Mediterranean Sea
:
For the oceanographic term and other mediterranean seas, see Mediterranean sea (oceanography). |
Satellite image |
The
Mediterranean Sea is a part of the
Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by
Europe, on the south by
Africa, and on the east by
Asia. It covers an approximate area of
2.5 million km² (965 000
mi²), but its connection to the Atlantic (the
Strait of Gibraltar) is only 14 km (9 mi) wide. In
oceanography, it is sometimes called
the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or
the European Mediterranean Sea, to distinguish it from
mediterranean seas elsewhere.
It was a
superhighway of transport in ancient times, allowing for trade and cultural exchange between emergent peoples of the region —
Phoenicians,
Egyptians,
Carthaginians,
Greeks,
Romans, and the
Middle East (Persian/Semitic) cultures. The
history of the Mediterranean is important in understanding the origin and development of
Western Civilization.
The term
Mediterranean derives from the
Latin mediterraneus, 'inland' (
medius, 'middle' +
terra, 'land, earth'), in
Greek "mesogeios", or in
Portuguese meio de terras.
The Mediterranean Sea has been known by a number of alternative names throughout human history. It was, for example, commonly called
Mare Nostrum (Latin,
Our Sea), and occasionally
Mare Internum by the Romans. (
Sallust,
Jug. 17). In the
Old Testament, on the west coast of the
Holy Land, and therefore behind a person facing the east, it is called the "Hinder Sea", sometimes translated as "Western Sea", (
Deut. xi. 24;
Joel, ii. 20), and also the "Sea of the Philistines" (
Exod. xxii. 81), because that people occupied a large portion of its shores near the
Israelites. Mostly, however, it was the "Great Sea" (
Num. xxxiv. 6, 7;
Josh. i. 4, ix. 1, xv. 47;
Ezek. xlvii. 10, 15, 20), or simply "The Sea" (
1 Kings, v. 9;
comp. 1 Macc. xiv. 34. xv. 11). In
Hebrew, it is called "ha-Yam ha-Tikhon" ("ַיָּם "ַתִּיכוֹן), "the middle sea", a literal adaptation of the German equivalent
Mittelmeer. In
Turkish, it is
Akdeniz, "the white sea". In Arabic, it is
Al-Baħr Al-Abyad Al-Muttawasit (البحر الأبيض المتوسط), "the middle white sea".
Most languages spoken around the Mediterranean have a name for the sea, often a translation of either "middle sea" or "white sea", including:
*
Albanian:
Deti Mesdhe*
Arabic:
Al-Baħr Al-Abyad Al-Muttawasit (البحر الأبيض المتوسط)
*
Bosnian:
Sredozemno more*
Bulgarian:
Средиземно Море*
Catalan:
Mar Mediterrània*
Croatian:
Sredozemno more*
Danish:
Middelhavet ("Middle sea")
*
Dutch:
Middellandse zee ("Middle-land sea")
*
French:
Mer Méditerranée*
German:
das Mittelmeer ("Middle sea")
*
Greek:
Mesogeios Thalassa (Μεσόγειος Θάλασσα), and, earlier,
Asori Thalassa ()
*
Hebrew:
ha-Yam ha-Tikhon ("ים "תיכון) ["Middle Sea"]
*
Icelandic:
Miðjarðarhaf*
Italian:
Mar(e) Mediterraneo*
Latin:
Mare Mediterraneum, or
Mare Nostrum*
Macedonian:
Средоземно Море*
Maltese:
Baħar Mediterran*
Polish:
Morze Śródziemne*
Portuguese:
Mar Mediterrâneo*
Serbian:
Sredozemno more (Средоземно море)
*
Slovak:
Stredozemné more*
Slovenian:
Sredozemsko morje*
Spanish:
Mar Mediterráneo*
Swedish:
Medelhavet ("Middle sea")
*
Turkish:
AkdenizCurrently, "The Med" is a common
British English contraction for the Mediterranean Sea and its surrounding regions when employed in informal speech.
|
Map of the Mediterranean Sea |
The Mediterranean Sea is connected to the
Atlantic Ocean by the
Strait of Gibraltar on the west and to the
Sea of Marmara and
Black Sea, by the
Dardanelles and the
Bosporus respectively, on the east. The Sea of Marmara is often considered a part of the Mediterranean Sea, whereas the Black Sea is generally not. The man-made
Suez Canal in the south-east connects the Mediterranean Sea with the
Red Sea.
Large
islands in the Mediterranean include
Cyprus,
Crete,
Euboea,
Rhodes,
Lesbos,
Chios,
Kefalonia and
Corfu in the eastern Mediterranean;
Sardinia,
Corsica,
Sicily, and
Malta in the central Mediterranean; and
Ibiza,
Majorca and
Minorca (the
Balearic Islands) in the western Mediterranean.
The
Mediterranean climate is generally one of wet winters and hot, dry summers. Special crops of the region are
olives,
grapes,
oranges,
tangerines, and
cork.
Being nearly landlocked strongly affects the Mediterranean Sea's properties; for instance,
tides are very limited as a result of the narrow connection with the
ocean.
Evaporation greatly exceeds
precipitation and river runoff in the Mediterranean, a fact that is central to the entire circulation of the basin.
[Pinet, Paul R. (1996) Invitation to Oceanography, St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., ISBN 0763721360 (3rd ed.), p.202] Evaporation is especially high in its eastern half, causing the water level to decrease and
salinity to increase eastward.
[Pinet, p. 206] This
pressure gradient pushes relatively cool, low-salinity water from the Atlantic across the basin; it warms and becomes saltier as it travels east, then sinks in the region of the
Levant and circulates westward, to spill over the Strait of Gibraltar.
[Pinet, pp. 206-7] Thus, seawater flow is eastward in the Strait's surface waters, and westward below; once in the open ocean, this chemically-distinct
Mediterranean Intermediate Water can persist thousands of kilometers away from its source.
[Pinet, p. 207]22 modern states have a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea. They are:
*
Europe (from west to east):
Spain,
France,
Monaco,
Italy, the island state of
Malta,
Slovenia,
Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro,
Albania,
Greece,
Turkey, and the island
Republic of Cyprus.
*
Asia (from north to south):
Turkey,
Syria,
Lebanon and
Israel.
*
Africa (from east to west):
Egypt,
Libya,
Tunisia,
Algeria and
Morocco.
Several other entities not recognized by all as states also border the Mediterranean Sea (from west to east):
* The
Crown colony of
Gibraltar.
* The
Spanish exclaves of
Ceuta and
Melilla and nearby islands.
* The autonomous monastic state of
Mount Athos.
* The
de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
* The
sovereign base area of
Akrotiri and Dhekelia* The
Gaza Strip, which current plans foresee being part of an independent
State of Palestine.
Portugal and
Jordan, although they do not border the sea, are usually considered Mediterranean countries in a wider sense due to their Mediterranean climate, fauna and flora, and their cultural affinity with other Mediterranean countries.
The Mediterranean Sea is sub-divided into a number of smaller seas, each with their own designation (from west to east):
* the
Alboran Sea, between
Spain and
Morocco,
* the
Balearic Sea, between mainland
Spain and its
Balearic Islands,
* the
Ligurian Sea between
Corsica and
Liguria (Italy),
* the
Tyrrhenian Sea enclosed by
Sardinia,
Italian peninsula and
Sicily,
* the
Adriatic Sea between the Italian peninsula and the
Croatian (
Dalmatian),
Bosnian and the coast of
Montenegro* the
Ionian Sea between
Italy,
Greece, and
Albania,
* the
Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, with
** the
Thracian Sea in its north,
** the
Myrtoan Sea between the
Cyclades and the
Peloponnesos,
** the
Sea of Crete north of Crete, and
* the
Libyan Sea south of
Crete, between the island and
Libya* the
Sea of Marmara between the
Aegean and
Black Seas.
* the
Cilician Sea between
Turkey and
CyprusMany of these smaller seas feature in local myth and folklore and derive their names from these associations. In addition to the seas, a number of
gulfs and
straits are also recognised:
*the
Gulf of Corinth, an enclosed sea between the Ionian Sea and the
Corinth Canal*the
Saronic Gulf, the gulf of
Athens, between the Corinth Canal and the Mirtoon Sea
*the
Thermaic Gulf, the gulf of
Thessaloniki, located in the northern Greek region of
Macedonia*the
Gulf of Lion, south of
France*the
Strait of Messina, between
Sicily and the toe of
Italy*the
Gulf of Taranto, southern Italy,
*the
Gulf of Haifa, between
Haifa and
Akko,
Israel*the
Gulf of Sidra, between
Tunisia and
Cyrenaica (eastern Libya)
*the
Strait of Sicily, between
Sicily and
Tunisia*the
Corsica Channel, between
Corsica and
Italy*the
Strait of Bonifacio, between
Sardinia and
Corsica*the
Gulf of Iskenderun, between Iskenderun and Adana (
Turkey).
*the
Gulf of Antalya, between west and east shores of Antalya (
Turkey).
The geology of the Mediterranean is complex, involving the break-up and then collision of the African and Eurasian plates, and the
Messinian Salinity Crisis in the late
Miocene when the Mediterranean dried up.
The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500
m and the deepest recorded point is 5267 meters (about 3.27 miles) in the
Calypso Deep in the
Ionian Sea. The coastline extends for 46,000
km. A shallow submarine ridge (the Strait of Sicily) between the island of
Sicily and the coast of
Tunisia divides the sea in two main subregions (which in turn are divided into subdivisions), the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean. The Western Mediterranean covers an area of about 0.85 million
km² and the Eastern Mediterranean about 1.65 million
km².
In the last few centuries, mankind has done much to alter Mediterranean geology. Structures have been built all along the coastlines, exacerbating and rerouting erosional patterns. Many pollution-producing boats travel the sea that unbalance the natural chemical ratios of the region. Beaches have been mismanaged, and the overuse of the sea's natural and marine resources continues to be a problem. This misuse speeds along and/or confounds natural processes. The actual geography has also been altered by the building of dams and canals.
The Mediterranean was once thought to be the remnant of the
Tethys Ocean. It is now known to be a structurally younger ocean basin known as Neotethys. Neotethys formed during the Late
Triassic and Early
Jurassic rifting of the African and Eurasian
plates.
As a result of the drying of the sea during the
Messinian Salinity Crisis, the marine biota of the Mediterranean are derived primarily from the
Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic is considerably colder and more nutrient-rich than the Mediterranean, and the marine life of the Mediterranean has had to adapt to its differing conditions in the five million years since the basin was reflooded.
The opening of the
Suez Canal in 1869 created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean and
Red seas. The Red Sea is higher than the Eastern Mediterranean, so the canal serves as a salt-water river that pours Red Sea water into the Mediterranean. The
Bitter Lakes, which are hypersaline natural lakes that form part of the canal, blocked the migration of Red Sea species into the Mediterranean for many decades, but as the salinity of the lakes gradually equalized with that of the Red Sea, the barrier to migration was removed, and plants and animals from the Red Sea have begun to colonize the eastern Mediterranean. The Red Sea is generally saltier and more nutrient-poor than the Atlantic, so the Red Sea species have advantages over Atlantic species in the salty and nutrient-poor Eastern Mediterranean. The construction of the
Aswan High Dam across the
Nile River in the 1960s reduced the inflow of freshwater and nutrient-rich silt from the Nile into the eastern Mediterranean, which has made conditions there even more like the Red Sea. This species exchange is known as the
Lessepsian Migration, after
Ferdinand de Lesseps, the engineer who oversaw the canal's construction.
*
Seaports of Valencia (Spain)*
Mediterranean Basin*
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub*
Mediterranean sea (
oceanography term)
*
List of islands in the Mediterranean*
Familial Mediterranean fever*
History of the Mediterranean*
Holy League (Mediterranean)*
Inland Sea, which is sometimes named after the Japanese Mediterranean Sea
*
Suez Canal*
Planblue - Environment and Development in the Mediterranean Regionnds-nl:Middellaandse Zee
