The caspian sea The General Information About the Caspian Sea

Paradoxically, this huge inland lake between Europe and Asia, thousands of kilometres from the World Ocean is called a sea, without an outlet, even as little as a single trickle, connecting it to any other body of water. The Caspian Sea, a unique closed water basin, plays an important role in the establishment of the climate in the region, has rich stocks of rare kinds of fish, energy-carriers and large potential for development of sea transport. The general characteristic is resulted in the table below.

General Geographical Characteristics of the Caspian Sea

Characte ristics	Area Thous. m²	Length km	Coastal Line km	Average Deep m	Water Volume km³	Annual water flow by river km³
Quantity	400	1050	7000	180	8000	Volga (240) Kura+Samur+Yulak (21)

On various estimations stocks of oil in the Caspian Sea makes about 20 billion tons. About 85% sturgeon fish and 95% of black caviar are produced in the Caspian Sea area. On the Caspian pool live or pass the winter about 10 million birds.

Ecological problems. Disturbing the ecological condition of the Caspian Sea, caused by its pollution by industrial, agricultural and municipal wastes, offshore and coastal production of oil and gas, shipping company and other circumstances, have caused degradation of its biodiversity, exhaust of fish resources, have increased fluctuations of the sea level. At the moment a situation even more embittered in connection with the beginning of intensive operation of sea oil deposits.

The ecological problems of the Caspian Sea can be divided into 3 types.

1) Chemical pollution by the running rivers. The number of the rivers flowing in the Caspian Sea reaches 130. Annually these rivers bring water with volume more than 300 cubic km. Only the River Volga brings in the Caspian Sea 80% of water, and not only water, but also all ecological problems of industrially developed regions of Russia. The Volga brings about 95% of chemical pollutants including thousands tons of oil, phenol, zinc and other metals.

The Kura and Araks rivers practically have all industrial drains of the countries of Southern Caucasus (though 70% of the population use the water of the Kura as drinking) and bring them into the Caspian Sea. The Terek has about 240 mln m³, and the Kura – 522 mln m³ of water drains.

From various branches of Azerbaijan economy about 500 mln m³ polluted waters are dumped, 300 mln m³ of them are dumped after clearing.

2) Ecological problems are connected with the rise of the water level. The water level of the Caspian rose 2.5 m during 1977-1998. About 17 villages of the southern regions of the country, some industrial objects of Baku-Apsheron region were flooded. The economic damage was about $4billion.

3) Offshore oil industry. The offshore oil industry in Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea have developed since 1949. As a result of oil production and transportation the level of oil pollution of the sea exceeded an allowable norm in some sites up to 20 times. Among the most oil polluted sites of the Caspian Sea are: the Baku Bay, Apsheron Archipelago, Turkmenbashi, Mangyshlak Islands.

Due to forthcoming rough exploration of the oil industry in the Caspian Sea it is possible to expect its more serious pollution.

Since 1994 Azerbaijan and other Caspian countries have signed a lot of international contracts with foreign oil companies. The oil sector in Turkmenistan only in 1999 made investments at about $4 billion. In the Russian sector of the sea Lukoil company has also begun its activity.

► Look at the following words from the text (1-10) and match them with their definitions (a-j).

1. stocks (n)	a) to become worth
2. offshore (adj)	b) one thousand million
3. embitter (v)	c) impending, coming
4. biodiversity (n)	d) hard
5. fluctuation (n)	e) all the different types of plant and animal kingdom
6. dump (v)	f) supplies
7. billion (n)	g) changes in level
8. exceed (v)	h) put down carelessly
9. forthcoming (adj)	i) in the sea
10. rough (adj)	j) to be greater than

7.10. Fill in the gaps with the word(s) from the text.

1. …….. basin 6. …….. damage

2. …….. potential 7. …….. allowable sites

3. …….. caviar 8. …….. sites

4. …….. wastes 9. …….. exploration

5. …….. level 10. …….. contracts

7.11. Fill in the words from the box:

coastal / area / average / annual / waste / deposits / drain / clearing

1. Rich mineral …….. were discovered in the north of the country.

2. …….. student’s conference is held at Tyumen State University in April.

3. Sochi is a well-known …….. town.

4. A …….. is a system of pipes for waste water.

5. What is the …….. of your garden?

6. The river water can be used only after …….. .

7. The …….. rainfall in July was not high because of hot summer.

8. A lot of house-hold …….. can be recycled.

7.12. Are these statements true (T) or false (F)?

1. Ecological problems of the Caspian Sea are: chemical pollution by rivers, waste waters and oil products, rising water level.

2. Two countries develop exploration of the oil industry in the Caspian Sea.

3. The main polluting components of the sea environment are petroleum products.

4. Beaches should be closed due to excessive sea water pollution.

5. Disturbing the ecological condition of the Caspian Sea causes exhaust of fish resources.

6. The Caspian is a huge inland lake between Europe and Asia, although it is called a sea.

7. Biodiversity degrades very quickly.

8. Many villages and industrial enterprises are flooded because of chemical pollutants.

7.13. Find the odd word out.

1. general geographical ecological unique

2. bird fish animal plant

3. pool river water sea

4. degradation condition development exploration

5. length depth flow volume

6. flood damage embitter invest

7.14. Find the map of the region where the Caspian Sea is located. Point all the geographical names mentioned in the text on the map.

7.15. Look at the text The Caspian Sea again and correspond the facts with the numbers: 7,000 / 240 / 95% / 130 / 70% / 500 mln / 2.5

7.16. Read the text Ecological Condition of the Black Sea and choose the correct answer.