Black Sea Satellite view of the Black Sea, taken by NASA MODIS The Black Sea (also known as the Euxine Sea) is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara, and to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch. There is a net inflow of seawater through the Bosporus, 200 km³ per year. There is an inflow of freshwater from the surrounding areas, especially central and middle-eastern Europe, totalling 320 km³ per year. The most important river entering the Black Sea is the Danube. The Black Sea has an area of 422,000 km² and a maximum depth of 2210 m. Countries bordering on the Black Sea are Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia. The Crimea is an Autonomous Republic of Ukraine. Important cities along the coast include: Istanbul (formerly Constantinople and Byzantium), Burgas, Varna, Constanţa, Yalta, Odessa, Sevastopol, Batumi, Trabzon, Samsun, Zonguldak. Geology The Black Sea is the largest anoxic, or oxygen-free, marine system. This is a result of the great depth of the sea and the relatively low salinity (and therefore density) of the water flowing into it from rivers and the Mediterranean; freshwater and seawater mixing is limited to the uppermost 100 to 150 m, with the water below this interface (called the pycnocline) being exchanged only once every thousand years. There is therefore no significant gas exchange with the surface, and as a result decaying organic matter in the sediment consumes any available oxygen. In these anoxic conditions some extremophile microorganisms are able to use sulfate (SO42−) for oxidation of organic material, producing hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide. This mix is extremely toxic (a lungful would be fatal to a human), resulting in a sea that has almost all of its ecology living in that top layer down to a depth of approximately 180 m (600 ft). The relative lack of micro-organisms and oxygen has allowed deep-sea expeditions to recover ancient (on the order of thousands of years) human artifacts, such as boat hulls and the remains of settlements. The Bulgarian coastline of the Black Sea doesn't have many islands. Those that exist are mostly small, uninhabited and covered with algae. Large amounts of organic material reach the bottom of the sea and accumulate in the sediments in concentrations of up to 20%. These kinds of sediments are called sapropel. While it is agreed that the Black Sea has been a sweetwater lake with a considerably lower level during the last glaciation, its postglacial development into a marine sea is still a subject of intensive study and debate. There are catastrophic scenarios such as put forward by Ryan and Pitman as well as models emphasizing a more gradual transition to saline conditions and transgression in the Black Sea. They are based on different theories about the level the sweetwater lake had reached by the time the Mediterranean Sea was high enough to flow over the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. Ryan-Pitman Deluge Theory For more detail, see the main article at Black Sea deluge theory. In 1997, William Ryan and Walter Pitman from Columbia University published a theory that a massive flood through the Bosporus occurred about 5600 BC. They claim that the Black and Caspian Seas were vast freshwater lakes, into which the Mediterranean spilled over a rocky sill at the Bosphorus. Subsequent work has been done to both support and discredit this theory, and it remains an active subject of debate among archaeologists. History Cities of the Black Sea The Black Sea region is thought to have been the original homeland (Urheimat) of "Proto-Indo-European", (PIE) the progenitor of the Indo-European language family, by some scholars. Others move the heartland further east towards the Caspian Sea. The name (initially Pontus Euxinus) was coined by the Ancient Greek navigators, because of the unusual dark colour, compared with the Mediterranean Sea. Visibility in the Black Sea is on average approximately 15 feet (as compared to up to 100 feet (30 m) in the Mediterranean). The land at the eastern end of the Black Sea, Colchis (now Georgia) marked for the Greeks an edge of the known world. Holiday resorts and spas Sochi Yalta Mamaia Eforie Nord Eforie Sud Olimp Neptun Jupiter Venus Saturn Mangalia Vama Veche Sveti Vlas Sunny Beach Nessebar See also William Ryan and Walter Pitman, Noah's Flood, 1999, ISBN 0684859203 Neal Ascherson, Black Sea (Vintage 1996) External links The Black Sea Trade Project http://www.blacksea-archaeology.org/ FAVORITE ARTICLES: History of the World    History of the United States    History of Europe    Ancient History    History    Military History    World War I    Bombing of Dresden    California    US Constitution    Frank Sinatra    Boston    Marbury v. Madison This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea