black Sea is very diverse, but due to the presence of hydrogen sulfide it is concentrated mainly in the upper 200-meter layer of water.

Based on books: Korovin V.I. Nature of the Krasnodar region. Krasnodar: Book publishing house, 1979

Kalamitsky Bay is a part of the Black Sea, jutting into the western coast of the Crimean Peninsula between Capes Lucullus and Evpatoria. This bay is partially washed by the coast of Sevastopol in a small area from Cape Lukull to the administrative border with the Bakhchisarai region (only 1.5 km approximately). The entire area around Cape Lucullus is protected by the state as a nature reserve and is an object of a unique natural fund. The coastal aquatic complex occupies more than 125 hectares and is a hydrological natural monument.

Kalamita Bay. Geography

Kalamitsky Bay is a picturesque place. The width of the bay at the entrance is 41 km, 13 km from the entrance to the coast. The depth reaches 30 meters. The bay in the north ends at the city of Evpatoria. The shores in the south of the bay are clayey and high, while in the north they are low and sandy, with beaches in many places. Not far from the coast, behind sandy embankments there are salt lakes. The largest of them:

• Saki,
• Sasyk,
• Gull,
• as well as the healing lake Kyzyl-Yar.

Several rivers flow into the Kalamitsky Bay (Belbek, Alma, Bulganak and Kacha). Directly on the shore of the bay there are several settlements visited by tourists, including Beregovoye, Uglovoye, Novofedorovka, Andreevka, Nikolaevka, etc.

There are different versions regarding the name of the bay. The most common one associates the name with the city of Calamita, which was built by the Genoese. The city has not survived to this day. In Greek, Kalamita translates as “good cape.”

Sights and recreation areas

Not far from Cape Lucullus is the settlement of Ust-Alminskoye. This is a Scythian settlement that arose at the turn of the 2nd century BC. Its true name is not known. In fact, there were many ancient settlements in this part of Crimea, but not all of them have survived. For example, due to soil collapses into the sea, more than half of the Ust-Alminskoye settlement was irretrievably lost.

There are many private hotels and boarding houses along the bay coast. Tourists who wish to come here will find a place to stop.

Some of them, for example, the Volna recreation center (information at) are located near the sea, but also not far from lakes or estuaries.

The city of Evpatoria is considered a children's health resort precisely because of the favorable climate and shallow water of the Kalamitsky Bay. The beaches are mostly sandy. The Gulf of Kalamita warms up very quickly and often swimming season begins in May and ends in September.

The length of the Black Sea from west to east is 1130 km, the greatest width is 613 km. From the south, the coast of Anatolia (the Asian part of Turkey) juts out into it in a wide arc, and from the north the Crimean peninsula cuts deeply into it. The shores are mountainous almost everywhere, there are few large bays and coves. The largest bays, such as Odessa, Karkinitsky, Tendrovsky, are inscribed in the low steppe shores of the northwestern part of the sea. Some of the bays are fenced off from the sea by wide sand spits - bay bars. The convenient bays of Sevastopol and Balaklava are hidden among the rocks of the mountainous Crimea, and on the Taman Peninsula, shallow bays are overgrown with reeds and reeds (flush). From the east, the Greater Caucasus ranges approach the sea, and even such large cities as Tuapse, Novorossiysk, Batumi have only small bays. A large bay once existed where the largest of the rivers of the Caucasian coast, Rion, flows into the sea. Later, on the site of the bay, the wide Colchis lowland was formed. And from the south, the Pontic mountains approach the sea. On the wide protrusion of Anatolia there are three small peninsulas: lowland Bafra and Charshamba, and mountainous Indzhe-burun with Sinop Bay. The name of this bay recalls the victory of the Russian fleet under the command of P. S. Nakhimov in 1853, during the Crimean War. Less familiar are the names of Turkey's major ports - Zanguldak, Samsun, Trabzon. Giresun, Ordu and the rivers Yeshil-Irmak, Chorokh, Kyzyl-Irmak flowing from its territory into the Black Sea. The Thracian Peninsula (European part of Turkey) has recently been connected to Anatolia by a huge bridge, under which large ocean-going ships can freely pass along the Bosphorus Strait. To the west of this strait, the spurs of the Balkans approach the Black Sea - and here the mountains. The maritime roads of Bulgaria begin from the large ports of Burgas and Varna. Romania is crossed by the Lower Danube Lowland leading to the sea, along the low shore of which a chain of salt lakes stretches. Only the port of Constanta got a convenient bay. The Danube Delta stretches widely at the northern border of Romania. That’s the entire Black Sea coastline of 4090 km. Surrounded on all sides by land, it is one of the inland seas. At the same time, the Black Sea is “assigned” to the basin Atlantic Ocean: it is connected to it through the Marmara and Mediterranean Seas. The area occupied by the Black Sea (423 thousand sq. km) can accommodate two Great Britains. The water surface is only interrupted here and there near the coast by small islands, for example Berezan, located 13 km from Ochakov. Of the few Black Sea islands, the island is the most distant from the coast. Zmeiny (Fndonisi), located 40 km from the Danube Delta.