Physical-geographical characteristic
The Caspian Sea is the largest closed water body in the world. Five states are situated on its banks: Russia, Azerbaijan, Islamic republic Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. The area of the sea at present equals to 0.4 million km2 making 18% of the total area of lakes of the Earth. The volume of water equals to 79, 000 km3. The maximal extension of the sea from north to south equals to 1,200 km, its width varies from 200 up to 450 km, and the greatest depth equals to 1,025 m.
The Caspian Sea accepts water of 130 rivers from the catchment area which is approximately ten times greater than its own one (3.5 million km2). The main feature of the hydrological regime of the Caspian Sea is significant fluctuation of its level which is the reason of significant damages and ecological accidents. The sea water level is determined by the ratio of water balance components of the water body and by possible changes of the volume of its depression (Figure 1).
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Bibliography
Gidrometeorologija i gidrohimija morej. Tom IV Kaspijskoe more. Vypusk 1 Gidrometeorologicheskie uslovija (Terziev, F. S., Kosarev, A. N., and Kerimov, A. A., (eds.) 1992. Hydrometeorology and Hydrochemistry of the Seas. Vol. IV. The Caspian Sea. Issue 1. Hydrometeorological Conditions. Sankt-Petersburg, “Gidrometeoizdat” (in Russian).
Krickij, S. N., Korenistov, D. V., and Ratkovich, D. J., 1975. Kolebanija urovnja Kaspijskogo morja (analiz rezhima i verojatnostnyj prognoz) (The Caspian Sea Level Fluctuations (the regime analysis and the probabilistic forecast)) Nauka: Moscow, 1975 (in Russian).
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Bolgov, M.V. (2012). Caspian Sea. In: Bengtsson, L., Herschy, R.W., Fairbridge, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lakes and Reservoirs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4410-6_55
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