At different periods of human history, this sea was called differently: Pont Euxinus, which in Greek means hospitable sea, Scythian, Sarmatian, Cimmerian, Russian Sea, Sourozh, Tauride. It was called black, according to one version, because, according to another, due to the fact that metal objects lowered to a great depth turn black.
What was on the site of the Black Sea in antiquity.
To unravel this riddle, let us turn to the history of the sea. The Black Sea was formed on the site of the ancient ocean Tethys several million years ago, when volcanic eruptions began, and the Caucasus Mountains in smoke and flame rose from the bottom of the sea. Initially, a huge freshwater lake was formed, which included the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas. And the modern Crimean and Caucasian mountains were just islands. But the land gradually rose, and the seas parted. Throughout its geological history, the Black Sea has been either a freshwater lake or a sea, when due to faults in the earth's crust, a connection with the ocean appeared.
Two or three million years ago, huge whales swam in the Black Sea. Their petrified skeletons have survived to this day. When the sea again became a freshwater lake, they died, and only a few adapted to live in both salt and fresh water. These ancient species, which have survived to this day, are now called Sarmatian relics. Among them is the famous Azov-Black Sea sturgeon. adapted to live in salty sea water, and sturgeon caviar and fry survive only in fresh water, so the Black Sea sturgeon comes to spawn in the Don and Kuban.
When was the Black Sea formed?
Scientists suggest that some 6-8 thousand years ago the Black Sea was a freshwater lake, but because of a strong earthquake, the Bosphorus Strait arose. Through it, salty waters from the Mediterranean Sea poured into the Black Sea, giving birth to the legend of the worldwide flow. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but here is the fact that most of the inhabitants of the Black Sea, accustomed to fresh water, could not adapt to new conditions, and died This is true. The remains of the former inhabitants, having sunk to the bottom, are still there, and due to their decomposition at the bottom in large numbers hydrogen sulfide is formed(gas with an unpleasant odor). Only the upper layer of the Black Sea - about 150-200 meters - is inhabited. Below live only bacteria that produce hydrogen sulfide.
Why is the water in the Black Sea not as salty as in the ocean.
Many rivers flow into the sea, like the Mediterranean, and even more so the ocean. Rivers flowing into the sea carry with them a lot of nutrients. Therefore, in the Black Sea there is a high density of green mass of plankton and algae. Some reach a length of up to 10 meters. There are even completely fantastic algae that glow at night. The coast of the Black Sea in some places is simply dotted with shells - houses of dead mollusks that lived or still live in the sea. The brightest of them are rapans. About that, in the next article.
It is believed that on the site of the current Azov, Caspian, Mediterranean, Aral and Black Seas, there was one of the bays of the ancient Tetis Ocean. In the process of evolution, this bay was divided, and, about a million years ago, after the appearance of the ridges of the Crimean and Caucasian mountains, the Black Sea separated from the oceans and became a separate, almost dusty lake. This situation persisted for a long time, and only about eight thousand years ago, as a result of a strong earthquake, the Bosphorus Strait was formed, through which the waters of the Mediterranean Sea began to flow into a fresh lake, and as a result, the modern Black Sea was formed.
History of the name of the Black Sea.
Why is the Black Sea, which for most of the year sparkles with its greenish-blue surface under the rays of the southern sun, is called "Black"? Has this sea always been called that? No not always. It has changed several names throughout history. The ancient Greeks called it Pontus Euxinus, that is, the hospitable sea. This perfectly characterizes the sea itself, its shores with colorful colors of lush vegetation, the air filled with the breath of the sea and the scent of flowers. Our ancestors called the Black Sea Pontic or Russian.
There are several hypotheses regarding the modern name of the sea. One of them, put forward by historians, explains the origin of the name "Black Sea" by the fact that the Turks and other conquerors who came to its shores in order to conquer the local population met with serious resistance from the Circassians, Circassians and other tribes. For this, allegedly, the Turks called the sea Karadengiz - Black, inhospitable.
The second hypothesis relates the origin of the name "Black Sea" to supposedly strong storms, and possibly to the fact that the water in the sea darkens during a storm. However, it must be said that storms are just not its characteristic feature. Strong excitement (more than 6 points) happens here no more than 17 days a year. As for the darkening of the water during a storm, this is characteristic of all seas, and not just the Black Sea. However, it is known that Magellan called the "Pacific Ocean" the most stormy ocean on Earth, since there were almost no strong storms there during the voyage of Magellan's ships. It is possible that the same mistake occurred with respect to the Black Sea.
The third hypothesis of the origin of the name "Black Sea", put forward by hydrologists, is based on its property that metal objects (for example, anchors), lowered to a certain depth, rise to the surface blackened under the action of hydrogen sulfide in the depths of the sea. This version seems to us the most probable, since it comes from a characteristic feature of the Black Sea waters.
There are also other hypotheses. It is believed that the sea was so named because after a storm, sometimes black silt remains on its shores (actually not black, but gray). Description of the Black Sea.
The Black Sea is an inland sea of the Atlantic Ocean basin. The Bosporus connects with the Sea of Marmara, then, through the Dardanelles - with the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. The Kerch Strait connects with the Sea of Azov. From the north, the Crimean peninsula cuts deep into the sea. The water boundary between Europe and Asia Minor runs along the surface of the Black Sea. The area is 422,000 km² (according to other sources - 436,400 km²). The outlines of the Black Sea resemble an oval with the largest axis about 1150 km. The greatest length of the sea from north to south is 580 km. The greatest depth is 2210 m, the average is 1240 m. The sea washes the shores of Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia. The unrecognized state of Abkhazia is located on the northeastern coast of the Black Sea.
A characteristic feature of the Black Sea is the complete (except for a number of anaerobic bacteria) absence of life at depths above 150-200 m due to the saturation of deep water layers with hydrogen sulfide. The Black Sea is an important transportation area, as well as one of the largest resort regions in Eurasia. In addition, the Black Sea retains an important strategic and military significance. The main military bases of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are located in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk.
The shores of the Black Sea are scarcely indented and mainly in its northern part. The only large peninsula is the Crimean. The largest bays: Yagorlytsky, Tendrovsky, Dzharylgachsky, Karkinitsky, Kalamitsky and Feodosia in Ukraine, Varna and Burgassky in Bulgaria, Sinopsky and Samsunsky - at the southern coast of the sea, in Turkey. In the north and northwest, estuaries overflow at the confluence of the rivers. The total length of the coastline is 3400 km.
Bays of the northern part of the Black Sea A number of sections of the sea coast have their own names: the southern coast of Crimea in Ukraine, the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus in Russia, the Rumeli coast and the Anatolian coast in Turkey. In the west and northwest, the coasts are low-lying, steep in places; in the Crimea - mostly low-lying, with the exception of the southern mountainous coasts. On the eastern and southern shores, the spurs of the Caucasus and Pontic mountains come close to the sea. There are almost no islands in the Black Sea. The largest are Berezan and Serpentine (both with an area of less than 1 km²).
The Black Sea fills an isolated depression located between Southeast Europe and the peninsula of Asia Minor. This depression was formed in the Miocene era, in the process of active mountain building, which divided the ancient Tethys Ocean into several separate reservoirs (from which, in addition to the Black Sea, the Azov, Aral and Caspian Seas were subsequently formed).
The alleged outlines of the lake that existed on the site of the Black Sea was lower than the modern one by more than a hundred meters. At the end of the Ice Age, the level of the World Ocean rose and the Bosphorus Isthmus was broken through. A total of 100 thousand km² (the most fertile land already cultivated by people) were flooded. The flooding of these vast lands may have become the prototype of the myth of the Flood. The emergence of the Black Sea, according to this hypothesis, was supposedly accompanied by the mass death of the entire freshwater living world of the lake, the decomposition product of which - hydrogen sulfide - reaches high concentrations at the bottom of the sea.
The Black Sea depression consists of two parts - western and eastern, separated by an uplift, which is a natural continuation of the Crimean peninsula. The northwestern part of the sea is characterized by a relatively wide shelf strip (up to 190 km). The southern coast (belonging to Turkey) and the eastern (Georgia) are steeper, the shelf strip does not exceed 20 km and is indented by a number of canyons and depressions. Depths off the coast of Crimea and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus increase extremely rapidly, reaching levels of over 500 m already a few kilometers from the coastline. The sea reaches its maximum depth (2210 m) in the central part, south of Yalta.
In the composition of the rocks that form the bottom of the sea, in the coastal zone coarse clastic deposits prevail: pebbles, gravel, sand. With distance from the coast, they are replaced by fine-grained sands and silts. In the northwestern part of the Black Sea, shell rock is widespread; for the slope and bed of the sea basin, pelitic oozes are common. Among the main minerals, deposits of which are located at the bottom of the sea: oil and natural gas on the northwestern shelf; coastal placers of titanomagnetite sands (Taman Peninsula, coast of the Caucasus).
The Black Sea is the world's largest meromictic (with unmixed water levels) body of water. The upper layer of water (mixolimnion), which lies to a depth of 150 m, is cooler, less dense and less saline, saturated with oxygen, is separated from the lower, warmer, salty and dense layer (monimolimnion) saturated with hydrogen sulfide by a chemocline (the boundary layer between aerobic and anaerobic zones).
There is no single generally accepted explanation for the origin of hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. There is an opinion that hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea is formed mainly as a result of the vital activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria, pronounced water stratification and weak vertical exchange. There is also a theory that hydrogen sulfide was formed as a result of the decomposition of freshwater animals that died during the penetration of salty Mediterranean waters during the formation of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. Some studies of recent years allow us to speak of the Black Sea as a giant reservoir of not only hydrogen sulfide, but also methane, which is most likely also released during the activity of microorganisms, as well as from the bottom of the sea.
The Black Sea has almost ocean blue and transparency at a depth of up to 25 m, and in the depths, as in the oceans, there is eternal darkness. The Black Sea is divided by depth into two zones - oxygen (up to a depth of 150–200 m) and lifeless hydrogen sulfide (depths below 200 m), which occupies 87% of its water mass. The density of water increases with depth, and its entire mass is in a stagnant state, water exchange is negligible, there is no oxygen, algae and living creatures, with the exception of microspira bacteria. Living in large numbers in the depths of the sea, they decompose the corpses of animals and plants. As a result of their activity, hydrogen sulfide is released, which accumulates at the bottom.
It is believed that over millions of years, bacteria have accumulated more than a billion tons of hydrogen sulfide in the sea. Hydrogen sulfide is a poisonous gas, in addition, it can burn and explode. However, the threat of an explosion does not threaten the Black Sea, since the percentage of hydrogen sulfide concentration is too low to achieve such an effect. So only the upper layer of the sea, which is approximately 13% of the total volume of water, is inhabited by flora and fauna. Hydrobiologists count in it a little more than 250 species of algae and about 2 thousand species of living organisms.
In the Black Sea, the salinity of water on the surface is on average 18.5 g/l, near the coasts it is usually somewhat less, however, in the Anapa shallow water, the average salinity reaches 18.7 g/l. The Black Sea water is half as salty as the water in the World Ocean, where the salt level is 35–36 g/l. The lower salinity in the Black Sea compared to the ocean is due to the large inflow of fresh water from rivers, as well as the outflow of water from the Sea of Azov with lower salinity. Fresh waters also contain salts, but in very small quantities, for example, in thirty liters of rain (fresh) water, the amount of salts is only 1 g.
What determines the color of the water in the sea? Some people think it's from the color of the sky. This is not entirely true. The color of water depends on how sea water and its impurities scatter sunlight. The more impurities, sand and other suspended particles in the water, the greener the water. The saltier and cleaner the water, the bluer it is. Many large rivers flow into the Black Sea, which desalinate water and carry with them many different suspensions, so the water in it is rather greenish-blue, and off the coast it is greener with various shades of emerald.
Climate.
The climate of the Black Sea, due to its mid-continental position, is mainly continental. Only the southern coast of Crimea and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus are protected by mountains from cold northern winds and, as a result, have a mild Mediterranean climate. The weather over the Black Sea is significantly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, over which most of the cyclones originate, bringing bad weather and storms to the sea. On the northeastern coast of the sea, especially in the region of Novorossiysk, low mountains are not an obstacle to cold northern air masses, which, wading over them, cause a strong cold wind (bora). Southwest winds usually bring warm and fairly humid Mediterranean air masses to the Black Sea region. As a result, most of the sea area is characterized by warm, wet winters and hot, dry summers.
It flows into the Black Sea...
More than 300 rivers and rivulets carry their fresh water to the sea, the largest are the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper, as well as smaller Mzymta, Rioni, Kodori, Inguri (in the east of the sea), Chorokh, Kyzyl-Irmak, Ashli-Irmak, Sakarya ( in the south), Southern Bug (in the north). . The Black Sea is located inside the Eurasian continent and covers an area of 423 thousand square kilometers. The total length of the coastline is 4340 km. Through the Kerch and Bosporus straits, the Black Sea exchanges waters with the Azov and Marmara Seas, respectively.
Throughout history, the Black Sea several times became either a lake or a sea. In ancient times, it was part of the giant Tethys Ocean, which connected - through the modern territory of Asia - the current Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but as a result of the formation of giant mountain ranges, the Tethys Ocean broke up.
On the site of the current Black Sea, a closed, freshwater Sarmatian Sea-lake was formed, and it was during this period that freshwater flora and fauna formed in it, the remains of which have survived to this day. Crimea and the Caucasus were islands in the Sarmatian Sea. Later, a connection with the ocean reappeared, the salty Meotic Sea formed, it was inhabited by marine animals and plants; at that time there were even huge whales here - now paleontologists are digging up their skeletons.
In the last 18-20 thousand years, on the site of the Black Sea, there was an almost fresh Novoevksinsky lake-sea, and only 6-8 thousand years ago it connected with the Mediterranean Sea through the Bosporus - probably as a result of an earthquake. The isthmus between the shores of the Bosporus was a natural dam, because the water level in the Novoevskinsky Sea was lower than the level of the Mediterranean Sea. After the breakthrough of this natural dam, sea waters poured into the Black Sea in a giant wave. At that time, people already lived on the Black Sea coast - they hunted, fished, grazed cattle, built their own dwellings. Giant tsunami waves hit the coast and flooded everything - human settlements went under water, pastures with herds - entire nations disappeared. This is the so-called Black Sea Flood hypothesis.
The last connection of the Black and Mediterranean Seas occurred about 8 thousand years ago. The strongest earthquake split the land. The modern Bosphorus arose. Huge masses of salty Mediterranean water rushed into the Black Sea, causing the death of a huge number of freshwater inhabitants. So many of them died that the decomposition of the remains of their organisms in the depths of the sea created the initial supply of hydrogen sulfide, which continues to exist to this day. The Black Sea has become the "Sea of Dead Depths".
Historians believe that this whole cataclysm took place before the eyes of a person who lived here. Are not these events the worldwide flood? After all, as you know, Noah moored his ark to the Caucasian Mount Ararat, which then could well look like an island in a raging stream at the confluence of two seas.
is changing today, it is slowly but surely absorbing its shores.
Troubled Geological Past of the Black Sea
A complex geological history fell to the lot of that part of the Euro-Asian continent, where the Black Sea is now located. Therefore, in its modern appearance, features reminiscent of distant epochs and events on the planet now and then look through. It will hardly ever be possible to give a complete history of the Black Sea, all its past transformations and transformations, indicating the exact dates. But a simplified picture can be briefly drawn.
Even before the beginning of the Tertiary period in the history of the Earth, that is, in times remote from us by 50-60 million years, a vast sea basin stretched through southern Europe and Central Asia from west to east, which in the west communicated with the Atlantic Ocean, and in the east - with Quiet. It was the salt sea of Tethys. By the middle of the Tertiary period, as a result of movements of the earth's crust, Tethys separated first from the Pacific Ocean, and then from the Atlantic.
In the Miocene (about 5-7 million years ago) large mountain-building movements of the earth's crust took place, which led to the emergence of the Alpine, Carpathian, Balkan and Caucasian mountains. As a result, the Tethys Sea shrinks in size and is divided into several brackish (with water salinity lower than that of the sea) basins. One of them, called by geologists the Sarmatian Sea, stretched from the present Vienna in the west to the foot of the Tien Shan in the east and included the modern Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral Seas. Isolated from the ocean, the Sarmatian Sea was gradually desalinated by the waters of the rivers flowing into it, perhaps even to a greater extent than the Caspian Sea is desalinated today. Part of the marine fauna that survived from the Tethys died out, but it is curious that such typically oceanic animals as whales, sirens and seals lived in the Sarmatian Sea for a long time. Over time, at the end of the Miocene, they also became extinct.
At the end of the Miocene-beginning of the Pliocene, that is, 2-3 million years ago, the Sarmatian Sea decreases in size, but again a connection with the ocean is formed, the water becomes saline, marine animals and plants appear. This basin was called the Meotic Sea.
In the Pliocene, 1.5-2 million years ago, communication with the ocean again completely ceased, and an almost fresh Pontic lake-sea appeared on the site of the salty Meotic Sea. At that time, the future Black, Azov and Caspian Seas were interconnected in the place where the territories of the Stavropol Territory, the Krasnodar Territory and the North Caucasus are located today. In the Pontic Lake-Sea, the marine fauna is dying out and a bony-water fauna is being formed. Its members are still alive today. They are preserved in the Caspian and Azov Seas, as well as in the desalinated waters of the Black Sea. This part of today's fauna is united under the name of "Pontic relics", or "Caspian fauna", since it is best preserved in the desalinated Northern Caspian.
At the end of the Pontic period, as a result of the uplift of the earth's crust in the region of the North Caucasus, the separation of the basin of the Caspian Sea proper takes place. Since that time, the development of the Caspian, on the one hand, and the Black and Azov Seas, on the other, took place on independent paths, although short-term connections between them sometimes arose.
With the onset of the Quaternary, or Ice Age, the salinity of the water and the composition of the inhabitants at the site of the future Black Sea continue to change. The contours of the reservoir are also changing. At the end of the Pliocene, that is, less than one million years ago, the Pontic Lake-Sea decreased in size and was named Chaudinsky Lake-Sea. It was strongly desalinated, isolated from the ocean, and inhabited by Pontic-type fauna. The Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov at that time, obviously, did not yet exist.
As a result of ice melting at the end of the Mindel glaciation (about 400-500 thousand years ago), the Chaudinsky lake-sea is filled with melt water and turns into the Ancient Euxinian basin. In its outlines, it resembles the modern Black and Azov Seas. In the northeast, through the Kuma-Manych depression, this basin communicated with the Caspian Sea, which then also experienced a period of strong desalination. The fauna of the Ancient Euxinian basin was of the Pontian type.
During the Riss-Würm interglacial period (100-150 thousand years ago), a new stage in the geological history of the Black Sea begins. Due to the formation of the Dardanelles Strait, the connection of the future Black Sea with the Mediterranean Sea and the ocean arises. The so-called
Karangatsky basin, or Karangatsky sea. The salinity of the water in it was approximately one warm higher than in the modern Black Sea. Various representatives of marine species of animals and plants penetrate into the Karangat Sea from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Salt waters occupied most of the reservoir, pushing brackish-water species into desalinated bays, estuaries, and river mouths. However, over time, the Karangat Sea came to an end.
About 18-20 thousand years ago, on the site of the Karangat Sea, there was already the Novoevksiyskoye Lake-Sea. In time, this coincided with the end of the last, Würm, glaciation. The sea was filled with melt water, again isolated from the ocean and heavily desalinated. Once again, the salt-loving marine fauna and flora are dying out, and the poppy species, which survived the difficult Karangat period for them in estuaries and estuaries, leave their shelters and again populate the entire sea. This went on for about 10 thousand years or a little more, after which the newest phase in the life of the reservoir began - the formation of the modern Black Sea. It didn't happen right away. Initially, about 7, and according to some sources, even about 5 thousand years ago, a connection was formed with the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. Then the gradual salinization of the Black Sea began and, as they say, after 1.5-2 thousand years, the salinity of the water was created, sufficient for the existence of many Mediterranean species, which penetrated into a new reservoir for them and today form up to 80% of the Black Sea fauna. And the old-timers - Pontic relics again retreated to the estuaries and mouths of the rivers, as it had already happened to them more than once.
Legends of the Black Sea January 2nd, 2014
The Black Sea was not always called the Black Sea. He had several names. For example, in ancient Greece, the Black Sea was called Pontus Euxinus, which means "hospitable sea."
However, the ancient Greeks did not immediately so affectionately call the Black Sea. At first, when they first arrived on the coast, and encountered the tribes that lived here, the Black Sea became inhospitable for them...
They named it Pont Aksinsky. Legends say that the tribes of the Taurians, who then inhabited the shores of the Black Sea, were extremely ferocious: they sacrificed all alien people to their gods. But the sea cannot be responsible for those who live on it. And later, the ancient Greeks renamed the inhospitable sea into a hospitable one.
There are several more old names for the Black Sea. This is the Sugde Sea, in honor of the prosperous city of Sugdei (present-day Saadak), and the Khazar Sea, in honor of the Khazars. In the times of Ancient Rus', in the annals the Black Sea was called Russian, presumably because the prince of Kiev, who fought with the Khazars, visited its shores. The Italians, who owned some small ports on the coast in the Middle Ages, called the sea Pontus.
Where did the name Black Sea come from? There are several versions. The Scythians called the sea Teng, which is translated from the Scythian as Dark. The ancient Iranians called the Ashkhaen Sea, which also means Dark.
One of the Turkish legends says that in the Black Sea lies the sword of God, which was thrown into the sea by a magician named Ali. The waters of the sea do not want this sword, trying to throw it out of their depths. When the sea is agitated, it becomes dark, and even black.
If you do not delve into the legends, but read the works of scientists about the origin of the name Black Sea, then there are several hypotheses. The first of them is connected with the fact that the Turks, who conquered the shores of the Black Sea for many centuries, found fierce resistance from local tribes - Circassians, Adygs and others. Therefore, they called the sea Karadengiz, i.e. inhospitable, Black.
The second hypothesis refers us to Magellan. Magellan fell into the sea on time, and in all seas the water darkens in a storm. According to the first impression, the name of the sea was fixed.
The next version is based on the fact that in the depths of the Black Sea there is a lot of hydrogen sulfide, which paints metal objects black. The ancient navigators painted their anchors, from which they gave the sea the name Black Sea.
And there are many more versions. For example, one of them ascribes this name to black algae, which turn black when they land on the shore after a storm.
The Scythians were a militant people, so the main meaning of their life was the seizure of territories, robberies of foreign lands. They were among the first to master the Caucasian mountains, making military campaigns in Central Asia. They are credited with primacy in the name of the Caucasus Mountains, which means snow-white.
Even before our era, the first settlements of the Greeks appeared on the shores of the Black Sea. Basically, the Greeks inhabited the shores of the Crimean peninsula. The names of cities derived from Greek names have survived to this day. For example, Yalta, from the Greek word yalos, coast. Or the city of Alupka, in which there was also a Greek settlement in those days, which was called Alopex, which means fox. Evpatoria, was named by the Greeks in honor of the king of Evpator, Theodosius, translated from Greek means given by God.
In general, the Greeks left a lot of evidence of their stay on the shores of the Black Sea.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the Greeks stopped populating the Black Sea. Gone is the Greek name. The Middle Ages came and the name Black Sea became stronger in the world.
Further, Italians settled on the Black Sea for a couple of centuries. They bought from the Tatar khans the right to colonize some areas of the coast in order to engage in slave trade and usury. The Italians renamed the cities: Feodosia to Kafu, Anapa to Mapu, etc. But their names did not take root.
Since the 15th century, the Turks have dominated the Black Sea. They inhabit all the shores of the Black Sea, both Crimean and Caucasian. Like others, the Turks took the local population prisoner, plundered the cities. All the oppression of the peoples of the Caucasus by the Turks led to the fact that they asked for protection from the Russian Tsar. Since the end of the 18th century, Russians have been fortifying themselves on the Black Sea. There were bloody wars for access to the Black Sea. But Russia was able to finally gain a foothold only after the signing of the Kuchuk-Kainarji peace treaty.
1. Hospitable / inhospitable
By the number of names, the Black Sea may well be considered a champion among the seas. More than twenty names of this reservoir are known. Due to the inconvenience of navigation, the first ancient Greek colonists called it Pont Aksinsky, which translates as “inhospitable sea”. Then, when the sea had already been mastered, the same Greeks began to call it Pontus Eusinsky, that is, “hospitable sea”. Other historical names of the Black Sea are Temarun, Cimmerian, Akhshaena, Blue, Tauride, Ocean, Surozh, Holy.
In Rus', from the 10th to the 16th centuries, the Black Sea was called either the “Russian” or the “Scythian” sea.
2. Why the Black Sea is “black”
Why did the Black Sea become “black”? No one can definitely answer this question. According to one version, this name came from the color designation of parts of the world, where the North was marked in black, and the Black Sea was considered just the northern sea. According to another version, the Black Sea became so called due to the fact that any metal objects lowered to its depth turn black due to the hydrogen sulfide contained in the water.
3. Constantly growing
The Black Sea is constantly growing. Over the course of a century, its shores expand by 20-25 centimeters. This may seem insignificant if you do not know that the Black Sea already keeps the ancient cities of Taman in its depths.
4. Knipovich glasses
If you look at the flow pattern of the Black Sea, you can see two looped whirlpools with a wavelength of 300-400 kilometers. They are shaped like glasses. In honor of the oceanologist Nikolai Knipovich, who first described the Black Sea currents, this scheme was called “Knipovich glasses”.
5 Harmless Shark
In the Black Sea there are sharks - katrans. They are quite small - no more than a meter in length, and do not pose a danger to bathers, because they keep cold waters, rarely come to the shore and, in principle, are afraid of people.
They can only pose a threat to fishermen. The spines on the dorsal fin are poisonous. The substance contained in the liver of katran helps to cure some forms of cancer and is part of the medicine "Katrex".
6. Dangers
In addition to almost harmless sharks, there are also quite dangerous creatures in the Black Sea. Such, for example, as the Black Sea scorpionfish. The poisonous thorns on her back can cause a lot of suffering to those who prick on them. Also, the sea dragon (poisonous spines on the dorsal fin) and the stingray can pose a threat. In the event of a collision with any of these marine life, you should immediately seek help at the emergency room and, at a minimum, take antihistamines.
7. Sea of dead depths
Another name for the Black Sea sounds very ominous - “the sea of dead depths”. The fact is that there is practically no life in the Black Sea deeper than 150-200 meters due to the high percentage of hydrogen sulfide contained in the deep layers of water. Over millions of years, the Black Sea has accumulated more than a billion tons of this substance, which is a product of the vital activity of bacteria. According to one version, the very appearance of the Black Sea (7500 years ago) was associated with the mass death of the freshwater inhabitants of the Black Sea Lake, which was once here. From this, reserves of hydrogen sulfide and methane began to accumulate at its bottom. via