Mediterranean Sea
Satellite image of the Mediterranean basin .
Area	2,510,000 km 2
Depth	5150 m (max.) 1 500 m (avg.)
Type	Intercontinental sea
Location	Atlantic Ocean
Contact	36 N 17 E / 36, 17 36 N 17 E / 36, 17
Coastal state (s)	Spain , Gibraltar , France , Monaco , Italy , Malta , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Montenegro , Albania , Greece , Turkey , Cyprus , Northern Cyprus , Akrotiri and Dhekelia ( enclaves British), Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , Libya , Tunisia , Algeria , Morocco
Subdivision (s)	Alboran Sea , Ligurian Sea , Tyrrhenian Sea , Ionian Sea , Adriatic Sea , Sea of Crete , Aegean , Thracian Sea , Marmara Sea
Geolocation on the map: World
change

The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea almost completely enclosed, located between Europe , the Africa and Asia and covers an area of approximately 2.5 million square kilometers ^Etymology

The Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea in the far western Mediterranean view from a satellite

The term comes from the Mediterranean to Latin mediterraneus, meaning "middle land" understood "the known world" (medius for middle and earth to earth).

The Mediterranean Sea is, or was known by many names throughout history:

• "Great Green" (W D-wr), that is how the Egyptians of antiquity called it;
• Her name was most often Mare Nostrum ("our sea") or occasionally internum Mare ("Inland Sea") to Roman times;
• In the Old Testament , on the west coast of the Holy Land , it was called the "sea Hinder," sometimes translated as "Western Sea" (Deut. 9.24; Joel 2.20), or as the "sea of the Philistines" (Exod. 23.31), because these people occupied a large part of the coast near the Palestine. However, sometimes it was the "Sea supreme" (Nb.34 0.6 to 7; Jos.1, 4, 9.1, 15.47; Ez. .. 47.10 15 .. 20) or simply "the Sea" (1 Kings 5.9; 1 Macc. 14.34, 15.11);
• In Hebrew it is called ha-Yam ha-Tikhon ( ), "Sea environment", a literal adaptation of German Mittelmeer;
• In Turkish , it is Akdeniz, "the White Sea," that is to say, the "Sea south "because the Turks formerly denoting the cardinal points by colors (and Black Sea meant to them as the North Sea " red for the west , green or yellow for the east );
• In Arabic it is called Al-Bahr Al-Abyad Al-Muttawasit ( ), "the middle white sea".
• In Berber , she was appointed he / she shall Agrakal, literally "sea between lands" (he / she shall-Agr-Akkal).

Most languages of the countries around the Mediterranean have a name to their own culture, often a translation of the "sea in the middle" or "white sea":

The term "Mediterranean Sea" also sometimes an almost enclosed sea communicating with the ocean, since Spain and northern Morocco are almost touching.

History

The Mediterranean basin is rich in ancient and complex history. It is the cradle of Western civilization. The ancient world is experiencing a proliferation of diverse civilizations like the Egyptians or Mesopotamians. Then, great empires took control of the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. The Greece , Carthage and Rome are well known for their dominance around the Mediterranean basin. They developed the maritime trade and naval warfare.

Geology

Relief of the Mediterranean Sea

Tectonic map of the Mediterranean

Some key figures:

- Average Depth: 1500 meters. Some of his rival those depths of the oceans, as in the Tyrrhenian waves (3731 meters) and under the tablecloth Ionian (5121 m);

- Area: 2.5 million square kilometers (3 million with the Black Sea , or 1% of the world ocean);

- Volume: 3.7 million km ;

The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1500 meters and the deepest recorded point is 5,121 meters in the Ionian Sea in the palm of the Matapan Trench (off the Peloponnese ). The coastline runs about 46,000 miles. The Mediterranean basin is divided into two well distinguished, separated by shoals located between Sicily and Tunisia : the western Mediterranean and the eastern Mediterranean, themselves clearly compartmentalized. The first covers an area of approximately 0.85 million square kilometers while the second covers about 1.65 million km.

The Mediterranean is at the boundary between two plates: the African and Eurasian plates. These two plates come together, what is the origin of continental collision and subduction. This explains the strong seismic activity in this region and the volcanism ( Vesuvius , Etna , Stromboli , Santorini ...).

The bottom of the western Mediterranean is composed of oceanic lithosphere relatively recent, which began to form in the Miocene. The eastern Mediterranean is also composed of oceanic lithosphere but older age dating of the Mesozoic era. It is the remnant of an ancient ocean: the Tethys. This ancient oceanic lithosphere sinking (subduction) in Italy, Sicily, Aegean Sea , which is behind the rise of the African continent, but also the stretching of the lithosphere in the Aegean and the Algerian-Provenal basin and the Tyrrhenian Sea. The recent earthquakes in Italy originate this stretching of the crust.

Geological history

The Mediterranean Sea is partly a vestige of a former ocean that is now called the Tethys , which was larger than the Mediterranean Sea today. From the Cretaceous , the Tethys was "closed" gradually subduction , with the approximation of the African and Eurasian continents. This leads to the formation of mountain ranges, such as the Pyrenees or the Alps. During the Oligocene (there are 30 million years), the western Mediterranean undergoes a phase of stretch that separates Corsica and Sardinia on the European continent.

There are five million years ago, the Strait of Gibraltar was closed reducing the Mediterranean Sea in a very salty lake. This episode is called the Messinian salinity crisis. Of salt deposits in the seabed produced during a million years attest to this phenomenon. Then the difference in level between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean caused disruption of the natural dam of rocks blocking the Strait. A huge waterfall then filled in forty years the volume of water that had taken hundreds of years to evaporate.

The seabed of the Mediterranean Sea are changing today because the African and Eurasian plates are in contact. Their movements cause earthquakes in Italy , Greece , Turkey and Israel maintain and volcanic activity in Italy, with Mount Etna , the Vesuvius and Stromboli.

Geography

The Mediterranean is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar to the west, the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea by the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus to the east. The Marmara Sea - but not the Black Sea - is often considered part of the Mediterranean. The Suez Canal in the southeast connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.

The Mediterranean climate is characterized by mild and wet winter and a hot, dry summer. However, the inter-season gave way to a certain violence climate. Of heavy rain and very violent sometimes batter while the land drained by drought can not absorb rainfall (sometimes equivalent to three months of rain or more depending on latitude). Frequent flooding as evidenced for vidourlades frequent in Vaison-la-Romaine in 1992 and the Aude in 2000.

The tides are low amplitude and evaporation is more important than in the Atlantic Ocean. Precipitation and the relatively small amount of water supplied by rivers flowing into it are not sufficient to fill the evaporation (deficit of about 3000 million cubic meters) where a rate of salinity and higher water temperatures warmer than the Atlantic.

The Mediterranean Sea political map

Mediterranean Islands

The main islands of the Mediterranean are:

- Cyprus , the Crete and Rhodes in the east;

- Of Sardinia , the Corsica , the Sicily and Malta in the center;

- The Balearic Islands to the west.

- Djerba south-eastern Tunisia.

Coastal Countries

The countries bordering the Mediterranean are:

- North: the France , Monaco , the Italian , the Slovenia , the Croatia , the Bosnia-Herzegovina , the Montenegro , the Albanian , the Greece and Turkey ;

- Eastward: the Syria , the Lebanon , Israel ;

- Southward: the Egypt , the Libyan , of Tunisia , the Algeria and Morocco ;

- Westward: the Spain ;

- Center: Malta and Cyprus.

Which can be added to the west Gibraltar , possession of the United Kingdom , and is the Gaza Strip , which is legally independent of any State.

Townships Mediterranean

The Mediterranean Sea is divided into two basins separated by very shallow water between Sicily and Tunisia. Each basin is divided into different compartments named seas, basins or bays, sometimes themselves divided into smaller geographical areas:

Several straits connecting the different parts of the Mediterranean:

• the Dardanelles
• the Strait of Otranto
• the Strait of Messina
• the Corsica Channel
• the Sicily Channel
• the Strait of Bonifacio

Ecology

Biodiversity

The Mediterranean is one of the last remnants of the oceanic Tethys , the majority of its species are pantropical (all species in the warm seas of the world: coral reefs Porites , mangroves ) before the Messinian salinity crisis. Closing the communication with the Indian Ocean there is 14-18 Ma and the desiccation of the Mediterranean during this crisis Messinian ago from 5.96 to 5.33 Ma have meant that the habitat of the Mediterranean sea is since then mainly from the Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic is much colder and richer in food than the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean marine life has had to adapt to changing conditions over the past five million years following its filling .

The Mediterranean represents 0.8% of the global ocean surface and 8-9% of the biodiversity Navy (10 to 12 000 species). The continental area of the Mediterranean represents 1.6% of the continental surface and 10% of global biodiversity (including 20 000 plants, 38% of endemics). The Mediterranean flora and fauna include about 20-30% of endemic , 3-10% of pantropical species, 55-70% of Atlantic species and 5% of "species lessepsian" . The rate of endemism is 18% in the Decapoda and fish , 46% for sponges , 20% for algae , 50% among ascidians , so that the Mediterranean is in second place worldwide in terms wealth of endemic species .

Current Situation

The digging of the Suez Canal in 1869 created the first passage of seawater between the Mediterranean and Red Sea. The latter is higher than the eastern Mediterranean. Also, the channel formed a river of salt water from the Red Sea flowing into the sea water of the Mediterranean. The Great Lakes of America, which are very normal saline lakes form the Suez canal and blocked the migration of species from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean for decades, but as the salinity of the lake has gradually equalized with that of Red Sea, the migration barrier was lifted, and the plants and animals from the Red Sea have begun to colonize the eastern Mediterranean.

The Mediterranean Sea is saltier and more nutrient poor than the Atlantic Ocean as the Strait of Gibraltar blocking the main currents of the Atlantic. The animal and plant species on the Red Sea took the lead on species from the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern Mediterranean environment, low salt foods. The construction of the Aswan High Dam across the Nile in the 1960s has reduced the supply of nutrient rich freshwater into the eastern Mediterranean, which makes the environment of the Mediterranean near the Red Sea. This exchange of "species lessepsian" or "Eritrean" (Greek eruthros meaning "red") is known as migration Lesseps, according to Ferdinand de Lesseps , the engineer who oversaw construction of the canal. These species mainly settled in the eastern basin and it acclimate , so that 15% of fish are exotic Eastern Mediterranean in 2007 (in Turkey they represent 43% of fisheries resources in Lebanon , 72% of fish are of Siganus rivulatus ). Some migrate into the western basin ( Siganus luridus , Fistularia commersoni).

In 2008, 560 alien species (a majority of fish, molluscs and arthropods) have been identified in the Mediterranean. Their arrival routes are the Straits of Suez, the Strait of Gibraltar and the way human (including the aquaculture , water ballast or fouling ). 220 are from the Indo-Pacific basin , 100 of the Indian Ocean , 58 Red Sea, 34 of the Atlantic Ocean. .

Forecasting

Climate disruption may have exacerbated the effects on the Mediterranean biogeographical zone which houses a large number of hot-spot of biodiversity. Anticipating the effects of climate change on water, agriculture, tourism, fisheries, energy, transportation and urban planning and environment and health ( zoonoses , outbreaks , emerging diseases ) in this area is a growing priority for elected officials and residents of this area already degraded by forest fires and droughts .

Economy

Mediterranean view from Menton.

The Mediterranean basin focuses 150 million and attracts nearly 200 million visitors each year / Sup>. 20% oil, 30% of world merchant ships traveling in the Mediterranean, for a total traffic of 120 000 vessels ^{First tourist destination in the world}

It is on the Med, the Italian Riviera to the Cote d'Azur , the tourism industry has emerged at the turn of the nineteenth ^century. Since then, the region hosts a growing number of travelers: it captures almost a third of world tourism. Within twenty years to come, France , the Spain and Italy remain the leaders, but Turkey and Egypt are expected to triple or even quadruple the number of visitors. Between 2000 and 2025, throughout the Mediterranean region, the number of "pilgrims summer" should take off from 300 to 600 million.

Some figures

• Area: 2.51 million km
• Size: 3860 km from east to west and 1,600 km from north to south
• Perimeter: 46 000 km of coastline
• Depth: average: 1500 m, maximum: 5150 m
• Renewal of water: about 90 years
• Contribution of fisheries: approximately 2% of global fisheries
• Salinity average around 3.8%
• Rivers flowing into it: 69
• The most important rivers: the Po , Rhone , Nile , Ebro

References

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