Adriatic Sea | Aegean Sea | Alboran Sea | Balearic Sea | Ionian Sea | Ligurian Sea | Sea Of Marmara | Tyrrhenian Sea | Gulf Of Sidra
The Mediterranean Sea is an inland sea which is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia, and in the south by Africa.
This 969,100 square miles body of water is approximately 2,300 miles in length, and has a maximum depth of 16,896 feet. It’s greatest depth is in the Ionian Basin south of Greece at 16,800 feet (5,121 metres) below sea level. It contains many sub-divided smaller seas such as the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Alboran Sea, Balearic Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, Ionian Sea, Sea Of Marmara, Gulf Of Sidra and Ligurian Sea. Its coastline extends 46,000 km/28,580 miles, running through 22 countries.
It was thought to be the remnant of the ancient Tethys Sea, which formerly girdled the Eastern Hemisphere. It is now known to be a structurally younger basin. It’s continental shelves are relatively narrow.
It lies 35 degrees north, 18 degrees east of the Atlantic Ocean and is almost completely enclosed by land. It is connected to the Atlantic by the Strait of Gibraltar on the west side which is only 14 km (9 miles) wide, 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. 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 — the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Semitic, Persian, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Greek and Roman cultures. The history of the Mediterranean is very important in understanding the origin and development of Western Civilization. To the ancient Romans, the Mediterranean was the centre of the Earth as they knew it.
Most languages have a name for the sea, often a translation of either "middle sea" or "white sea". The British term for this sea is usually called 'The Med'.
There are many large islands in the Mediterranean Sea which 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. Crops of the region include olives, grapes, oranges, tangerines, and cork. Dust storms can sweep across the Mediterranean like the one that originated in the Sahara Desert and swept across the Mediterranean Sea on February 24, 2007. The storm also clouded skies over Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and Egypt.
Becasue this sea is virtually landlocked, it affects the Mediterranean Sea's properties. Tides are very limited as a result of the narrow connection with the Atlantic ocean. The Mediterranean is characterized and immediately recognized by its imposing deep blue colour, especially around Greek islands.
Evaporation greatly exceeds precipitation (rain, sleet, hail, snow and other forms of water falling from the sky) and river runoff in the Mediterranean, a fact that is central to the water circulation within the basin. Evaporation is especially high in the eastern half, causing the water level to decrease and salinity to increase eastward. This pressure gradient pushes relatively cool, low-salinity water from the Atlantic across the basin. There, it warms and becomes saltier as it travels east, then sinks in the region of the Levant (an imprecise geographical term historically referring to a large area in the Middle East south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and by the northern Arabian Desert and Upper Mesopotamia to the east) and circulates westward, to spill over the Strait of Gibraltar. Therefore, seawater flow is eastward in the Strait's surface waters, and westwardly-distinct Mediterranean Intermediate Water can persist thousands of kilometres away from its source.
As aforementioned, the Mediterranean Sea is divided into sub-seas. There are 9 sub-seas in total with one particular sub-sea, the Aegean Sea having its own 3 sub-seas. Detailed below is the Meds sub-seas, click on each individual one to find out more about it:
Adriatic Sea | Aegean Sea | Alboran Sea | Balearic Sea | Ionian Sea | Ligurian Sea | Sea Of Marmara | Tyrrhenian Sea | Gulf Of Sidra
