Caspian Sea

I

Introduction

Caspian Sea (Latin, Caspium Mare or Hyrcanium Mare), salt-water lake, south-western Asia, the largest inland body of water in the world. The Caspian Sea is bordered on the west by Azerbaijan and Russia, on the north-east and east by Kazakhstan, also on the east by Turkmenistan, and on the south by Iran. It extends about 1,210 km (752 mi) from north to south and between about 210 to 436 km (130 to 271 mi) from east to west. It has an area of about 370,998 sq km (143,243 sq mi). The Caspian coastline is irregular, with large gulfs on the east, including Krasnovodsk (Turkmenbashi) Gulf and the very shallow Kara-Bogaz Lake (Kara-Bogaz-Gol or Garabogazköl Aylagy), which acts as an evaporation basin and is the site of a major chemical plant that extracts salts from the deposits.

Navigation is frequently dangerous because of violent south-eastern storms, and during the winter months the northern parts of the Caspian Sea are closed by ice. The chief ports are Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Makhachkala, Russia.

II

Water Levels and Usage

The Caspian Sea has a mean depth of about 170 m (560 ft) and is deepest in the south, reaching a maximum depth of 995 m (3,133 ft). Its level varies from year to year but averages about 28 m (92 ft) below sea level. In the 1960s and 1970s the level fell substantially, partly because water was withdrawn from tributary rivers for irrigation and other purposes by the Soviet government (see USSR). In 1980, a dyke was built across the mouth of Kara-Bogaz Lake to reduce water loss, creating a lake that was expected to last for several years. Instead, the gulf dried up completely by 1983. In the meantime, the level of the Caspian Sea began rising again. To restore water flow into Kara-Bogaz Lake an aqueduct was built. The sea level has risen by more than 2 m (6 ft 6 in) since 1978, and coastal communities are increasingly susceptible to flooding, especially in spring and autumn. The low-lying cities of Makhachkala and Derbent, in Dagestan, Russia, on the west coast of the Caspian, are particularly at risk.

III

Tributaries

The southern and south-western shorelines of the Caspian Sea are bordered by the Elburz and Greater Caucasus mountain ranges. The sea has numerous tributaries, notably the Volga (which forms an extensive delta), Ural, and Embi rivers, all of which flow into it from the north. Other tributaries include the Gorgan (Gurgan) and Atrek rivers, flowing from the east, and the Kura River, flowing from the west. The sea has no outlet. The Caspian Sea is linked to the Baltic, White, and Black seas by an extensive network of inland waterways, chief of which is the Volga. These waterways provide an outlet to northern Europe for the oil fields of Baku on the Abşeron Peninsula.

IV

Economy

The Caspian Sea contains highly productive fisheries, yielding valuable catches of sturgeon, salmon, perch, herring, and carp. The sturgeon catch supplies up to 90 per cent of the world’s caviar. In the 1990s, consortia of oil companies began to prospect for oil in the Caspian Sea in the expectation of oil deposits comparable to those discovered in the North Sea. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, in particular, received rapidly increasing levels of foreign investment in their oil and gas sectors. The legal status of the Caspian Sea has been a matter of dispute between the countries bordering it since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In October 2000 Russia and Kazakhstan, the two largest of these countries, signed an agreement defining their areas of sovereignty and their rights to exploit the lake’s natural resources, especially fisheries and oil deposits. A major oil pipeline linking the Caspian Sea with the world market opened in March 2001, connecting the Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan with Novorossiysk, a Russian port on the Black Sea. In June 2002 construction began on a pipeline linking the Azerbaijani port of Baku with the city of Ceyhan, Turkey. The pipeline, which began operating in 2005, has the capacity of exporting up to 1 million barrels of oil per day. In addition, several smaller regional oil pipelines are in operation and the construction of a number of gas pipelines has also been proposed.