Due to the relatively recent rise in interest in making popular science films about space exploration, the modern viewer has heard a lot about such phenomena as the singularity, or black hole. However, films obviously do not reveal the full nature of these phenomena, and sometimes even distort the constructed scientific theories for greater effect. For this reason, the idea of ​​many modern people about these phenomena is either completely superficial or completely erroneous. One of the solutions to the problem that has arisen is this article, in which we will try to understand the existing research results and answer the question - what is a black hole?

In 1784, the English priest and naturalist John Michell first mentioned in a letter to the Royal Society a hypothetical massive body that has such a strong gravitational attraction that the second cosmic velocity for it would exceed the speed of light. The second cosmic velocity is the speed that a relatively small object would need to overcome the gravitational pull of a celestial body and leave the closed orbit around this body. According to his calculations, a body with the density of the Sun and with a radius of 500 solar radii will have on its surface a second cosmic velocity equal to the speed of light. In this case, even light will not leave the surface of such a body, and therefore this body will only absorb the incoming light and remain invisible to the observer - a kind of black spot against the background of dark space.

However, the concept of a supermassive body proposed by Michell did not attract much interest until the work of Einstein. Recall that the latter defined the speed of light as the limiting speed of information transfer. In addition, Einstein expanded the theory of gravity for speeds close to the speed of light (). As a result, it was no longer relevant to apply the Newtonian theory to black holes.

Einstein's equation

As a result of applying general relativity to black holes and solving Einstein's equations, the main parameters of a black hole were revealed, of which there are only three: mass, electric charge, and angular momentum. It should be noted the significant contribution of the Indian astrophysicist Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, who created a fundamental monograph: "The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes".

Thus, the solution of the Einstein equations is represented by four options for four possible types of black holes:

• Black hole without rotation and without charge - Schwarzschild's solution. One of the first descriptions of a black hole (1916) using Einstein's equations, but without taking into account two of the three parameters of the body. The solution of the German physicist Karl Schwarzschild allows you to calculate the external gravitational field of a spherical massive body. A feature of the German scientist's concept of black holes is the presence of an event horizon and the one behind it. Schwarzschild also first calculated the gravitational radius, which received his name, which determines the radius of the sphere on which the event horizon would be located for a body with a given mass.
• A black hole without rotation with a charge - the Reisner-Nordström solution. A solution put forward in 1916-1918, taking into account the possible electric charge of a black hole. This charge cannot be arbitrarily large and is limited due to the resulting electrical repulsion. The latter must be compensated by gravitational attraction.
• A black hole with rotation and no charge - Kerr's solution (1963). A rotating Kerr black hole differs from a static one by the presence of the so-called ergosphere (read on about this and other components of a black hole).
• BH with rotation and charge - Kerr-Newman solution. This solution was calculated in 1965 and is currently the most complete, since it takes into account all three BH parameters. However, it is still assumed that black holes in nature have an insignificant charge.

The formation of a black hole

There are several theories about how a black hole is formed and appears, the most famous of which is the emergence of a star with sufficient mass as a result of gravitational collapse. Such compression can end the evolution of stars with a mass of more than three solar masses. Upon completion of thermonuclear reactions inside such stars, they begin to rapidly shrink into a superdense one. If the pressure of the gas of a neutron star cannot compensate for the gravitational forces, that is, the mass of the star overcomes the so-called. Oppenheimer-Volkov limit, then the collapse continues, as a result of which matter is compressed into a black hole.

The second scenario describing the birth of a black hole is the compression of protogalactic gas, that is, interstellar gas that is at the stage of transformation into a galaxy or some kind of cluster. In the case of insufficient internal pressure to compensate for the same gravitational forces, a black hole can arise.

Two other scenarios remain hypothetical:

• The occurrence of a black hole as a result - the so-called. primordial black holes.
• Occurrence as a result of nuclear reactions at high energies. An example of such reactions is experiments on colliders.

Structure and physics of black holes

The structure of a black hole according to Schwarzschild includes only two elements that were mentioned earlier: the singularity and the event horizon of a black hole. Briefly speaking about the singularity, it can be noted that it is impossible to draw a straight line through it, and also that most of the existing physical theories do not work inside it. Thus, the physics of the singularity remains a mystery to scientists today. black hole - this is a kind of border, crossing which, a physical object loses the ability to return back beyond it and unequivocally "fall" into the singularity of a black hole.

The structure of a black hole becomes somewhat more complicated in the case of the Kerr solution, namely, in the presence of BH rotation. Kerr's solution implies that the hole has an ergosphere. Ergosphere - a certain area located outside the event horizon, inside which all bodies move in the direction of rotation of the black hole. This area is not yet exciting and it is possible to leave it, unlike the event horizon. The ergosphere is probably a kind of analogue of an accretion disk, which represents a rotating substance around massive bodies. If a static Schwarzschild black hole is represented as a black sphere, then the Kerry black hole, due to the presence of an ergosphere, has the shape of an oblate ellipsoid, in the form of which we often saw black holes in drawings, in old movies or video games.

• How much does a black hole weigh? - The largest theoretical material on the appearance of a black hole is available for the scenario of its appearance as a result of the collapse of a star. In this case, the maximum mass of a neutron star and the minimum mass of a black hole are determined by the Oppenheimer-Volkov limit, according to which the lower limit of the BH mass is 2.5 - 3 solar masses. The heaviest black hole ever discovered (in the galaxy NGC 4889) has a mass of 21 billion solar masses. However, one should not forget about black holes, hypothetically resulting from nuclear reactions at high energies, such as those at colliders. The mass of such quantum black holes, in other words "Planck black holes" is of the order of , namely 2 10 −5 g.
• Black hole size. The minimum BH radius can be calculated from the minimum mass (2.5 - 3 solar masses). If the gravitational radius of the Sun, that is, the area where the event horizon would be, is about 2.95 km, then the minimum radius of a BH of 3 solar masses will be about nine kilometers. Such relatively small sizes do not fit in the head when it comes to massive objects that attract everything around. However, for quantum black holes, the radius is -10 −35 m.
• The average density of a black hole depends on two parameters: mass and radius. The density of a black hole with a mass of about three solar masses is about 6 10 26 kg/m³, while the density of water is 1000 kg/m³. However, such small black holes have not been found by scientists. Most of the detected BHs have masses greater than 105 solar masses. There is an interesting pattern according to which the more massive the black hole, the lower its density. In this case, a change in mass by 11 orders of magnitude entails a change in density by 22 orders of magnitude. Thus, a black hole with a mass of 1 ·10 9 solar masses has a density of 18.5 kg/m³, which is one less than the density of gold. And black holes with a mass of more than 10 10 solar masses can have an average density less than the density of air. Based on these calculations, it is logical to assume that the formation of a black hole occurs not due to the compression of matter, but as a result of the accumulation of a large amount of matter in a certain volume. In the case of quantum black holes, their density can be about 10 94 kg/m³.
• The temperature of a black hole is also inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is directly related to . The spectrum of this radiation coincides with the spectrum of a completely black body, that is, a body that absorbs all incident radiation. The radiation spectrum of a black body depends only on its temperature, then the temperature of a black hole can be determined from the Hawking radiation spectrum. As mentioned above, this radiation is the more powerful, the smaller the black hole. At the same time, Hawking radiation remains hypothetical, since it has not yet been observed by astronomers. It follows from this that if Hawking radiation exists, then the temperature of the observed BHs is so low that it does not allow one to detect the indicated radiation. According to calculations, even the temperature of a hole with a mass on the order of the mass of the Sun is negligibly small (1 ·10 -7 K or -272°C). The temperature of quantum black holes can reach about 10 12 K, and with their rapid evaporation (about 1.5 min.), such black holes can emit energy of the order of ten million atomic bombs. But, fortunately, the creation of such hypothetical objects will require energy 10 14 times greater than that achieved today at the Large Hadron Collider. In addition, such phenomena have never been observed by astronomers.

What is a CHD made of?

Another question worries both scientists and those who are simply fond of astrophysics - what does a black hole consist of? There is no single answer to this question, since it is not possible to look beyond the event horizon surrounding any black hole. In addition, as mentioned earlier, the theoretical models of a black hole provide for only 3 of its components: the ergosphere, the event horizon, and the singularity. It is logical to assume that in the ergosphere there are only those objects that were attracted by the black hole, and which now revolve around it - various kinds of cosmic bodies and cosmic gas. The event horizon is just a thin implicit border, once beyond which, the same cosmic bodies are irrevocably attracted towards the last main component of the black hole - the singularity. The nature of the singularity has not been studied today, and it is too early to talk about its composition.

According to some assumptions, a black hole may consist of neutrons. If we follow the scenario of the occurrence of a black hole as a result of the compression of a star to a neutron star with its subsequent compression, then, probably, the main part of the black hole consists of neutrons, of which the neutron star itself consists. In simple words: When a star collapses, its atoms are compressed in such a way that electrons combine with protons, thereby forming neutrons. Such a reaction does indeed take place in nature, with the formation of a neutron, neutrino emission occurs. However, these are just guesses.

What happens if you fall into a black hole?

Falling into an astrophysical black hole leads to stretching of the body. Consider a hypothetical suicide astronaut heading into a black hole wearing nothing but a space suit, feet first. Crossing the event horizon, the astronaut will not notice any changes, despite the fact that he no longer has the opportunity to get back. At some point, the astronaut will reach a point (slightly behind the event horizon) where the deformation of his body will begin to occur. Since the gravitational field of a black hole is non-uniform and is represented by a force gradient increasing towards the center, the astronaut's legs will be subjected to a noticeably greater gravitational effect than, for example, the head. Then, due to gravity, or rather, tidal forces, the legs will “fall” faster. Thus, the body begins to gradually stretch in length. To describe this phenomenon, astrophysicists have come up with a rather creative term - spaghettification. Further stretching of the body will probably decompose it into atoms, which, sooner or later, will reach a singularity. One can only guess what a person will feel in this situation. It is worth noting that the effect of stretching the body is inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole. That is, if a BH with the mass of three Suns instantly stretches/breaks the body, then the supermassive black hole will have lower tidal forces and, there are suggestions that some physical materials could “tolerate” such a deformation without losing their structure.

As you know, near massive objects, time flows more slowly, which means that time for a suicide astronaut will flow much more slowly than for earthlings. In that case, perhaps he will outlive not only his friends, but the Earth itself. Calculations will be required to determine how much time will slow down for an astronaut, but from the above it can be assumed that the astronaut will fall into the black hole very slowly and may simply not live to see the moment when his body begins to deform.

It is noteworthy that for an observer outside, all bodies that have flown up to the event horizon will remain at the edge of this horizon until their image disappears. The reason for this phenomenon is the gravitational redshift. Simplifying somewhat, we can say that the light falling on the body of a suicide astronaut "frozen" at the event horizon will change its frequency due to its slowed down time. As time passes more slowly, the frequency of light will decrease and the wavelength will increase. As a result of this phenomenon, at the output, that is, for an external observer, the light will gradually shift towards the low-frequency - red. A shift of light along the spectrum will take place, as the suicide astronaut moves further and further away from the observer, albeit almost imperceptibly, and his time flows more and more slowly. Thus, the light reflected by his body will soon go beyond the visible spectrum (the image will disappear), and in the future the astronaut's body can be caught only in the infrared region, later in the radio frequency region, and as a result, the radiation will be completely elusive.

Despite what has been written above, it is assumed that in very large supermassive black holes, tidal forces do not change so much with distance and act almost uniformly on the falling body. In such a case, the falling spacecraft would retain its structure. A reasonable question arises - where does a black hole lead? This question can be answered by the work of some scientists, linking two such phenomena as wormholes and black holes.

Back in 1935, Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen, taking into account, put forward a hypothesis about the existence of so-called wormholes, connecting two points of space-time by way in places of significant curvature of the latter - the Einstein-Rosen bridge or wormhole. For such a powerful curvature of space, bodies with a gigantic mass will be required, with the role of which black holes would perfectly cope.

The Einstein-Rosen Bridge is considered an impenetrable wormhole, as it is small and unstable.

A traversable wormhole is possible within the theory of black and white holes. Where the white hole is the output of information that fell into the black hole. The white hole is described in the framework of general relativity, but today it remains hypothetical and has not been discovered. Another model of a wormhole was proposed by American scientists Kip Thorne and his graduate student Mike Morris, which can be passable. However, as in the case of the Morris-Thorne wormhole, so in the case of black and white holes, the possibility of travel requires the existence of so-called exotic matter, which has negative energy and also remains hypothetical.

Black holes in the universe

The existence of black holes was confirmed relatively recently (September 2015), but before that time there was already a lot of theoretical material on the nature of black holes, as well as many candidate objects for the role of a black hole. First of all, one should take into account the dimensions of the black hole, since the very nature of the phenomenon depends on them:

• stellar mass black hole. Such objects are formed as a result of the collapse of a star. As mentioned earlier, the minimum mass of a body capable of forming such a black hole is 2.5 - 3 solar masses.
• Intermediate mass black holes. A conditional intermediate type of black holes that have increased due to the absorption of nearby objects, such as gas accumulations, a neighboring star (in systems of two stars) and other cosmic bodies.
• Supermassive black hole. Compact objects with 10 5 -10 10 solar masses. Distinctive properties of such BHs are paradoxically low density, as well as weak tidal forces, which were discussed earlier. It is this supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy (Sagittarius A*, Sgr A*), as well as most other galaxies.

Candidates for CHD

The nearest black hole, or rather a candidate for the role of a black hole, is an object (V616 Unicorn), which is located at a distance of 3000 light years from the Sun (in our galaxy). It consists of two components: a star with a mass of half the solar mass, as well as an invisible small body, the mass of which is 3 - 5 solar masses. If this object turns out to be a small black hole of stellar mass, then by right it will be the nearest black hole.

Following this object, the second closest black hole is Cyg X-1 (Cyg X-1), which was the first candidate for the role of a black hole. The distance to it is approximately 6070 light years. Quite well studied: it has a mass of 14.8 solar masses and an event horizon radius of about 26 km.

According to some sources, another closest candidate for the role of a black hole may be a body in the star system V4641 Sagittarii (V4641 Sgr), which, according to estimates in 1999, was located at a distance of 1600 light years. However, subsequent studies increased this distance by at least 15 times.

How many black holes are in our galaxy?

There is no exact answer to this question, since it is rather difficult to observe them, and during the entire study of the sky, scientists managed to detect about a dozen black holes within the Milky Way. Without indulging in calculations, we note that in our galaxy there are about 100 - 400 billion stars, and about every thousandth star has enough mass to form a black hole. It is likely that millions of black holes could have formed during the existence of the Milky Way. Since it is easier to register huge black holes, it is logical to assume that most of the BHs in our galaxy are not supermassive. It is noteworthy that NASA research in 2005 suggests the presence of a whole swarm of black holes (10-20 thousand) orbiting the center of the galaxy. In addition, in 2016, Japanese astrophysicists discovered a massive satellite near the object * - a black hole, the core of the Milky Way. Due to the small radius (0.15 light years) of this body, as well as its huge mass (100,000 solar masses), scientists suggest that this object is also a supermassive black hole.

The core of our galaxy, the black hole of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A *, Sgr A * or Sagittarius A *) is supermassive and has a mass of 4.31 10 6 solar masses, and a radius of 0.00071 light years (6.25 light hours or 6.75 billion km). The temperature of Sagittarius A* together with the cluster around it is about 1 10 7 K.

The biggest black hole

The largest black hole in the universe that scientists have been able to detect is a supermassive black hole, the FSRQ blazar, at the center of the galaxy S5 0014+81, at a distance of 1.2·10 10 light-years from Earth. According to preliminary results of observation, with the help of the Swift space observatory, the mass of the black hole was 40 billion (40 10 9) solar masses, and the Schwarzschild radius of such a hole was 118.35 billion kilometers (0.013 light years). In addition, according to calculations, it arose 12.1 billion years ago (1.6 billion years after the Big Bang). If this giant black hole does not absorb the matter surrounding it, then it will live to see the era of black holes - one of the eras in the development of the Universe, during which black holes will dominate in it. If the core of the galaxy S5 0014+81 continues to grow, then it will become one of the last black holes that will exist in the Universe.

The other two known black holes, though not named, have highest value for the study of black holes, since they confirmed their existence experimentally, and also gave important results for the study of gravity. We are talking about the event GW150914, which is called the collision of two black holes into one. This event allowed to register .

Detection of black holes

Before considering methods for detecting black holes, one should answer the question - why is a black hole black? - the answer to it does not require deep knowledge in astrophysics and cosmology. The fact is that a black hole absorbs all the radiation falling on it and does not radiate at all, if you do not take into account the hypothetical. If we consider this phenomenon in more detail, we can assume that there are no processes inside black holes that lead to the release of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Then if the black hole radiates, then it is in the Hawking spectrum (which coincides with the spectrum of a heated, absolutely black body). However, as mentioned earlier, this radiation was not detected, which suggests a completely low temperature of black holes.

Another generally accepted theory says that electromagnetic radiation is not at all capable of leaving the event horizon. It is most likely that photons (light particles) are not attracted by massive objects, since according to the theory they themselves have no mass. However, the black hole still "attracts" the photons of light through the distortion of space-time. If we imagine a black hole in space as a kind of depression on the smooth surface of space-time, then there is a certain distance from the center of the black hole, approaching which the light will no longer be able to move away from it. That is, roughly speaking, the light begins to "fall" into the "pit", which does not even have a "bottom".

In addition, if we take into account the effect of gravitational redshift, it is possible that light in a black hole loses its frequency, shifting along the spectrum to the region of low-frequency long-wave radiation, until it loses energy altogether.

So, a black hole is black and therefore difficult to detect in space.

Detection methods

Consider the methods that astronomers use to detect a black hole:

In addition to the methods mentioned above, scientists often associate objects such as black holes and. Quasars are some accumulations of cosmic bodies and gas, which are among the brightest astronomical objects in the Universe. Since they have a high intensity of luminescence at relatively small sizes, there is reason to believe that the center of these objects is a supermassive black hole, which attracts the surrounding matter to itself. Due to such a powerful gravitational attraction, the attracted matter is so heated that it radiates intensely. The detection of such objects is usually compared with the detection of a black hole. Sometimes quasars can radiate jets of heated plasma in two directions - relativistic jets. The reasons for the emergence of such jets (jet) are not completely clear, but they are probably caused by the interaction of the magnetic fields of the BH and the accretion disk, and are not emitted by a direct black hole.

A jet in the M87 galaxy hitting from the center of a black hole

Summing up the above, one can imagine, up close: it is a spherical black object, around which strongly heated matter rotates, forming a luminous accretion disk.

Merging and colliding black holes

One of the most interesting phenomena in astrophysics is the collision of black holes, which also makes it possible to detect such massive astronomical bodies. Such processes are of interest not only to astrophysicists, since they result in phenomena poorly studied by physicists. The clearest example is the previously mentioned event called GW150914, when two black holes approached so much that, as a result of mutual gravitational attraction, they merged into one. An important consequence of this collision was the emergence of gravitational waves.

According to the definition of gravitational waves, these are changes in the gravitational field that propagate in a wave-like manner from massive moving objects. When two such objects approach each other, they begin to rotate around a common center of gravity. As they approach each other, their rotation around their own axis increases. Similar variable fluctuations gravitational field at some point can form one powerful gravitational wave that can propagate in space for millions of light years. So, at a distance of 1.3 billion light years, a collision of two black holes occurred, which formed a powerful gravitational wave that reached the Earth on September 14, 2015 and was recorded by the LIGO and VIRGO detectors.

How do black holes die?

Obviously, for a black hole to cease to exist, it would need to lose all of its mass. However, according to her definition, nothing can leave the black hole if it has crossed its event horizon. It is known that for the first time the Soviet theoretical physicist Vladimir Gribov mentioned the possibility of emission of particles by a black hole in his discussion with another Soviet scientist Yakov Zeldovich. He argued that from the point of view of quantum mechanics, a black hole is capable of emitting particles through a tunnel effect. Later, with the help of quantum mechanics, he built his own, somewhat different theory, the English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. You can read more about this phenomenon. In short, there are so-called virtual particles in vacuum, which are constantly born in pairs and annihilate each other, while not interacting with the outside world. But if such pairs arise at the black hole's event horizon, then strong gravity is hypothetically able to separate them, with one particle falling into the black hole, and the other going away from the black hole. And since a particle that has flown away from a hole can be observed, and therefore has positive energy, a particle that has fallen into a hole must have negative energy. Thus, the black hole will lose its energy and there will be an effect called black hole evaporation.

According to the available models of a black hole, as mentioned earlier, as its mass decreases, its radiation becomes more intense. Then, at the final stage of the existence of a black hole, when it may be reduced to the size of a quantum black hole, it will release a huge amount of energy in the form of radiation, which can be equivalent to thousands or even millions of atomic bombs. This event is somewhat reminiscent of the explosion of a black hole, like the same bomb. According to calculations, primordial black holes could have been born as a result of the Big Bang, and those of them, the mass of which is on the order of 10 12 kg, should have evaporated and exploded around our time. Be that as it may, such explosions have never been seen by astronomers.

Despite the mechanism proposed by Hawking for the destruction of black holes, the properties of Hawking radiation cause a paradox in the framework of quantum mechanics. If a black hole absorbs some body, and then loses the mass resulting from the absorption of this body, then regardless of the nature of the body, the black hole will not differ from what it was before the absorption of the body. In this case, information about the body is forever lost. From the point of view of theoretical calculations, the transformation of the initial pure state into the resulting mixed (“thermal”) state does not correspond to the current theory of quantum mechanics. This paradox is sometimes called the disappearance of information in a black hole. A real solution to this paradox has never been found. Known options for solving the paradox:

• Inconsistency of Hawking's theory. This entails the impossibility of destroying the black hole and its constant growth.
• The presence of white holes. In this case, the absorbed information does not disappear, but is simply thrown out into another Universe.
• Inconsistency of the generally accepted theory of quantum mechanics.

Unsolved problem of black hole physics

Judging by everything that was described earlier, black holes, although they have been studied for a relatively long time, still have many features, the mechanisms of which are still not known to scientists.

• In 1970, an English scientist formulated the so-called. "principle of cosmic censorship" - "Nature abhors the bare singularity." This means that the singularity is formed only in places hidden from view, like the center of a black hole. However, this principle has not yet been proven. There are also theoretical calculations according to which a "naked" singularity can occur.
• The “no-hair theorem”, according to which black holes have only three parameters, has not been proven either.
• A complete theory of the black hole magnetosphere has not been developed.
• The nature and physics of the gravitational singularity has not been studied.
• It is not known for certain what happens at the final stage of the existence of a black hole, and what remains after its quantum decay.

Interesting facts about black holes

Summarizing the above, we can highlight several interesting and unusual features nature of black holes:

• Black holes have only three parameters: mass, electric charge and angular momentum. As a result of such a small number of characteristics of this body, the theorem stating this is called the "no-hair theorem". This is also where the phrase “a black hole has no hair” came from, which means that two black holes are absolutely identical, their three parameters mentioned are the same.
• The density of black holes can be less than the density of air, and the temperature is close to absolute zero. From this we can assume that the formation of a black hole occurs not due to the compression of matter, but as a result of the accumulation of a large amount of matter in a certain volume.
• Time for bodies absorbed by black holes goes much slower than for an external observer. In addition, the absorbed bodies are significantly stretched inside the black hole, which has been called spaghettification by scientists.
• There may be about a million black holes in our galaxy.
• There is probably a supermassive black hole at the center of every galaxy.
• In the future, according to the theoretical model, the Universe will reach the so-called era of black holes, when black holes will become the dominant bodies in the Universe.

The Black Sea was formed not so long ago. As early as 12 thousand years ago, there was a freshwater lake at this place. Columbia University geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman connect the legend of the global rise in the level of the Mediterranean Sea and the formation of the Black Sea as a result of this.

The essence of the theory is as follows: the level of the Mediterranean Sea has risen due to the melting of glaciers. As a result, water gushed through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles 200 times greater than. This is how the Black Sea was formed and it happened 7 thousand years ago.

Water arrived at a tremendous speed and daily flooded the coastal shores by 15 cm. The survivors of this terrible disaster told this story from generation to generation. Later this story took shape in Noah.

Marine explorer Bob Ballard is trying to find confirmation of the theory at the bottom of the Black Sea. The 1999 Ballard Expedition discovered an ancient coastline. Shells of both freshwater and saltwater mollusks have been found, and radiocarbon dating of these shells supports the theory of a freshwater lake swallowed up by the Black Sea 7,000 years ago.

Bob Ballard found the remains of what he believes to be ancient human settlements at the bottom. There is a theory that explains the abundance of hydrogen sulfide in the water of the Black Sea mass death freshwater animals during the flood. People probably inhabited the shores of the Black Sea at that time, and after the flood they moved to populate eastern Europe.

And Europe, according to some scientists, then resembled the twilight forest from Tolkien's novel "The Lord of the Rings", since at that time three hundred meter lindens grew on the territory of Europe.

The area of ​​the Black Sea is 422,000 km² (according to other sources - 436,400 km²). The outlines of the Black Sea resemble an oval with the largest axis about 1150 km. The greatest length of the sea from north to south is 580 km. The greatest depth is 2210 m, the average is 1240 m.

The sea washes the shores of Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia. On the northeastern coast of the Black Sea there is an unrecognized public education Abkhazia.

A characteristic feature of the Black Sea is the complete (except for a number of anaerobic bacteria) absence of life at depths above 150-200 m due to the saturation of deep water layers with hydrogen sulfide. The Black Sea is an important area transportation, as well as one of the largest resort regions in Eurasia.

In addition, the Black Sea retains an important strategic and military significance. The main military bases of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are located in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk.

The ancient Greek name for the sea is Pont Aksinsky (Greek Πόντος Ἄξενος, "Inhospitable Sea"). In Strabo's "Geography" it is assumed that the sea received such a name because of the difficulties with navigation, as well as the wild hostile tribes inhabiting its shores. Later, after the successful development of the coast by the Greek colonists, the sea became known as Pontus Euxinus (Greek Πόντος Εὔξενος, “Hospitable Sea”). However, Strabo (1.2.10) mentions that in antiquity the Black Sea was also called simply “the sea” (pontos).

AT Ancient Russia X-XVI centuries in the annals there was the name "Russian Sea", in some sources the sea is called "Scythian". The modern name "Black Sea" has found its corresponding reflection in most languages: Greek. Μαύρη θάλασσα, Bolg. Black Sea, cargo. შავი ზღვა, rum. Marea Neagră, English. Black Sea Tour Karadeniz, Ukrainian Chorne more and others. The earliest sources mentioning this name date back to the 13th century, but there are certain signs that it was used earlier. There are a number of hypotheses regarding the reasons for the emergence of such a name:

The Turks and other conquerors, who tried to conquer the population of the coast of the sea, met a fierce rebuff from the Circassians, Adygs and other tribes, for which they called the Karadengiz sea - Black, inhospitable.

Another reason, according to some researchers, may be the fact that during storms the water in the sea gets very dark. However, storms in the Black Sea are not very frequent, and the water darkens during storms in all the seas of the earth. Another hypothesis of the origin of the name is based on the fact that metal objects (for example, anchors), lowered into the sea water deeper than 150 m for a long time, were covered with a black coating due to the action of hydrogen sulfide.

Another hypothesis is connected with the “color” designation of the cardinal points adopted in a number of Asian countries, where “black” denoted the north, respectively, the Black Sea - the northern sea.

One of the most common hypotheses is the assumption that the name is associated with memories of the breakthrough of the Bosphorus 7500-5000 years ago, which resulted in a catastrophic rise in sea level by almost 100 meters, which in turn led to the flooding of a vast shelf zone and the formation of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov .

There is a Turkish legend according to which a heroic sword rests in the waters of the Black Sea, which was thrown there at the request of the dying wizard Ali. Because of this, the sea is worried, trying to throw out deadly weapons from its depths, and is painted black.

The shores of the Black Sea are scarcely indented and mainly in its northern part. The only large peninsula is the Crimean. The largest bays: Yagorlytsky, Tendrovsky, Dzharylgachsky, Karkinitsky, Kalamitsky and Feodosia in Ukraine, Varna and Burgassky in Bulgaria, Sinopsky and Samsunsky - at the southern coast of the sea, in Turkey. In the north and northwest, estuaries overflow at the confluence of the rivers. The total length of the coastline is 3400 km.

A number of sections of the sea coast have their own names: the southern coast of Crimea in Ukraine, the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus in Russia, the Rumeli coast and the Anatolian coast in Turkey. In the west and northwest, the coasts are low-lying, steep in places; in the Crimea - mostly low-lying, with the exception of the southern mountainous coasts. On the eastern and southern shores, the spurs of the Caucasus and Pontic mountains come close to the sea.

There are few islands in the Black Sea. The largest are Berezan and Serpentine (both with an area of ​​​​less than 1 km²).

The following largest rivers flow into the Black Sea: the Danube, the Dnieper, the Dniester, as well as the smaller Mzymta, Bzyb, Rioni, Kodor (Kodori), Inguri (in the east of the sea), Chorokh, Kyzyl-Irmak, Ashli-Irmak, Sakarya (in the south ), Southern Bug (in the north). The Black Sea fills an isolated depression located between Southeast Europe and the peninsula of Asia Minor. This depression was formed in the Miocene era, in the process of active mountain building, which divided the ancient Tethys Ocean into several separate reservoirs (from which, in addition to the Black Sea, the Azov, Aral and Caspian Seas were subsequently formed).

One of the hypotheses of the origin of the Black Sea (in particular, the conclusions of the participants of the international oceanographic expedition on the scientific vessel "Akvanavt" in 1993) says that 7500 years ago it was the deepest freshwater lake on earth, the level was more than a hundred meters lower than the modern one. . At the end of the Ice Age, the level of the World Ocean rose and the Bosphorus Isthmus was broken through. A total of 100 thousand km² (the most fertile land already cultivated by people) were flooded. The flooding of these vast lands may have become the prototype of the myth of the Flood. The emergence of the Black Sea, according to this hypothesis, was supposedly accompanied by the mass death of the entire freshwater living world of the lake, the decomposition product of which - hydrogen sulfide - reaches high concentrations at the bottom of the sea.

The Black Sea depression consists of two parts - western and eastern, separated by an uplift, which is a natural continuation of the Crimean peninsula. The northwestern part of the sea is characterized by a relatively wide shelf strip (up to 190 km). The southern coast (belonging to Turkey) and the eastern (Georgia) are steeper, the shelf strip does not exceed 20 km and is indented by a number of canyons and depressions. Depths off the coast of Crimea and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus increase extremely rapidly, reaching levels of over 500 m already a few kilometers from the coastline. The sea reaches its maximum depth (2210 m) in the central part, south of Yalta.

As part of rocks, folding the bottom of the sea, coarse-grained deposits prevail in the coastal zone: pebbles, gravel, sand. With distance from the coast, they are replaced by fine-grained sands and silts. In the northwestern part of the Black Sea, shell rock is widespread; for the slope and bed of the sea basin, pelitic oozes are common.

Among the main minerals, deposits of which are located at the bottom of the sea: oil and natural gas on the northwestern shelf; coastal placers of titanomagnetite sands (Taman Peninsula, coast of the Caucasus). The Black Sea is the world's largest meromictic (with unmixed water levels) body of water. The upper layer of water (mixolimnion), which lies to a depth of 150 m, is cooler, less dense and less saline, saturated with oxygen, is separated from the lower, warmer, salty and dense layer (monimolimnion) saturated with hydrogen sulfide by a chemocline (the boundary layer between aerobic and anaerobic zones). There is no single generally accepted explanation for the origin of hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. There is an opinion that hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea is formed mainly as a result of the vital activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria, pronounced water stratification and weak vertical exchange. There is also a theory that hydrogen sulfide was formed as a result of the decomposition of freshwater animals that died during the penetration of salty Mediterranean waters during the formation of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.

Some studies of recent years allow us to speak of the Black Sea as a giant reservoir of not only hydrogen sulfide, but also methane, which is most likely also released during the activity of microorganisms, as well as from the bottom of the sea.

The water balance of the Black Sea consists of the following components:

• atmospheric precipitation (230 km³ per year);
• continental runoff (310 km³ per year);
• water inflow from the Sea of ​​Azov (30 km³ per year);
• evaporation of water from the sea surface (-360 km³ per year);
• water outflow through the Bosphorus (-210 km³ per year).

The amount of precipitation, income from the Sea of ​​Azov and river runoff exceeds the amount of evaporation from the surface, as a result of which the level of the Black Sea exceeds the level of the Marmara. Due to this, an upper current is formed, directed from the Black Sea through the Bosporus Strait. The lower current, observed in the lower water layers, is less pronounced and is directed through the Bosporus in the opposite direction. The interaction of these currents additionally supports the vertical stratification of the sea, and is also used by fish for migration between the seas.

It should be noted that due to the difficult exchange of water with the Atlantic Ocean in the Black Sea, there are practically no ebbs and flows. The circulation of water in the sea covers only the surface layer of water. This layer of water has a salinity of about 18 ppm (in the Mediterranean - 37 ppm) and is saturated with oxygen and other elements necessary for the activity of living organisms. These layers in the Black Sea are subject to circular circulation in an anticyclonic direction along the entire perimeter of the reservoir. At the same time, in the western and eastern parts of the sea there are water circulations in a cyclonic direction. The temperature of the surface layers of water, depending on the season, ranges from 8 to 30 °C.

The lower layer, due to saturation with hydrogen sulfide, does not contain living organisms, with the exception of a number of anaerobic sulfur bacteria (the product of which is hydrogen sulfide). Salinity here increases to 22-22.5 ppm, the average temperature is ~8.5°C.

The climate of the Black Sea, due to its mid-continental position, is mainly continental. Only the southern coast of Crimea and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus are protected by mountains from cold northern winds and consequently have a mild Mediterranean climate.

The weather over the Black Sea is significantly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, over which most of the cyclones originate, bringing bad weather and storms to the sea. On the northeastern coast of the sea, especially in the Novorossiysk region, low mountains are not an obstacle to cold northern air masses, which, wading over them, cause a strong cold wind (bora), local residents call it Nord-Ost. Southwest winds usually bring warm and fairly humid Mediterranean air masses to the Black Sea region. As a result, most of the sea area is characterized by warm, wet winters and hot, dry summers.

The average January temperature in the northern part of the Black Sea is -3 °C, but can drop to -30 °C. In the territories adjacent to the southern coast of Crimea and the coast of the Caucasus, winters are much milder: the temperature rarely drops below 0 °C. Snow, however, periodically falls in all areas of the sea. The average July temperature in the north of the sea is 22-23°C. Maximum temperatures not so high due to the softening action of the water reservoir and usually do not exceed 35 °C.

The greatest amount of precipitation in the Black Sea region falls on the coast of the Caucasus (up to 1500 mm per year), the least - in the northwestern part of the sea (about 300 mm per year). Cloud cover for the year averages 60% with a maximum in winter and a minimum in summer.

The waters of the Black Sea, as a rule, are not subject to freezing, with the exception of the coastal part in the north of the reservoir. Coastal waters in these places freeze up to a month or more; estuaries and rivers - up to 2-3 months.

The flora of the sea includes 270 species of multicellular green, brown, red bottom algae (cystoseira, phyllophora, zoster, cladophora, ulva, enteromorph, etc.). The phytoplankton of the Black Sea includes at least six hundred species. Among them are dinoflagellates - armored flagellates (prorocentrum micans, ceratium furca, small scripsiella Scrippsiella trochoidea, etc.), dinoflagellates (dinophysis, protoperidinium, alexandrium), various diatoms, etc. The fauna of the Black Sea is noticeably poorer than the Mediterranean. 2.5 thousand species of animals live in the Black Sea (of which 500 species are unicellular, 160 species of vertebrates - fish and mammals, 500 species of crustaceans, 200 species of mollusks, the rest are invertebrates different types), for comparison, in the Mediterranean - about 9 thousand species. Among the main reasons for the relative poverty of the animal world of the sea: a wide range of water salinities, moderate cold water, the presence of hydrogen sulfide at great depths.

In this regard, the Black Sea is suitable for the habitation of fairly unpretentious species, at all stages of development of which great depths are not required.

At the bottom of the Black Sea live mussels, oysters, pecten, as well as the predatory mollusk rapana brought with ships from the Far East. Numerous crabs live in the crevices of the coastal rocks and among the stones, there are shrimps, there are different kinds jellyfish (cornerot and aurelia are the most common), sea anemones, sponges.

Among the fish found in the Black Sea: various types of gobies (goby-goby, goby-whip, goby-round goby, goby-martovik, goby-rotan), Azov anchovy, Black Sea anchovy (anchovy), shark-katran, flounder-glossa, five species of mullet, bluefish, hake (hake), sea ruff, red mullet (common Black Sea sultanka), haddock, mackerel, horse mackerel, Black Sea-Azov herring, Black Sea-Azov sprat, etc. There are sturgeons (beluga, stellate sturgeon, Black Sea-Azov ( Russian) and Atlantic sturgeon).

Among the dangerous fish of the Black Sea are the sea dragon (the most dangerous is the poisonous spines of the dorsal fin and gill covers), the Black Sea and conspicuous scorpionfish, the stingray (sea cat) with poisonous spikes on the tail.

Of the birds, gulls, petrels, diving ducks, cormorants and a number of other species are common. Mammals are represented in the Black Sea by two species of dolphins (the common dolphin and the bottlenose dolphin), the Azov-Black Sea common porpoise (often called the Azov dolphin), and the white-bellied seal.

Some species of animals that do not live in the Black Sea are often brought into it through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles by the current or swim on their own.

The history of the study of the Black Sea began in ancient times, along with the voyages of the Greeks, who founded their settlements on the seashore. Already in the 4th century BC, peripluses were compiled - ancient sailing directions of the sea. In the future, there is fragmentary information about the voyages of merchants from Novgorod and Kyiv to Constantinople.

Another milestone on the path of exploration of the Black Sea was the voyage of the ship "Krepost" from Azov to Constantinople in 1696. Peter I, equipping the ship for navigation, gave the order to carry out cartographic work along the way of its movement. As a result, a “direct drawing of the Black Sea from Kerch to Tsar Grad” was drawn up, depth measurements were taken.

More serious studies of the Black Sea date back to the end of the 18th-19th centuries. In particular, at the turn of these centuries, Russian scientists academicians Peter Pallas and Middendorf studied the properties of the waters and fauna of the Black Sea. In 1816, a description of the Black Sea coast, made by F. F. Bellingshausen, appeared, in 1817 the first map of the Black Sea was issued, in 1842 - the first atlas, in 1851 - the Black Sea sail.

Start systematic scientific research The Black Sea was laid by two events of the late 19th century - the study of the Bosphorus currents (1881-1882) and the conduct of two oceanographic depth-gauging expeditions (1890-1891).

A biological station has been operating in Sevastopol since 1871 (now the Institute of Biology southern seas), engaged in systematic studies of the living world of the Black Sea. At the end of the 19th century, an expedition led by J. B. Spindler discovered the saturation of the deep layers of the sea with hydrogen sulfide; later, a member of the expedition, the famous Russian chemist N. D. Zelinsky, gave an explanation for this phenomenon.

The study of the Black Sea continued after the October Revolution of 1917. In 1919, an ichthyological station was organized in Kerch (later transformed into the Azov-Chernomorsk Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, now the Southern Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (YugNIRO)). In 1929, a marine hydrophysical station was opened in the Crimea, in Katsiveli (now a branch of the Sevastopol Marine Hydrophysical Institute National Academy Sciences of Ukraine).

In Russia, the main research organization that studies the Black Sea is the Southern Branch of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Gelendzhik, Golubaya Bukhta) and a number of others.

The transport significance of the Black Sea for the economy of the states washed by this reservoir is great. A significant volume of maritime transportation is made up of tanker flights that ensure the export of oil and oil products from Russian ports (primarily from Novorossiysk and Tuapse) and Georgian ports (Batumi). However, the export of hydrocarbons is significantly constrained by the limited capacity of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits. In Ilyichevsk, the largest oil terminal was created to receive oil as part of the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline. There is also a project for the construction of the Burgas-Alexandrupolis oil pipeline bypassing the Black Sea straits. Oil terminals in Novorossiysk are capable of receiving supertankers. In addition to oil and products of its processing, metals, mineral fertilizers, machinery and equipment, timber, lumber, grain, etc. are exported from the Russian and Ukrainian ports of the Black Sea. raw materials, etc. In the Black Sea basin, container transportation is widely developed, there are large container terminals. Transportation is being developed with the help of lighters; railway ferry crossings Ilyichevsk (Ukraine) - Varna (Bulgaria) and Ilyichevsk (Ukraine) - Batumi (Georgia) are operating. Maritime passenger transportation is also developed in the Black Sea (however, after the collapse of the USSR, their volume decreased significantly). The international transport corridor TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe - Caucasus - Asia, Europe - Caucasus - Asia) passes through the Black Sea. The Black Sea ports are the end points of a number of Pan-European transport corridors. The largest port cities on the Black Sea: Novorossiysk, Sochi, Tuapse (Russia); Burgas, Varna (Bulgaria); Batumi, Sukhumi, Poti (Georgia); Constanta (Romania); Samsun, Trabzon (Turkey); Odessa, Ilyichevsk, Yuzhny, Kerch, Sevastopol, Yalta (Ukraine). On the Don River, which flows into the Sea of ​​Azov, there is a river waterway connecting the Black Sea with the Caspian Sea (through the Volga-Don Shipping Canal and the Volga), with the Baltic Sea and the White Sea (through the Volga-Baltic Waterway and the White Sea-Baltic Canal) . The Danube River is connected to the North Sea through a system of canals. A unique deep-sea gas pipeline "Blue Stream" has been laid along the bottom of the Black Sea, connecting Russia and Turkey. The length of the underwater part of the pipeline, which runs between the village of Arkhipo-Osipovka on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and the coast of Turkey, 60 km from the city of Samsun, is 396 km. There are plans to expand the capacity of the gas pipeline by laying an additional pipe branch.

The following types of fish are of commercial importance in the Black Sea: mullet, anchovy (hamsa), mackerel, horse mackerel, pike perch, bream, sturgeon, herring. Main fishing ports: Odessa, Kerch, Novorossiysk, etc.

In the last years of the 20th - early 21st centuries, fishing has significantly decreased due to overfishing and the deterioration of the ecological state of the sea. Prohibited bottom trawling and poaching are also a significant problem, especially for sturgeons. Thus, in the second half of 2005 alone, specialists from the Black Sea State Basin Administration for the Protection of Aquatic Living Resources of Ukraine (“Chernomorrybvod”) on the territory of Crimea uncovered 1909 violations of fish protection legislation, seized 33 tons of fish caught by illegal fishing gear or in prohibited places.

Favorable climatic conditions in the Black Sea region determine its development as an important resort region. The largest resort areas on the Black Sea include: the Southern coast of Crimea (Yalta, Alushta, Sudak, Koktebel, Feodosia) in Ukraine, the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus (Anapa, Gelendzhik, Sochi) in Russia, Pitsunda, Gagra and Batumi in Georgia, Golden Sands and Sunny Beach in Bulgaria, Mamaia, Eforie in Romania.

The Black Sea coast of the Caucasus is the main resort region Russian Federation. In 2005 it was visited by about 9 million tourists; in 2006, according to officials' forecasts Krasnodar Territory, this region should have been visited by at least 11-11.5 million tourists. There are over 1,000 boarding houses, sanatoriums and hotels on the Russian Black Sea coast, and their number is constantly growing. A natural continuation of the Russian Black Sea coast is the coast of Abkhazia, the most important resorts of which Gagra and Pitsunda were popular back in Soviet times. The development of the resort industry on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus is constrained by a relatively short (for example, compared to the Mediterranean Sea) season, environmental and transport problems, and in Abkhazia by the uncertainty of its status and the threat of a new outbreak of military conflict with Georgia.

The coast of the Black Sea and the basin of the rivers flowing into it are areas with a high anthropogenic impact, densely populated by humans since ancient times. The ecological state of the Black Sea is generally unfavorable.

Among the main factors disturbing the balance in ecological system seas should be distinguished:

Heavy pollution of rivers flowing into the sea, especially runoff from fields containing mineral fertilizers, especially nitrates and phosphates. This entails re-fertilization (eutrophication) of the sea waters, and, as a result, the rapid growth of phytoplankton (“sea bloom” - the intensive development of blue-green algae), a decrease in water transparency, and the death of multicellular algae.

Pollution of waters with oil and oil products (the most polluted areas are the western part of the sea, which accounts for largest volume tanker traffic, as well as port waters). As a result, this leads to the death of marine animals caught in oil slicks, as well as air pollution due to the evaporation of oil and oil products from the water surface.

Pollution of sea waters with human waste - discharge of untreated or insufficiently treated Wastewater etc.

Mass fishing.

Prohibited, but widely used bottom trawling, destroying bottom biocenoses.

Change in composition, decrease in the number of individuals and mutation water world under the influence of anthropogenic factors (including the replacement of native species natural world exotic, resulting from human impact). So, for example, according to experts from the Odessa branch of YugNIRO, in just one decade (from 1976 to 1987), the population of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin decreased from 56 thousand to seven thousand individuals.

According to a number of experts, the ecological state of the Black Sea has deteriorated over the past decade despite the decline in economic activity in a number of Black Sea countries.

President of the Crimean Academy of Sciences Viktor Tarasenko expressed the opinion that the Black Sea is the dirtiest sea in the world.

For protection environment in the Black Sea area in 1998, the ACCOBAMS agreement (“Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantik Area”) was adopted, where one of the main issues is the protection of dolphins and whales. The main international document regulating the protection of the Black Sea is the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea from Pollution, signed by six Black Sea countries - Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine in 1992 in Bucharest (Bucharest Convention). Also in June 1994, representatives of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and the European Union, the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Danube River was signed in Sofia. As a result of these agreements, the Black Sea Commission (Istanbul) and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (Vienna) were established. These bodies perform the function of coordinating environmental programs implemented under the conventions. Every year on October 31, the International Black Sea Day is celebrated in all countries of the Black Sea region.

How old is the Black Sea?

For tens of millions of years, where Southern Europe and North Africa are now located, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, the Tethys Ocean spilled over the planet. About eight million years ago, its huge mirror began to break up, and the Balkans and Carpathians, the Crimea and the Caucasus rose from the bottom in the form of growing young mountains. Scientists believe that during the development of the earth's crust, the water basin, which we are talking about, merged twice with the Mediterranean Sea and three times with the Caspian Sea. Only 6-7 millennia have passed since the Black Sea finally acquired its modern look.

What is the depth of the Black Sea?

This is one of the deepest inland seas. It contains six times more water than the Caspian Sea, and sixteen times more than the Baltic, although the areas of all three reservoirs are approximately the same. The average depth of the Black Sea is 1280 m, and the greatest (noted near the Turkish coast, in the Sinop region) is 2245 m. The most gentle coast is in the northern part, near Odessa and the North-Western Crimea. On the Evpatoria beaches, you can walk along the sand and reach the buoy. Such shallow bays seem to be specially created for those who are just learning to swim.

Where does the worst wind come from?

The most evil and dangerous wind on the Black Sea is the Novorossiysk bora. Especially in winter, in frost and ice. Novorossiysk is closed from the northeast mountain range Varada, that is, as if protected. This "protection" initially holds back the northeast wind, accumulating cold air in the saucer-like valley. But gradually the air mass overwhelms the valley and rises above the ridge in order to fall with all its might on the city, on the coast, on boats and ships in the port and on the high seas. The storm rips roofs off houses, carries boards and tiles through the air, overturns wagons, cruelly shakes ships that did not have time to go far into the sea or hide in a safe harbor. How many of them crashed and sank there! More or less severe storms occur in Novorossiysk about ten times a year. There are no tall trees in the vicinity of the city: the wind pulls them out or breaks them in the bud. Similar breakthroughs of the northeast wind (only with less force) occur on the southern coast of Crimea. Having accumulated in the foothills, cold air flies to the sea through the passes, moreover, through everything at once, as if pouring through giant natural gutters. The wind breaks the clouds hanging on the mountains, and they cloud the vault of heaven, running away across the sea in a frantic flock. The mountains held the siege as long as they could, and behold, the wind won. The water is calm, with light ripples, but already a kilometer from the shore it is completely covered with white breakers, and then ... Boats and boats stand rooted to the spot at the piers, only the mooring cables are stretched towards the horizon. There is no need to untie them, and even more so to sit down at the oars: they will take them to the open sea! Such ominous weather is more characteristic of our winter. But if it happens in the summer, then, as a rule, at the end of August, as if drawing a line under the best time of the year - warm, carefree, affectionate.

Why are the waves longer on the coasts of the Caucasus than in the Crimea or Turkey?

On the coast of the Caucasus, especially in Batumi, the waves come, dispersing through the whole sea, from Bulgaria itself. To the Crimea from Turkey, this path is almost five times shorter.

Do tsunamis happen in the Black Sea?

Tsunami in Japanese means "wave in the harbor". Generated by an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption, such a wave rushes to the coast at a speed of 50 to 1000 km/h. In the open ocean, it is usually not dangerous, although it grows from 1m to 5m. But near the coast, the water shaft reaches 10-15 (and sometimes 50) meters and collapses, sweeping away rocks, piers, houses, trees in its path ...

Tsunamis also occurred in the Black Sea, at the bottom of which there were and probably will be epicenters of earthquakes. Black Sea shock waves rarely reach even a meter height, and their average speed is 120-160 km/h. But there were exceptions! The worst thing is in the 1st century. BC, when he died from a tsunami, the city of Dioscuria, located on the site of modern Sukhumi, was swallowed up by the sea.

Are there tides in the Black Sea?

The reason for these phenomena is the gravitational effect of the Moon, which slightly pulls the water mass towards itself, passing over the ocean (low tide), and releases it when it hides behind the horizon (high tide). On the coasts of the oceans and open seas, the water level rises and falls every 12 hours. The Black Sea is inland; ebb and flow in it is so small that it is almost imperceptible.

What storms are in the Black Sea?

There are seas that are almost always stormy. These are the waters of the oceans between the fortieth and fiftieth parallels. Sailors say about those latitudes: the forties are fatal, the fifties are roaring. Conversely, closer to the equator, the ocean is calm for most of the year. The squadron of Magellap crossed the Great Ocean for 110 days and did not meet a single storm. For this, they called him Quiet.

The Black Sea in summer is also usually calm, as if specially created for swimming. In September, it begins to worry, and in winter it storms so that it bends poles and breaks concrete piers - they have to be repaired for each holiday season. In the open sea, winter waves reach a height of 6-7 m, and sometimes more, hiding small and medium-sized watercraft up to the very masts, and then tossing them up so that propellers are exposed and buzzing wildly in the air.

In the winter of 1969, a multi-day nine-point storm hit Yalta. The waves broke the pier and walked freely along the main pier. Motor ships were on the stocks for repairs - they were thrown into the sea. Portal cranes fell, rails with torn out blocks of the most powerful hydro-concrete bent and tangled like thin reinforcement. The lighthouse keeper on duty did not have time to go ashore, and it was not possible to remove him either by boats or by helicopter. Fortunately, the lighthouse survived. But the ships broke from anchors and mooring lines, fought against the pier and each other, drowned. The parapet of the embankment cracked, no breakwaters helped. Lanterns scattered, trees and bushes bent under the weight of salty ice...

But time passes and everything is forgotten. Again the moon, the golden path, the barely audible rustle of the waves at the feet of the rest. The sea is hospitable.

How are mud volcanic islands formed?

The only real volcano in the Black Sea erupted in the middle of the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic era (150-160 million years ago), was extinguished by the sea and formed the Kara-Dag protected mountain range.

On the other hand, mud volcanoes operate, when combustible gases escape from the ground at the bottom of the sea. Together with gases, which sometimes burst into flames, water comes out, entraining clay, stones, and sand. A hill with a crater grows at the bottom, and if the depth in this place is shallow, it can rise above the surface and form a mud island. Mud volcanoes found in the central part of the Black Sea south of Sevastopol are too far from the surface (2000 m). But in shallow waters, in the area of ​​the Kerch Strait, in the strait itself and in the south of the Sea of ​​Azov, periodic flashes of gases occur and mud islands form. Until these islands are washed away by storms, they can seriously interfere with navigation.

According to the description of an eyewitness, an academician, on September 5, 1799, a terrible explosion occurred in the sea near the city of Temryuk, a column of fire and black smoke rose, and then an island 100 m in diameter and 2 m high was formed. moved to the coast, this explosion and the new-found island caused mystical horror.

D. Tarasenko "Mosaic of the Black Sea"