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The Baltic Sea: depths and relief, description, geographical location

The Baltic Sea and its coast are an interesting place, saturated with memories of the Vikings, pacifying its northern landscapes. It differs from other seas by the nature of the terrain, temperature and features of the shoreline. The Baltic has great historical and geopolitical significance for Russia.

Geographical position

The Baltic Sea on the map is in the north of Europe and belongs to the Atlantic basin. Limited to 54 ° 46 'and 65 ° 56' N and 9 ° 57 'and 30 ° 00' EE. The extreme points that the Baltic Sea has on the map: near the Arctic circle in the north, near Wismar in the south, the eastern one is near St. Petersburg and the westernmost point is in the Flensburg area.

Relief and depth

The relief of the bottom has insignificant differences from the outline of the shores that border the Baltic Sea. The depths, in turn, also depend on the nature of the adjacent territory. The southern side of the sea, belonging to Germany, Poland and Denmark, is flat, flat, with sandy beaches. The rocky coast and uneven rocky bottom are in the northern part. Depth and relief of the Baltic Sea are different in different areas. The bottom has a very complex dissected surface. There are depressions that differentiate the elevations and base of the islands, which includes the Baltic Sea. The depths in other places are small. For example, there are areas of pronounced accumulative relief - these are shallow Finnish, Riga and Bothnia bays.

So, the Baltic Sea of depth is less than 200 meters. The valley of the Landtsorta is different. The maximum depth of the Baltic Sea is in this area and is about 470 meters. The Landessian depression extends in a southwesterly direction. The others are of a shallower depth: the Gotland - 249 m and the Gdanskaya - 116 m in the central part of the sea, the Arkonskaya - 53 m and the Bornholm - 105 m (in the western part).

Sea bays and straits

Refers to inland seas. In the southwest adjoins the North Sea through the Danish straits (Maly and Bolshoy Belt, Zund), Skagerrak and Kattegat.

In the east is the Gulf of Riga between Estonia and Latvia. The Estonian skeleton of Saaremaa partially separates the bay from the rest of the sea. Still there are large Finnish and Gulf of Bothnia

The Neva Bay is the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. At a distance of about 50 km from St. Petersburg is the island of Kotlin, on which the city of Kronstadt is built. The dam connects the island city and St. Petersburg, the highway is laid along the dam, so people have the opportunity to get to the mainland and back by car.

In the north-eastern part, where the border between Russia and Finland passes, the Gulf of Finland is connected with the Vyborg Bay. In the same place the Saimaa Canal leased by Finland originates. It serves as a transport route, and is also popular with tourists in warm weather. Guests here go and for the beauty of landscapes, and for duty-free shopping.

Coast

The coast of the Baltic Sea is diverse. Latvia has accumulation-type beaches formed as a result of sand accumulation on the coasts. The lagoon shore, formed by a bay and separated from the sea by a narrow scythe, is near Kaliningrad. Aligned banks border most of the sea, in particular, belong to Poland. And they are formed under the influence of prevailing winds and coastal currents. Fjords are narrow and deep sea bays with towering steep and rocky shores that surround the sea from the north. They are formed by flooding of tectonic faults and river valleys. The skerry coast appeared as a result of flooding of territories with smoothed glaciers, folded by crystalline rocks. These elevations protrude above the sea surface in the form of a multitude of islands-skerries with traces of glacial activity.

The following countries have access to the Baltic Sea: Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia had a small segment of the coast, only 7%, instead of the former 25%, which brings the state annual losses. Therefore, one port was established in Primorsk near Vyborg, which will specialize in coal and dry cargo. And the second port is in the Luga Bay, it will be oil-loading.

Tectonic processes

To this day, the Baltic Sea continues to change. The depth it has is small compared to other parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Actually, this vast reservoir for its existence several times became a lake and again a sea due to tectonic processes. Currently, the next stage is the separation of the sea from the ocean and its transformation into a fresh lake. It is characterized by the rise of the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia during the year by several centimeters and by the flooding of the southern coasts. Such processes create the need for the northern ports to extend the pier. To save the low-lying parts of the coast, mounds are made.

Temperature layers

From the depth, in turn, depends on the temperature of the Baltic Sea. The predominant part of the waters of a huge reservoir can be divided into surface, transitional and deep water masses.

Surface layer is from 0 to 20 meters, in some places - from 0 to 90 meters with temperature from 0 to 20 degrees. It is formed as a result of the interaction of the sea with the atmosphere and waters draining from the mainland. The temperature of the Baltic Sea in this layer varies with the season. In summer, the cold intermediate water masses formed due to the substantial warming up of the sea surface are more pronounced. The deep layer (the bottom and 50-60 meters above it) has a temperature of 1 to 15 degrees. This layer is formed by the flow of water through the Straits of Small and Great Belt and their mixing.

The transition layer includes water at a depth of 20-60 to 90-100 meters. They have a temperature of 2-6 degrees, are formed by mixing the waters of deep and surface layers.

Features of water temperature in the Baltic Sea

Separate areas of the sea differ in the features of the water structure. Thus, the Bornholm region has a warm interlayer (7-11 degrees) in both summer and winter. It is formed by warm waters coming here from the more heated Arkonsky basin. In it, because of the shallow depth of the sea and the movement of water in the horizontal plane, the cold intermediate layer is absent in the summer.

Temperature change by seasons

In winter, the water temperature in the open sea is higher than that of the coast, while it differs from the western and eastern shores. In February, the temperature is 0.7 degrees at Ventspils, in the open sea of the same latitude - about 2 degrees, at the western shore - 1 degree.

In summer, surface waters in different parts of the sea also differ in temperature. The prevailing western winds drive the surface water masses from the western shores. The underlying cold water rises to the surface. As a result of this phenomenon, the temperature in the southern and central regions, as well as near the western shores, decreases. In addition, south along the coast of Sweden is a cold current from the Gulf of Bothnia.

Seasonal fluctuations in water temperature are pronounced only in the upper 50-60 meters, deeper the parameters vary slightly. Changes in temperature during cold weather are absent, but with an increase in depth, the indices slightly decrease. In warm weather, the water temperature rises to the horizons of 20-30 meters due to mixing. Even in the summer, when the surface layer of water is heated, and the thermocline expresses more sharply than in the spring, a cold intermediate layer remains.

Depth, relief and other features of the Baltic Sea depend on many factors. This geographical position, the location in the northern latitudes, as well as placement on the continental slab.

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