The Baltic Sea: History and geography

Abstract

This chapter introduces the reader to the Baltic Sea starting with a short life history in Section 2.1. In 13,500 years the basin has undergone several different phases. The treatment in this book, however, focuses on the present brackish water Baltic Sea introduced in Section 2.2. Section 2.3 gives a brief history of Baltic Sea research, which first commenced in the late 1800s making it one of the oldest research basins in oceanography. The last section (Section 2.4) describes the climate and weather conditions in the Baltic Sea region, where influences are felt from the North Atlantic via westerly winds, from continental conditions on its eastern side, and from polar airmasses in the north.