Sea of Azov
From The Encyclopedia of Earth
Oceans and seas (main)
March 29, 2010, 12:00 am
November 17, 2011, 11:24 am
Regional setting of the Azov Sea as an element of the Black Sea. Source:Norman Einstein
The Sea of Azov is a large brackish gulf or lagoon, centered at about 46oN and 37oE, connected to the Black Sea by the narrow and shallow (around five meter sill depth) Kerch Strait. The Sea of Azov covers around 38,000 square kilometers of surface area, which comprises nine percent of the area of the Black Sea system but only 0.5% of the volume.
The chief freshwater inflow to the Sea of Azov arrives via the Don and Kuban Rivers, producing a resulting average salinity of the sea of approximately one third of the average open sea. The Sea of Azov, known in antiquity as Lake Maeotis, is extremely shallow, having an average depth of about seven meters.
| This article is written at a definitional level only. Authors wishing to improve this entry are inivited to expand the present treatment, which additions will be peer reviewed prior to publication of any expansion. |
Further Reading
- Physical Oceanography Index
- L. Zenkevitch. Biology of the Seas of the U.S.S.R. Wiley Interscience, 1963.
