The Black Sea is not an ordinary sea. The Black Sea is nearly one-third of the land area of the European continent drains into this Sea. The seven largest rivers flow into the Black Sea, including the main rivers of the Danube, Dnieper, and Don.
However, it has only one passage of a slight waterway of the Bosphorus, which is only about 70 meters deep and 700 meters wide. The complexity of this sea itself is more than 2000 meters in places.
Why is the Black Sea Called “Black”?
The entering rivers thinned the Black Sea, reducing the shallow layer salinity to 1.7%, which is less than half of the normal of the oceans at 3.5%. Due to this reduced salinity, become the most important environmental factor that challenges the marine biodiversity in the Black Sea. It is considered that maximum of the oceanic creatures and plants cannot continue here. For example, you cannot find the corals, octopuses, squids, and seastars.
Even though the facts, the Black Sea biodiversity is cheap, the naval life here is still full of surprises. Rivers flow into the Black Sea with nitrogen and phosphorus, it has always made it very fertile. The Black Sea is very exclusive in consuming two layers, an oxygenated upper layer and a hypoxic lower layer. Due to the absence of upright flows, there is a slight conversion of the lowest waters with the highest layers.
Beginning of the Black Sea
It is considered that the Black Sea was a portion of a greater body of water that comprised the Caspian and Aral seas for a long time. The Black Sea had begun its life as a fresh freshwater lake about 22000 years ago.
However, people believe that between 7000 to 9000 years ago, the sea level rose due to the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps. It caused the salty Mediterranean Sea to disastrously break down through the Bosphorus, and from those events, the sea has taken this form.
Sign for the Flooding
There is no doubt about those disaster events that occurred about 7500 years ago. The complexity of the sea appears to have improved by around a hundred meters over the year. These events produced a surge in the part of Black Sea, with local flooding near its coasts. These sources had been recognized by the archaeological surveys, especially off the Turkish coast.
Due to these outings, naval archaeologists, headed by Robert Ballard, recognized what seemed to be the earliest coastlines, freshwater snail shells, sink river valleys, and tool-operated wood at uneven depths of 100 meters. Radiocarbon seeing of the remains of freshwater mollusks specified an age of about 7000 years.
Know Why This Sea is called Black?
Ancient Greeks had called it the inhospitable sea, the first name of this sea before the years. The sea was not considered for navigation, so it got this reputation from the Greeks. The fact is that the sea was not the living because on the shores of the sea, many hostile tribes inhabited. Afterward, the effective growth of the shore of this sea by the Greek explorers, the sea was retitled the Hospitable Sea.
The Black Sea has a complexity of ended 150 meters, and the water of this sea is full of hydrogen sulfide for nearly 2 kilometers. Therefore, there are only sulfur bacteria in the deepest layers of this sea, cannot expect for the lives.
There are some theories about why the Black Sea was finally named the Black Sea.
● The Black Sea has metallic substances from vessels, lifeless plants, and animal substances that dropped deeper than 150 meters for an extended period and became roofed with a black mud due to the high attentiveness of hydrogen sulfide in the sea.
● The mariners described that the sea was black due to plain storms in the winter, throughout which the water is so shadowy it looks black.
The Black Sea: Myth vs. Science
The Black Sea has a structure of myths and science, merging stories that reproduce the rich culture that has flourished laterally its seashore for centuries. The Black Sea has heroic stories of heroes to explanations of mythical beings that occupy its complexities; the Black Sea is a gem trove of charming stories.
Myths
The Voyage of the Argonauts
The Black Sea is the scenery of the mythical tale of Jason and the Argonauts. In Greek mythology, Jason and his team set on on a traitorous journey in hunt of the Golden Fleece, directing the Black Sea’s tests and coming across mythical existences laterally their mode.
Medea and the Black Sea
This is a mythological story of Medea and the sorceress, which is closely linked to the Black Sea. Medea was the princess. Medea was in Jason’s mission for the Golden Fleece, and ran to the Black Sea’s coasts after her disloyalty. Here she initiated the city of Media and continued her mysterious performances.
The Ghost Ship of the Black Ship
The people believe that the legends of ghost ships wandering in the fog of the Black Sea ricochet through time. These kinds of stories create interesting facts about the Black Sea, and people ponder its enigmatic tales.
The Creation of the Black Sea
In the Georgian mythology, create a unique viewpoint on the Black Sea. They believe that God’s tears, shed when his daughter was kidnapped, shaped the sea that now splits Georgia from Turkey.
Science
The Black Sea, considering its complexity and the occurrence of massive quantities of hydrogen sulfide at an inferior level, which adds to the darkening of the water and the discoloration of metallic substances.
The great attention of hydrogen sulfide in the bottomless waters, particularly underneath 150 meters, can cause metallic substances from vessels and other bases to develop shielded in a black mud.
It must be understood that several time the color of water depend on the factors of sunlight and turbidity, the deeper waters can seem shadier and even black due to the above-mentioned conditions.
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