In any sea, the water is very salty. But there are such reservoirs where the amount of salt is so high that you can’t even swim there. The most salty sea in the world is called the Dead Sea for a reason. We will tell you more about it and other reservoirs with this feature.
The unique attraction of our planet is actually a lake. Water from it evaporates very quickly due to the high air temperature. There remains a huge amount of salt, which is 30% of the volume here (for comparison: in the ocean - only 3.5%).
The coast of this reservoir is also interesting. From the south there are many therapeutic muds and thermal springs that attract tourists. According to legend, King Herod himself loved to bathe in them.
Along the coast are mountains and pillars of salt. They were formed due to powerful tremors pushing salt to the surface like a cork. The largest such mountain has a height of 250 meters and is called Sedom.
Not to mention the air over the Dead Sea. It is unique because it contains 15% more oxygen than the average for the planet. This is due to the location of the reservoir below the generally accepted sea level and high atmospheric pressure in this area.
It is one of the youngest on our planet, but unusual flora and fauna have already formed here. Since, as already mentioned, the Dead Sea is actually a lake, the Red Sea can be considered the most salty sea in the world (4.1% salt in water).
This amount of salt is due to the fact that not a single fresh river flows into the reservoir. If the Dead Sea is not adapted for life, then in the Red Sea, on the contrary, an unusually wide range of living creatures.
In addition, the water in it is very warm, and not only from the sun. Warm streams of water also rise from the bottom, so even in winter the temperature of the liquid here does not fall below 21 degrees Celsius.
The name, according to historians, comes from the fact that the ancient people living north of these places associated red with the south. The Red Sea was mentioned in documents as early as the 2nd century BC.
The uniqueness of this object is that its waters wash three parts of the world at once - Africa, Asia, Europe. Hence the name. Man began to explore this territory 4 thousand years ago, and several great civilizations developed here at once.
The sea is almost entirely inland, connected to the Atlantic only by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar and several even smaller ones. The coastline of the reservoir is very winding, includes many islets and bays.
The Mediterranean has a very special climate, similar to the subtropical one. Warm and pleasant in winter, hot and dry in summer. Also, hurricanes and storms sometimes occur in winter.
Plants and animals here are reminiscent of the Atlantic and clearly have the same origin. Waters with a salt content of 3.9% are rich in mackerel, flounder, tuna, squid, and other shellfish. There are also sharks.
The waters of this sea contain 3.8% salt. And it is known, first of all, for a huge number of islands of different sizes - there are more than 2000 of them. Civilizations such as Greek and Mycenaean once flourished here.
This number of islands is associated with the process of formation of the sea. Previously, there was land here, then it was filled with water, and the protruding areas turned into islands.
The shores of the reservoir are characterized by rockiness and a large number of deserts. The bottom of the sea for the most part consists of sand, overgrown with small algae. The water is very warm, in winter its temperature does not fall below 11 degrees.
The Aegean Sea has long been famous for its rich wildlife. It has always given people a huge amount of fish and seafood. Unfortunately, this trend is now subsiding as the sea becomes more polluted.
This geographical feature is also familiar to people since antiquity. Proof of this is its mention in the works of Homer's "Odyssey" and "Iliad". Today it is an attractive place for tourists because of the incredibly beautiful scenery.
The bottom of the sea consists of shell rock - a mixture of the remains of the shells of marine inhabitants, sand and silt. The coasts are completely covered with beaches, not only sandy, but also pebbly and rocky. Water contains approximately 3.8% salt.
The fauna of the Ionian Sea in many ways resembles the Mediterranean. There is also a lot of mullet, tuna, mackerel here. Everywhere you can see spiny sea urchins, because of which it is not recommended to enter the water barefoot.
The name of the sea, according to one version, comes from the name of the cow Io, which in the legend swam across it. Another version says that a tribe of Ionians once lived on the banks of the reservoir. Finally, the third version is related to the color of the water at sunset - "ion" - purple.
The salinity of this reservoir reaches 3.5%. It is located between Russia, Japan and two Koreas, while being almost completely isolated from the Pacific Ocean. Water exchange is carried out only by a few channels.
The sea has a fairly straight coastline and several small islands in the eastern part. There are no large islands. There is a large bay named after Peter the Great, in which the cities of Nakhodka and Vladivostok are located.
The water in this sea is quite warm, monsoons often occur, and in the autumn, typhoons. Peter the Great Bay and the Tatar Bay are covered with a layer of ice in winter, which lasts for four months.
The water is very clear, visibility through it reaches 10 meters. It also contains a large amount of dissolved oxygen, especially in the north and west. In these places, the liquid is colder.
The sea is almost always covered with ice due to the mixing of three water masses - the cold waters of the Arctic, the North Atlantic Current and warm coastal waters. Only in September the reservoir is briefly freed from ice.
From the southwest, the sea shores are very rocky, densely indented by fjords. But to the east, the coast becomes much lower and smoother. There are quite a few islands in the Barents Sea, of which the largest is Kalguev Island.
The reservoir is actively used for fishing and seafood, as well as for navigation. Some important trade routes pass through it. The most significant port is the city of Murmansk.
Laptev sea
The water in this sea is also 3.5% salty. It is located between the New Siberian Islands and Severnaya Zemlya. The ice cover stays almost the whole year, the climate is generally cold, arctic.
The sea is named after Russian travelers, the brothers Dmitry and Khariton, by the name of Laptev. It was they who actively explored these places in the 18th century. But this name was approved only in 1935.
The full-flowing Lena River flows into the Laptev Sea, forming a large delta. Other smaller rivers also flow into the reservoir - Yana, Anabar, Olenyok. There are many coves and bays along the coastline.
The seas of our planet are an inexhaustible source of useful resources, but for an ordinary person they are attractive not at all for this, but for their unique features. By visiting each of the listed reservoirs, you can see how different they are, but equally beautiful.
The main difference between the sea and a lake or any other large body of water is that it belongs to the world's oceans, that is, through rivers and straits, it (in this case the body of water is called internal) is connected to other water areas, which together make up a single space equal to two thirds of the surface of the globe. The most salty sea in the world is called the Red Sea. It belongs to the Indian Ocean and is thus an inland strait connected to the World Ocean and surrounded on all sides by land. While the Dead Sea has no outflowing rivers, it does not communicate with other bodies of water, that is, it is not such at all.
Very cool pickle
Since the most concentrated body of water (the Dead Sea) on the planet with a salt content of 340 grams per 1 liter of water, with a total indicator of the world ocean of 34 g, is not considered the most salty sea on Earth, it is simply a unique salinity object. This one-of-a-kind body of water was formed at the site of a graben, or tectonic fault, which filled with water millions of years after the tectonic plates parted. Much has been written about the fact that the territory of the “Arava Sea” is located at a depth of 350-400 meters below the level of the World Ocean, that is, all of it, including the lowest point - 423 meters, is a depression, the deepest valley on our planet. The only river Jordan flows into the Dead Sea and nothing flows out. Being a lake, the Dead Sea gives way to the Red Sea, which belongs to the Indian Ocean, and is connected with it through the Bab el-Mandeb (“Gate of Tears”) strait, which flows into the Gulf of Aden.
What causes salinity in the first place
As already noted, the most salty sea in the world is the Red Sea, which, as it were, separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. In the north, thanks to the Suez Canal, it mixes its waters with the Mediterranean Sea, connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Except the Dead Sea. both the Caspian and Baikal are lakes. But because of its huge size, it is customary to call the first one the sea, and Baikal is not called that anymore, except in songs (“Glorious Sea - Sacred Baikal”). The saltiest sea in the world is so for two reasons: the high temperature on the surface, which causes strong evaporation, and the absence of rivers, replenishing and diluting the marine reserves with fresh water. Through the only source - the Gulf of Aden, or rather - through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, water annually enters half as much as it evaporates. It almost never rains in this area - 100 ml per year.
The youngest and most beautiful
To the most important feature characterizing the Red Sea, one can add the fact that it is also the youngest on the planet - it is only 25 million years old. It was formed simultaneously with the East African Rift. In essence and form, the sea bed is a trough - a valley formed by the activity of glaciers. This is a trough with a U-shape in transverse division, a wide bottom and rather steep sides, which, passing into the shores, stretch from north to south almost parallel to each other. Also the most salty sea in the world is one of the most beautiful. It is also the warmest sea on the planet. In a word, the sea-record holder.
Causes of high salinity
The water in it is well mixed, but on the territory of the sea there are areas of high salinity, where its concentration reaches 60 grams per liter. This is the Gulf of Aqaba, or, as it is also called, the Gulf of Eilat, which separates the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. He himself is disconnected from the body of the sea by the shallow Strait of Tiran. This narrow bay in dry years turned into a salt lake much more often than the Red Sea itself. And this has happened repeatedly over 25 million years, the last time - 2.7 million years ago.
As a result of natural disasters, the sea level dropped to the bottom of the "bottleneck" - the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. This state of affairs existed for quite a long time, and the water in the reservoir became, according to the assumptions of some scientists, almost saltier than the current waters of the Dead Sea. Then the World Ocean attached the sea to itself, and the salt concentration decreased. In the 60s of the last century, scientists discovered depressions with hot brine at the bottom of the Red Sea (salt content reaches 60 g per liter and increases by 0.3-0.7 g annually). A very interesting fact is that, according to the testimony of researchers who dived to the bottom in special devices, the brine does not mix with sea water, but lies in a separate mass. It contains a lot of different precious metals. The Red Sea is truly unique, in many respects it is the “most” on the planet.
Lots of name variations
The origin of the name is also interesting. There are several versions, each of which has the right to exist. For example, that it is named after the color of the numerous red algae that give the water this shade. Ancient sailors saw it red because of the rocks of this color reflected in it. Or it's all because of the wrong reading of the ancient Simite word, as if denoting the name of the people who lived here in time immemorial. In ancient Egypt, the desert, located next to the sea, was called Ta-Desher (desher - "red").
One of the versions claims that among some peoples the cardinal points were associated with colors: the east meant white, the north meant black, and the south meant red. According to this version, the Black Sea also means “northern”, “dark”, because in relation to the location of the most ancient civilizations, it really is located in cold countries. The salinity of the Black Sea is low - 18%.
Salinity indicators of some seas
The freshest sea on Earth with a salt content in the depths of up to 1 gram per liter, and on the surface - up to 5, is the Baltic Sea. The saltiest sea in the world belongs to the Indian Ocean basin, the warmest of all. It is natural to assume that the waters of water areas located closer to the equator are more saturated with salt. For example, the salinity of the Aegean Sea is 37-39% and higher, the Mediterranean - 36-39.5%, the Ionian - 38%, etc. The Sargasso Sea, located on the other side of the world, is also quite salty - 37%.
The disappearing Aral Sea, which at one time was the 4th salinity reservoir on the planet, is inappropriate to remember, since it is also a lake. The most salty seas in the world are located in one region of the globe, at a distance of 300 km from each other. Dead (if in this particular case we forget that this is a lake), or, as it is also called, Asphalt, or Sodom, is located between Israel, Jordan and Palestine.
Natural unique
You can talk about the Dead Sea endlessly, because it is unique. As already noted, the lowest point on the planet - 423 meters below sea level - is located here. The sea was formed about 5000 years ago by breaking the earth's crust, as a result of which the shores of the salt lake diverge to this day. It has no life. It is an object of tourist pilgrimage. Dead Sea cosmetics are known all over the world. What more can be said? It is here that all the inhabitants of Sodom are turned into salt.
It is so concentrated that little is drowned in it. There are a lot of photographs of people lying on the surface and reading a newspaper. Millions of tourists claim that the saltiest sea in the world is the Dead Sea. It is difficult to argue with this, it is really very large, and many travelers do not delve into whether it is sewage or drainless, connected to the oceans or not. Fabulous, amazing and great. Its area is 1059 sq. km. For comparison: the saltiest lake in Russia, Baskunchak (37 grams of salt per liter of water) occupies 106 square kilometers. km.
Salt seas of Russia
The northern seas of Russia, located very far from the equator, are also quite concentrated. According to some sources, the percentage of salt in the Barents and Kara Seas is at the level of 34%, sometimes higher. But in most cases, the most salty sea of the country is called the Sea of Japan, although it has the same indicator. So not in Russia, with the largest number of seas with a high content of this element, is the most salty sea in the world. Karskoe is simply one of the most salty reservoirs in Russia.
