Deep secrets of the Black Sea. In the depths of the Black Sea, an explosion of hydrogen sulfide is possible. The youth warned. Bays of Crimea Detailed map of the depths of the Black Sea Sochi

This discovery was made by a Russian oceanographic expedition in 1890. Measurements have shown that the sea is almost entirely filled with dissolved hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gas with an odor rotten eggs. In the center of the sea, the hydrogen sulfide zone approaches the surface by about 50 meters; closer to the shores, the depth, where the sulfide zone begins, increases to 300 meters. In this sense, the Black Sea is unique; it is the only one in the world without a hard bottom.

Liquid convex lens dead water underlays thin upper layer, where all is concentrated sea ​​life. The underlying lens breathes and swells, breaking through to the surface from time to time due to blowing winds. Major breakthroughs occur less frequently; the last one occurred during the Yalta earthquake of 1928, when even far from the sea a strong smell of rotten eggs could be felt and thunderous lightning flashed on the sea horizon, spreading in burning columns into the sky (Hydrogen sulfide H2S is a flammable and explosive poisonous gas).

There is still debate about the source of hydrogen sulfide in the depths of the Black Sea. Some consider the main source to be the reduction of sulfates by sulfate-reducing bacteria during the decomposition of dead organic matter. Others adhere to the hydrothermal hypothesis, i.e. release of hydrogen sulfide from cracks in seabed.

However, there seems to be no contradiction here. Both reasons apply. The Black Sea is designed in such a way that its water exchange with Mediterranean Sea goes through the shallow Bosphorus rapids. Desalinated by river flow, and therefore lighter, it goes into the Sea of ​​Marmara and further. black sea water, and towards it, or rather under it, saltier and heavier Mediterranean water rolls down through the Bosphorus threshold into the depths of the Black Sea. It turns out to be something like a giant sump, in the depths of which hydrogen sulfide has gradually accumulated over the past six to seven thousand years.

Today this dead layer makes up over 90 percent of the sea's volume. In the 20th century, as a result of sea pollution by organic anthropogenic substances, the boundary of the hydrogen sulfide zone rose from the depths by 25 - 50 meters. Simply put, oxygen from the upper thin layer of the sea does not have time to oxidize the hydrogen sulfide that is propping up from below.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea
On October 31, 1996, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine adopted the Strategic Action Plan for the protection and restoration of the Black Sea. In memory of this event, on October 31, the countries of the Black Sea region celebrate International Black Sea Day, a beach cleaning campaign is carried out, and other environmental actions. According to a number of experts, the ecological state of the Black Sea has deteriorated over the last decade, despite a decrease 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

Ten years ago, this problem was considered one of the top priorities in the Black Sea countries. Hydrogen sulfide is a highly toxic and explosive substance. Poisoning occurs at concentrations from 0.05 to 0.07 mg/m3. The maximum permissible concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the air of populated areas is 0.008 mg/m3. According to a number of experts and scientists, a charge power equivalent to Hiroshima is sufficient to detonate hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. In this case, the consequences of the disaster will be comparable to what would happen if an asteroid with a mass of 2 times crashed into our Earth less mass Moons.

There is more than 20 thousand cubic kilometers of hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. Now the problem has been forgotten due to unknown circumstances. True, this did not make the problem go away.
In the early 1950s, in Walvis Bay (Namibia), an upward current (upwelling) brought a hydrogen sulfide cloud to the surface. Up to one hundred and fifty miles inland the smell of hydrogen sulfide could be felt, the walls of houses darkened. The smell of rotten eggs already means exceeding the MPC (maximum permissible concentration). In fact, the inhabitants of South-West Africa then experienced a “soft” gas attack. On the Black Sea, a gas attack could be much harsher.

Let's say someone gets the idea to mix up the sea, or at least part of it. Technically this, alas, is feasible. In the relatively shallow northwestern part of the sea, somewhere halfway between Sevastopol and Constanta, it is possible to conduct an underwater nuclear explosion relatively low power. On the shore it will only be noticed by instruments. But after a few hours, there, on the shore, they will smell the smell of rotten eggs. Under the best circumstances, within 24 hours, two-thirds of the sea will turn into a communal cemetery for marine organisms. If things go wrong, coastal cemeteries will also turn into communal cemeteries. settlements, where the organisms live are no longer marine. In the previous two phrases, the evaluative adjectives “favorable” and “unfavorable” can be swapped, depending on how you look at it.

If from the position of a person or group of people who set themselves the goal of paralyzing the peoples of half a dozen countries with horror, then it is necessary to change. However, the greed of oil and gas companies is worse than any Ben with his Frankincense. Feeling that the end of the era of hydrocarbon raw materials is very close, and is measured in a couple of decades, after which an era of total stagnation and complete decline of the raw material economy will begin, businessmen from the Russian state, in agony and despair, threw the pipe to the bottom high pressure for a fuel pipeline right along the bottom of the Black Sea. It was difficult to expect more obscurantism!

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_stream
Blue Stream is a gas pipeline between Russia and Turkey, laid along the bottom of the Black Sea. The total length of the gas pipeline is 1213 km. The Blue Stream pipeline was built as part of the Russian-Turkish agreement of 1997, according to which Russia must supply 364.5 billion cubic meters to Turkey. m of gas in 2000–2025.

This is a one-time weekend design, which is not possible to repair and prevent in conditions of explosive hydrogen sulfide. Everyone still remembers the Adler-Novosibirsk passenger train, which completely burned down due to a fuel line failure. You don’t have to be an expert chemist or physicist to understand what will happen if a fuel pipeline breaks in the deep layers of hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. No comments.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Stream
South Stream is a Russian-Italian-French-German gas pipeline project that is laid along the bottom of the Black Sea from the Anapa region to the Bulgarian port of Varna. Next, its two branches will pass through Balkan Peninsula to Italy and Austria, although their exact routes have not yet been confirmed. Construction of the gas pipeline began on December 7, 2012 and is scheduled to end in 2015. The planned capacity of South Stream is 63 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The estimated cost of the project is 16 billion euros. May 15 - construction of the CS (compressor station) "Kazachya" began in Krasnodar region. The total design capacity of the Kazachya station will be 200 MW, from which gas under a pressure of 11.8 MPa (!) will be supplied to the Russkaya CS, and from there it will be sent to South Stream.

Thousands of businessmen making resort money from the exploitation of the Black Sea do not suspect that their business will soon come to an end, and the Black Sea coast from a resort area will turn into a zone of environmental disaster, dangerous for human habitation. This especially applies to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, where, according to scientists, emissions into the atmosphere are most likely. large quantity hydrogen sulfide. Twenty years ago, having familiarized themselves with the calculations of scientists on the Black Sea, scientists built a graph of the decrease in the surface layer of water from 1890 to 2020. The continuation of the graph curve reached 15 meters of layer thickness by 2010. And it was already noted near the Caucasus in 2007. This was even reported on May 30, 2007 on the radio in Sochi. There were also reports of mass deaths of dolphins in the Black Sea. And the local people themselves felt a certain dead spirit from the sea. In the area of ​​New Athos, the sea is already different than it was 20-30 years ago; in the afternoon the water is cloudy, yellow, there are dead fish and even dead animals.

Many businessmen realized the pointlessness of their ideas of participating in investing in the resort business on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. No one thinks that a catastrophe is coming, and it is not far off, but very close. For many local residents the feeling that the 2014 Olympics will pass as a farewell to the Black Sea for an unreasonable person. Millions of people living in Black Sea coast will be forced to move further away from the coast due to the danger of dying as a result of suffocation from hydrogen sulfide and lack of oxygen in the air. And before this general flight of residents from resort cities, mass diseases of residents of the coastal zone may begin, with fatal outcomes. The end of the Black Sea resorts will come!

This will be a worthy retribution of people for their admiration for the power of the Golden Calf, for their contempt for nature, for their ignorance of environmental safety issues. After all, with a reasonable approach to business, it is possible to turn the impending troubles to the benefit of the economy and energy.

The water of the Black Sea contains silver and gold. If we extracted all the silver in the water of the Black Sea, it would amount to approximately 540 thousand tons. If all the gold was extracted, it would amount to approximately 270 thousand tons. Methods for extracting gold and silver from the water of the Black Sea have long been developed. The very first primitive installations were based on ion exchangers, special ion exchange resins that are capable of attaching ions of substances dissolved in water. But industrially, using their own special technologies, only Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania extract silver and gold from the waters of the Black Sea. (Why not Ukraine and Russia?)

It is known that at a depth below 50 meters, the deep layers of the Black Sea are a colossal warehouse of hydrogen sulfide (about a billion tons). Hydrogen sulfide is a flammable gas that, when burned, produces a corresponding amount of heat. In other words, this is a fuel that can and should be used. When hydrogen sulfide is burned according to the reaction: 2H2S + 3O2 = 2H2O + 2SO2, heat is released in an amount of about 268 kcal (with an excess of oxygen). Compare with the amount of heat released during the combustion of hydrogen in oxygen according to the reaction: H2 + 1/2 O2 >H2O (about 68.4 kcal/mol is released). Since the first reaction produces sulfur dioxide ( harmful product), then of course it is better to use hydrogen as a fuel in the composition of hydrogen sulfide, which can be obtained by heating hydrogen sulfide according to the reaction:
H2S H2+S3

The decomposition of hydrogen sulfide requires slight heating. Reaction (3) will make it possible to obtain sulfur from the water of the Black Sea. If you carry out reactions to burn hydrogen sulfide in atmospheric oxygen:
2H2S + 3O2 = 2H2O + 2SO2,
then by burning the resulting sulfur dioxide:
SO2 + ? O2 = SO3,
then according to the interaction of three sulfur oxides with water:
SO3 + H2O = H2SO4,
then, as is known, we can obtain sulfuric acid with associated heat production in the appropriate amount. During the production of sulfuric acid, about 194 kcal/mol is released. Thus, from the water of the Black Sea it is possible to obtain either hydrogen and sulfur, or sulfuric acid with the associated heat production in the appropriate quantity. All that remains is to extract hydrogen sulfide from the deep layers of the sea. This is confusing at first.

http://www.aif.ru/techno/article/54243/4

One of the scientific developments is based on the fact that in order to raise deep layers of sea water saturated with hydrogen sulfide, it is not necessary to expend energy on pumping it. According to this scientific development It is proposed to lower a pipe with strong walls to a depth of 80 meters and lift water through it once from the depth in order to obtain a gas-water fountain in the pipe due to the difference between the hydrostatic pressure of water in the sea at the level of the lower edge of the channel and the pressure of the gas-water mixture at the same level inside the channel (remember that every 10 meters the pressure in the sea increases by one atmosphere). An analogy is given with a bottle of champagne. By opening the bottle, we lower the pressure in it, which is why gas begins to be released in the form of bubbles, and so intensely that the bubbles, floating up, push the champagne in front of them. Pumping out a column of water from a pipe for the first time is precisely the opening of the plug.

It is reported that a group of scientists from Kherson conducted a ground-based experiment back in 1990, confirming the operation of such a fountain until the hydrogen sulfide in the sea runs out. The full-scale marine experiment also ended successfully. A very illustrative example, when the existence of life is under threat, the planet is saved by a bunch of lone heroes, who are also hindered by the government and everything around them. And where is all the state potential at this time, with its scientific power, computers, and programs?

Skeptics can easily check the data with their fingers by sailing further out to sea and lowering a thick hose with a weight at the end into the water. It’s just not recommended to smoke at this time, so that it doesn’t turn out like in Chukovsky’s poems. Many probably remember the words of Korney Chukovsky’s poem: “And the little foxes took matches, went to the blue sea, lit the blue sea.”

But few people know that the children's poems of Korney Chukovsky are studied very carefully by astrologers: as in the quatrains of Michel Nostradamus, these poems contain a lot of interesting predictions. Leonid Utesov helped with the geographic location of the “arson site”: “The bluest sea in the world is my Black Sea!” Until recently, this sea was practically the only vacation spot for residents of the entire country - the USSR. Even great schemer, Ostap Bender checked in there in search of twelve chairs. And for little he did not pay with his life in Yalta at the time of the famous Crimean earthquake of 1928. By “coincidence”, there was a thunderstorm at the time of the earthquake. Lightning struck everywhere. Including at sea. And suddenly something completely unexpected happened: columns of flame began to burst out of the water to a height of 500-800 meters. These are the matches and chanterelles. Chemists know two types of hydrogen sulfide oxidation reaction: H2S + O = H2O + S;
H2S + 4O + to = H2SO4.

As a result of the first reaction, free sulfur and water are formed. The second type of H2S oxidation reaction occurs explosively with an initial thermal shock. As a result, sulfuric acid is formed. It was the second course of the H2S oxidation reaction that was observed by the residents of Yalta during the earthquake in 1928. Seismic tremors stirred deep-sea hydrogen sulfide to the surface. Electrical conductivity aqueous solution H2S is higher than pure sea ​​water. Therefore, electrical lightning discharges most often hit areas of hydrogen sulfide raised from the depths. However, a significant layer of clean surface water quenched the chain reaction. By the beginning of the 20th century, the upper inhabitable layer of water in the Black Sea was 200 meters. Thoughtless technogenic activity has led to a sharp reduction in this layer. Currently, in some places its thickness does not exceed 10-15 meters. During a strong storm, hydrogen sulfide rises to the surface, and vacationers may smell a characteristic odor.

At the beginning of the century, the Don River supplied up to 36 km3 to the Azov-Black Sea basin fresh water. By the beginning of the 80s, this volume had decreased to 19 km3: metallurgical industry, irrigation structures, field irrigation, city water supply systems. The commissioning of the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant took another 4 km3 of water. A similar situation occurred during the years of industrialization on other rivers in the basin. As a result of the thinning of the surface habitable layer of water, a sharp decline in biological organisms occurred in the Black Sea. For example, in the 50s, the dolphin population reached 8 million individuals.

Nowadays, meeting dolphins in the Black Sea has become very rare. Fans of underwater sports sadly observe only the remains of pathetic vegetation and rare schools of fish; rapana have disappeared. Few people think, for example, that all sea souvenirs sold along the Black Sea coast (decorative shells, mollusks, sea ​​stars, corals, etc.) have nothing to do with the Black Sea. Traders bring these goods from other seas and oceans. And in the Black Sea even mussels have almost disappeared. Sturgeon, horse mackerel, mackerel, and bonito, which have been caught since ancient times, disappeared back in the 1990s as a commercial species. (That is, there are no more scows full of mullet that Kostya brought to Odessa, and in general no one adores anyone for a long time).

But that's not the worst thing! If the Crimean earthquake had occurred today, it would have ended in a global catastrophe: billions of tons of hydrogen sulfide are covered by a thin film of water. What is the scenario for a probable cataclysm? As a result of the initial thermal shock, a volumetric explosion of H2S will occur. This can lead to powerful tectonic processes and movements lithospheric plates, which in turn will cause devastating earthquakes throughout to the globe. But that is not all! The explosion will release billions of tons of concentrated sulfuric acid into the atmosphere.

This will no longer be the weak acid rain of today after our factories. Acid showers after the explosion of the Black Sea will burn out everything living and inanimate on the planet! Or almost everything. Nature is wise! The origin of life on the planet is an extremely expensive undertaking from an energy-informational point of view. Almost everyone biological forms on earth - the carbon basis of the structure of the organism, and DNA with left polarization. But, as modern microbiologists know, there are 4 types of bacteria with right-handed DNA polarization. These bacteria “live” on the planet in conditions completely isolated from other forms. They were discovered in the acidic boiling water of volcanoes!

Apparently, it is these bacteria that will give a new impetus to the development of life on Earth if our civilization fails to become intelligent and ends up committing global suicide!
Attempts to become smarter are still difficult to see. Humanity is rushing headlong towards what is called catastrophe.

Bonus: More about the secrets of the Black Sea:

Millionth treasure of the lost ship

In 1854, a ship with the romantic name "Black Prince" sailed Black Sea. On board there was a lot of gold intended to pay soldiers who participated in the Crimean War. During a storm, the ship was wrecked. The news of a sunken ship with an unappreciated treasure spread throughout Europe. But numerous searches were never successful. The jewelry still rests at the bottom of the Black Sea. http://faktu-week.ictv.ua/ua/index/view-media/id/37647

Giant waves

As you know, the waves of the Black Sea are famous for their relatively calm nature. Their height does not exceed 1-2 m, and their length reaches a maximum of 14 m. http://faktu-week.ictv.ua/ua/index/view-media/id/37649 But in the twentieth century, the Black Sea decided to show its character - scientists recorded waves 25 m high and 200 m long. Scientists then emphasized the unusual nature of such waves: “The Black Sea has too small an area for the waves in it to reach high speed And high altitude. Others believe that strong underwater earthquakes sometimes occur in the Black Sea, which cause giant waves; Scientists have not fully explored the nature of such shocks to this day." In turn, any waves over 8 meters pose a catastrophic danger to oil and gas platforms on the Black Sea shelf.
http://faktu-week.ictv.ua/ua/index/view-media/id/37650

The materials published in this post are an online review of tools mass media on the topic of the Black Sea. http://planeta.moy.su/blog/v_glubinakh_chernogo_morja_vozmozhen_vzryv_serovodoroda/2011-11-15-9793

Black Sea - inland sea Atlantic Ocean, washes the shores of Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey.

Area - 422 thousand km2, length between western and eastern points - about 1167 km, between northern and southern - 624 km. The largest peninsula is Crimean, the largest bays (off the coast of Ukraine) are Karkinitsky, Kalamitsky, Feodosiyskaya, Dzharylgachsky. The largest island off the coast of Ukraine is Zmeiny. The average depth is 1271 m, the maximum is 2245 m. The shores of the Black Sea are poorly dissected, most often mountainous, steep, but within the continental part of Ukraine they are flat.
Within Ukraine they flow into the Black Sea large rivers: Danube, Dniester, Southern Bug, Dnieper. Many resorts: Sochi, Gelendzhik, resorts of Crimea, Abkhazia, Bulgaria.
Most of the sea is located in the subtropical zone. Winter is warm and humid. The air temperature in January over the Black Sea is -1 ... + 8 ° C, the surface water temperature is + 8 ° ... 9 ° C, except in the northwestern and northeastern parts, where the sea freezes in severe winters. Summer is hot and dry. Air temperature +22 ... 25 ° C, surface water temperature H24 ... 26 ° C. Average precipitation increases from west to east from 200-600 to 2000 mm or more. Average salinity is 21.8%.
The waters of the Black Sea at depths of more than 50-100 m are saturated with hydrogen sulfide, which negatively affects its organic life.

In the Black Sea there are more than 300 species of algae and over 180 species of fish, living mainly in the upper layer (above the hydrogen sulfide zone). Anchovy, horse mackerel, mullet, flounder, mackerel, algae and invertebrates (mussels, shrimp, oysters) are of industrial importance. Every year the sea provides up to 300 thousand tons of biological resources. Industrial reserves of natural gas and oil have been explored. The mud of the Black Sea estuaries has medicinal value. The Black Sea has a number of bays convenient for ships.

The Black Sea extends from west to east for 1160 km, its greatest width is 580 km. The total water area exceeds 420 thousand km2. The sea fills a large tectonic depression. Its maximum depth is 2245 m. The largest bays are Dzharylgachsky, Karkinitsky, Kalamitsky, Feodosiyskaya, Sivash, Obitichna, Berdyansk. The rivers Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, and Southern Bug flow into the Black Sea. In areas between the rivers of the coast there are bodies of water connecting to the sea - estuaries. Of these, on the Black Sea coast there are the Dniester, Khadzhibey, Kuyalnitsky, Tiligulsky, Dnieper estuaries, on Azov coast- Utlyutsky, Molochny. The most peninsula of the Black Sea is the Crimean, which is connected to the mainland by the Perekop Isthmus. In the Sea of ​​Azov, elongated areas of land - spits - attract attention. The largest among them is the Arabat Strelka Spit. In the Black Sea the most big island is Dzharylgach.

The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea with the Azov Sea. The depth of the strait is up to 4 m.

The climatic conditions of the Black Sea are characterized by subtropical features. Summer is dry and hot, winter is wet and warm. In winter, Mediterranean and Atlantic cyclones move over it, which are associated with rain and foggy weather. In summer, the Black Sea is under the influence of the Azores High, due to which cloudless weather prevails here, thunderstorms and tornadoes are rare occurrences.

Sea level fluctuations associated with high and low tides are insignificant, their amplitude is only 10 cm. Fluctuations under the influence of wind activity reach 1.5 m. Water temperature in summer is +24, + 26 ° C, and in winter it drops to +6, +7 ° C. From a depth of 150 m. The temperature became (8 ° C). In the years since harsh winters The northwestern part of the Black Sea freezes.

The salinity of the upper layer of water in the Black Sea is 17-18%. With depth, salinity increases to 22.5%. Compare these indicators with the following: the average salinity of the World Ocean is 35% o, the Mediterranean Sea - up to 38, and the Red Sea - 40% o. Find out why the salinity of the Black Sea waters is much lower.

Characteristic feature natural conditions The Black Sea is the existence of a permanent layer of hydrogen sulfide at depths below 100-120 m. This layer is inhabited by bacteria that use hydrogen sulfide. An important fact is that the hydrogen sulfide layer makes up 87% of the volume of the entire Black Sea. And only 13% of the Black Sea water contains oxygen; it is in this small layer that animals are found. Researchers note that hydrogen sulfide rises to the surface.

Every year, up to 300 thousand tons are taken out of the Black Sea. Biological resources. Construction sand, gravel, and flammable gas are also mined here; The search for oil fields on the shelf continues.

+ additional material:

The Black Sea is a deep-sea basin with relatively steep slopes. The profile, that is, a vertical section of the Black Sea, is shown in the figure. When considering this profile, it should be taken into account that for greater clarity of the image, the vertical scale is taken to be much larger than the horizontal one, so the bottom profile turned out to be steep, but in reality the bottom is not inclined as much as shown in the figure.

Many people think that in the Black Sea, immediately from the shore, a sharp drop in the bottom begins, and where gliders and boats, clearly visible from the beach, sail (about 500-1000 meters from the shore), the depths are already measured in hundreds of meters. However, this is far from the case. The 100-meter depth line runs at a distance of 200 kilometers from the coast in the northwestern part of the sea, 10-15 kilometers in the main part and only in certain areas (Crimea) at a distance of one kilometer. The sea bed is mostly flat, but there are small cracks and ledges, and there are also hills with very gentle slopes.

The greatest depth of the Black Sea is 2211 meters. The area of ​​maximum depths is located in the central part of the sea, somewhat closer to the Turkish shores.

At the bottom of the Black Sea, in one of its deepest depressions, the so-called Yalta, at a depth of over 2 kilometers, a man visited the first dive in the last century (1971) on a special deep-sea vehicle “North-2”. Its length is 4 meters, displacement is 15 tons. The device had a crew of 4 people under the leadership and with the participation of M. N. Diomidov, a famous Soviet designer of deep-sea vehicles.

What do aquanauts see when diving into the depths of the Black Sea? Only in the surface layer - up to 100 meters - does life exist. Deeper in complete darkness, under the rays of a spotlight, only organic remains glow, slowly sinking to the bottom and resembling snow flakes. But here you can also find human creations - sunken ships different eras rest in the darkness of the depths.

There are two types of structure of the earth's crust - oceanic and continental. In the ocean, under a layer of water there is a layer of sediment that gradually accumulates there; the thickness of this layer is from 2 to 5 kilometers. Then comes a basalt layer of the same thickness and, finally, magma, which comes to the surface during volcanic eruptions. There is no sedimentary layer under the continents, but the basalt layer there is thicker, up to 20 kilometers, and, in addition, there is another layer - granite, 10-15 kilometers thick, located above the basalt.

Under the Black Sea, the structure of the earth's crust resembles that of the ocean, but the layer of sedimentary rocks there is more than 10 kilometers, that is, thicker than in the ocean, and the layer of basalts is 10-20 kilometers thick (less than under the continents, but more than under the oceans). The granite layer extends only near the shore.

Since it is known that the Black Sea is geologically young, the structure of the earth’s crust underneath makes it possible to confirm one of the contradictory assumptions about the formation of continents and oceans. Some scientists believe that the oceans were formed before the continents, that the primary type of the earth’s crust was basaltic, and therefore these rocks lie shallow in the ocean. Then granite magma flowed through the cracks, which formed the continents. Other scientists take the opposite view. They believe that the seas are more modern than the continents. This point of view is confirmed by the oceanic structure of the bottom of the “young” Black Sea. If the continents were younger than the oceans, then under the Black Sea, as well as under other inland seas, there would be a large layer of granites.

Now, having been under the bottom of the Black Sea, let's rise higher and get acquainted with the composition of the soils covering its bottom from above. The soils of the Black Sea were formed as a result of the interaction of three main factors: destruction of the coast, river runoff and deposition of organic residues. Coastal soils consist of pebbles, gravel, sand, and silt (very small particles). The bottom at a depth of 20 to 150 meters is covered with silts with shells of mussels and phaseolina. Deep-sea silts are clayey and calcareous. The bottom at a depth of 200 to 1500 meters is covered with dark (gray, brown, brown) silts.

Having been to the bottom of the sea, we will rise even higher and get acquainted with the bottom topography near the sea shores. Before you give general characteristics coastal areas of the Black Sea bottom, it is necessary to dwell on the enormous role that waves play in their change. The figure shows with a dotted line what the original profile of the coast was. Sea waves cut off part of it, forming a steep ledge, or cliff, while the soil sank down the slope, creating sediments here, and part of the soil moved along the shore under the influence of the waves. Thus, the destructive and creative activity of waves in the surf zone exists simultaneously.

Let us now turn to the characteristics of the bottom of individual areas of the Black Sea.

Bottom characteristics

The shores of the northwestern part are shallow; on the western coast of Crimea there are also extensive sandy beaches. On the southern coast of Crimea, the beaches are small, since the rocks there are made of very strong rocks that even the thousand-year work of the sea could not destroy. For example, the “Monk” rock stood near Simeiz for several centuries, and only in 1927 was it destroyed by an earthquake.

An interesting feature of the Caucasian coast are the huge protrusions, for example, at the Pitsunda and Sukhumi capes. Their base lies at a depth of up to 200 meters. They were formed in the process of accumulation of soil, which is carried by rivers into the sea, and then moves under the influence of waves along the coast. Approaching the ledges, sediments fall into the sea, gradually building up the capes. A peculiarity of the Caucasian and Anatolian coasts of the sea is the presence of submerged deltaic ledges of rivers that form underwater shoals, such as the Gudauta River.

No less interesting feature are canyons - deep valleys with relatively steep slopes, running from the shore into the sea and along its bottom. The canyons are located opposite the mouths of the Colchis rivers - Inguri, Khobi and Rioni. The slope of their slopes sometimes reaches 25 degrees (400 m/km), and the longitudinal slope is 12 degrees (200 m/km). The canyons extend to a depth of 1000 meters. Scientists from many countries are working to clarify the mystery of the origin of canyons (such landforms exist near California and against the mouths of African rivers).

Perhaps these are the hollows of the rivers that flowed here, which were flooded when the level of the World Ocean rose (by hundreds of meters), caused by the melting of ice after last glaciation. Perhaps the canyons are cracks in the earth's crust formed during earthquakes. Perhaps the canyons were formed as a result of erosion of the bottom by artesian springs.

Detailed map of the depths of the Black Sea Sochi

What is a geographic map

A geographic map is an image of the Earth's surface with a coordinate grid and symbols, the proportions of which directly depend on the scale. A geography map is a landmark by which you can identify the location of an array, object, or place of residence of a person. These are indispensable assistants for geologists, tourists, pilots and military personnel, whose professions are directly related to travel and trips over long distances.

Types of cards

Conditionally divide geographic Maps There are 4 types:

• in terms of territory coverage and these are maps of continents and countries;
• by purpose and these are tourism, educational, road, navigation, scientific and reference, technical, tourist maps;
• content - thematic, general geographical, general political maps;
• by scale – small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale maps.

Each of the maps is dedicated to a particular topic, thematically reflecting islands, seas, vegetation, settlements, weather, soils, taking into account the coverage of the territory. A map can only represent countries, continents or individual states plotted on a certain scale. Taking into account how much a particular territory has been reduced, the scale of the map is 1x1000.1500, which means a decrease in distance by 20,000 times. Of course, it’s easy to guess that the larger the scale, the more detailed the map is drawn. And yet, individual parts of the earth's surface on the map are distorted, unlike a globe, which is capable of conveying the appearance of the surface without changes. The Earth is spherical and distortions occur, such as: area, angles, length of objects.

Despite all possible distortions, the advantages of a map, unlike a globe, are obvious - the visibility on a sheet of paper of all hemispheres on Earth at once and a large number geographical objects. The globe, for example, is inconvenient for travelers to use because it needs to be constantly turned.

All sailing directions and atlases indicate that the average depth of the Black Sea is 1300 meters. From the surface of the water to the bottom of the sea basin is, on average, almost one and a half kilometers, but what we are accustomed to consider the sea has a depth several times less, about 100 meters. Below lurks a lifeless and deadly poisonous abyss. This discovery was made by a Russian oceanographic expedition in 1890. Measurements have shown that the sea is almost entirely filled with dissolved hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gas with the smell of rotten eggs. In the center of the sea, the hydrogen sulfide zone approaches the surface by about 50 meters; closer to the shores, the depth, where the sulfide zone begins, increases to 300 meters. In this sense, the Black Sea is unique; it is the only one in the world without a hard bottom. A liquid, convex lens of dead water underlies the thin top layer, where all marine life is concentrated. The underlying lens breathes and swells, breaking through to the surface from time to time due to blowing winds. Major breakthroughs occur less frequently; the last one occurred during the Yalta earthquake of 1928, when even far from the sea a strong smell of rotten eggs could be felt and thunderous lightning flashed on the sea horizon, spreading in burning columns into the sky (Hydrogen sulfide H2S is a flammable and explosive poisonous gas). There is still debate about the source of hydrogen sulfide in the depths of the Black Sea. Some consider the main source to be the reduction of sulfates by sulfate-reducing bacteria during the decomposition of dead organic matter. Others adhere to the hydrothermal hypothesis, i.e. release of hydrogen sulfide from cracks on the seabed. However, there are no contradictions here; apparently, both reasons are at work. The Black Sea is designed in such a way that its water exchange with the Mediterranean Sea occurs through the shallow Bosphorus threshold. The Black Sea water, desalinated by the river runoff and therefore lighter, goes into the Sea of ​​Marmara and further, and towards it, or rather under it, through the Bosphorus threshold, the saltier and heavier Mediterranean water rolls down into the depths of the Black Sea. It turns out to be something like a giant sump, in the depths of which hydrogen sulfide has gradually accumulated over the past six to seven thousand years. You don’t know this yet. Today, this dead layer makes up over 90 percent of the volume of the sea. In the 20th century, as a result of sea pollution by organic anthropogenic substances, the boundary of the hydrogen sulfide zone rose from the depths by 25 - 50 meters. Simply put, oxygen from the upper thin layer of the sea does not have time to oxidize the hydrogen sulfide that is propping up from below. Ten years ago, this problem was considered one of the top priorities in the Black Sea countries. Hydrogen sulfide is a highly toxic and explosive substance. Poisoning occurs at concentrations from 0.05 to 0.07 mg/m3. The maximum permissible concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the air of populated areas is 0.008 mg/m3. According to a number of experts and scientists, a charge power equivalent to Hiroshima is sufficient to detonate hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. In this case, the consequences of the disaster will be comparable to what would happen if an asteroid with a mass half the mass of the Moon crashed into our Earth. There is more than 20 thousand cubic kilometers of hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. Now the problem has been forgotten due to unknown circumstances. True, this did not make the problem go away. In the early 1950s, in Walvis Bay (Namibia), an upward current (upwelling) brought a hydrogen sulfide cloud to the surface. Up to one hundred and fifty miles inland the smell of hydrogen sulfide could be felt, the walls of houses darkened. The smell of rotten eggs already means exceeding the MPC (maximum permissible concentration). In fact, the inhabitants of South-West Africa then experienced a “soft” gas attack. On the Black Sea, a gas attack could be much harsher. Let's say someone gets the idea to mix up the sea, or at least part of it. Technically this, alas, is feasible. In the relatively shallow northwestern part of the sea, somewhere halfway between Sevastopol and Constanta, it is possible to carry out an underwater nuclear explosion of relatively low power. On the shore it will only be noticed by instruments. But after a few hours, there, on the shore, they will smell the smell of rotten eggs. Under the best circumstances, within 24 hours, two-thirds of the sea will turn into a communal cemetery for marine organisms. If things go wrong, coastal settlements, where organisms that are no longer marine, live, will also turn into mass cemeteries. In the previous two phrases, the evaluative adjectives “favorable” and “unfavorable” can be swapped, depending on how you look at it. Poisonous Sea If from the position of a person or group of people who set themselves the goal of paralyzing the peoples of half a dozen countries with horror, then it is necessary to change. However, the greed of oil and gas companies is worse than any Ben with his Frankincense. Feeling that the end of the era of hydrocarbon raw materials is very close, and is measured in a couple of decades, after which an era of total stagnation and complete decline of the raw material economy will begin, businessmen from the state, in agony and despair, threw high-pressure pipes for a fuel pipeline right along the bottom of the Black Sea. It was difficult to expect greater obscurantism. This is a one-time weekend design, which is not possible to repair and prevent in conditions of explosive hydrogen sulfide. Everyone still remembers the Adler-Novosibirsk passenger train, which completely burned down due to a fuel line failure. You don’t have to be an expert chemist or physicist to understand what will happen if a fuel pipeline breaks in the deep layers of hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea. No comments. Thousands of businessmen making resort money from the exploitation of the Black Sea do not suspect that their business will soon come to an end, and the Black Sea coast from a resort area will turn into a zone of environmental disaster, dangerous for human habitation. This especially applies to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, where, according to scientists, large amounts of hydrogen sulfide are most likely to be released into the atmosphere. Twenty years ago, having familiarized themselves with the calculations of scientists on the Black Sea, scientists built a graph of the decrease in the surface layer of water from 1890 to 2020. The continuation of the graph curve reached 15 meters of layer thickness by 2010. And it was already noted near the Caucasus in 2007. This was even reported on May 30, 2007 on the radio in Sochi. There were also reports of mass deaths of dolphins in the Black Sea. And the local people themselves felt a certain dead spirit from the sea. In the area of ​​New Athos, the sea is already different than it was 20-30 years ago; in the afternoon the water is cloudy, yellow, there are dead fish and even dead animals. Many businessmen realized the pointlessness of their ideas of participating in investing in the resort business on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. No one thinks that a catastrophe is coming, and it is not far off, but very close. Many local residents have the feeling that the 2014 Olympics will be held as a farewell to a foolish person with the Black Sea. Millions of people living on the Black Sea coast will be forced to move away from the coast due to the danger of dying as a result of suffocation from hydrogen sulfide and lack of oxygen in the air. And before this general flight of residents from resort cities, mass diseases of residents of the coastal zone may begin, with fatal outcomes. The end of the Black Sea resorts will come! This will be a worthy retribution of people for their admiration for the power of the Golden Calf, for their contempt for nature, for their ignorance of environmental safety issues. After all, with a reasonable approach to business, it is possible to turn the impending troubles to the benefit of the economy and energy. The water of the Black Sea contains silver and gold. If we extracted all the silver in the water of the Black Sea, it would amount to approximately 540 thousand tons. If all the gold was extracted, it would amount to approximately 270 thousand tons. Methods for extracting gold and silver from the water of the Black Sea have long been developed. The very first primitive installations were based on ion exchangers, special ion exchange resins that are capable of attaching ions of substances dissolved in water. But industrially, using their own special technologies, only Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania extract silver and gold from the waters of the Black Sea. It is known that at a depth below 50 meters, the deep layers of the Black Sea are a colossal warehouse of hydrogen sulfide (about a billion tons). Hydrogen sulfide is a flammable gas that, when burned, produces a corresponding amount of heat. In other words, this is a fuel that can and should be used. When hydrogen sulfide is burned according to the reaction: 2H2S + 3O2 = 2H2O + 2SO2, heat is released in an amount of about 268 kcal (with an excess of oxygen). Compare with the amount of heat released during the combustion of hydrogen in oxygen according to the reaction: H2 + 1/2 O2 >H2O (about 68.4 kcal/mol is released). Since the first reaction produces sulfur dioxide (a harmful product), it is of course better to use hydrogen as a fuel in the composition of hydrogen sulfide, which can be obtained by heating hydrogen sulfide according to the reaction: H2S H2+S3 The decomposition of hydrogen sulfide requires its slight heating. Reaction (3) will make it possible to obtain sulfur from the water of the Black Sea. If we carry out the reactions of burning hydrogen sulfide in air oxygen: 2H2S + 3O2 = 2H2O + 2SO2, then burning the resulting sulfur dioxide: SO2 + ? O2 = SO3, then by the interaction of three sulfur oxides with water: SO3 + H2O = H2SO4 then, as is known, we can obtain sulfuric acid with associated heat production in the appropriate amount. During the production of sulfuric acid, about 194 kcal/mol is released. Thus, from the water of the Black Sea it is possible to obtain either hydrogen and sulfur, or sulfuric acid with the associated heat production in the appropriate quantity. All that remains is to extract hydrogen sulfide from the deep layers of the sea. This is confusing at first. One of the scientific developments is based on the fact that in order to raise deep layers of sea water saturated with hydrogen sulfide, it is not necessary to expend energy on pumping it. According to this scientific development, it is proposed to lower a pipe with strong walls to a depth of 80 meters and lift water through it once from the depth in order to obtain a gas-water fountain in the pipe due to the difference in the hydrostatic pressure of water in the sea at the level of the lower cut of the channel and the pressure of the gas-water mixture at that the same level inside the canal (remember that every 10 meters the pressure in the sea increases by one atmosphere). An analogy is given with a bottle of champagne. By opening the bottle, we lower the pressure in it, which is why gas begins to be released in the form of bubbles, and so intensely that the bubbles, floating up, push the champagne in front of them. Pumping out a column of water from a pipe for the first time is precisely the opening of the plug. It is reported that a group of scientists from Kherson conducted a ground-based experiment back in 1990, confirming the operation of such a fountain until the hydrogen sulfide in the sea runs out. The full-scale marine experiment also ended successfully. A very illustrative example, when the existence of life is under threat, the planet is saved by a bunch of lone heroes, who are also hindered by the government and everything around them. And where is all the state potential at this time, with its scientific power, computers, and programs? Black Sea disaster Skeptics can easily check the data with their fingers by sailing further out to sea and lowering a thick hose with a weight at the end into the water. It’s just not recommended to smoke at this time, so that it doesn’t turn out like in Chukovsky’s poems. Many probably remember the words of Korney Chukovsky’s poem: “And the little foxes took matches, went to the blue sea, lit the blue sea.” But few people know that the children's poems of Korney Chukovsky are studied very carefully by astrologers: as in the quatrains of Michel Nostradamus, these poems contain a lot of interesting predictions. Leonid Utesov helped with the geographic location of the “arson site”: “The bluest sea in the world is my Black Sea!” Until recently, this sea was practically the only vacation spot for residents of the entire country - the USSR. Even the great schemer, Ostap Bender, showed up there in search of twelve chairs. And for little he did not pay with his life in Yalta at the time of the famous Crimean earthquake of 1928. By “coincidence”, there was a thunderstorm at the time of the earthquake. Lightning struck everywhere. Including at sea. And suddenly something completely unexpected happened: columns of flame began to burst out of the water to a height of 500-800 meters. These are the matches and chanterelles. Chemists know two types of hydrogen sulfide oxidation reaction: H2S + O = H2O + S; H2S + 4O + to = H2SO4. As a result of the first reaction, free sulfur and water are formed. The second type of H2S oxidation reaction occurs explosively with an initial thermal shock. As a result, sulfuric acid is formed. It was the second course of the H2S oxidation reaction that was observed by the residents of Yalta during the earthquake in 1928. Seismic tremors stirred deep-sea hydrogen sulfide to the surface. The electrical conductivity of an aqueous solution of H2S is higher than that of pure sea water. Therefore, electrical lightning discharges most often hit areas of hydrogen sulfide raised from the depths. However, a significant layer of clean surface water quenched the chain reaction. By the beginning of the 20th century, the upper inhabitable layer of water in the Black Sea was 200 meters. Thoughtless technogenic activity has led to a sharp reduction in this layer. Currently, in some places its thickness does not exceed 10-15 meters. During a strong storm, hydrogen sulfide rises to the surface, and vacationers may smell a characteristic odor. At the beginning of the century, the Don River supplied up to 36 km3 of fresh water to the Azov-Black Sea basin. By the beginning of the 80s, this volume had decreased to 19 km3: metallurgical industry, irrigation structures, field irrigation, city water supply systems. The commissioning of the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant took another 4 km3 of water. A similar situation occurred during the years of industrialization on other rivers in the basin. As a result of the thinning of the surface habitable layer of water, a sharp decline in biological organisms occurred in the Black Sea. For example, in the 50s, the dolphin population reached 8 million individuals. Nowadays, meeting dolphins in the Black Sea has become very rare. Fans of underwater sports sadly observe only the remains of pathetic vegetation and rare schools of fish; rapana have disappeared. Few people think, for example, that all the sea souvenirs sold along the Black Sea coast (decorative shells, mollusks, starfish, corals, etc.) have nothing to do with the Black Sea. Traders bring these goods from other seas and oceans. And in the Black Sea even mussels have almost disappeared. Sturgeon, horse mackerel, mackerel, and bonito, which have been caught since ancient times, disappeared back in the 1990s as a commercial species. (That is, there are no more scows full of mullet that Kostya brought to Odessa, and in general no one adores anyone for a long time). But that's not the worst thing! If the Crimean earthquake had occurred today, it would have ended in a global catastrophe: billions of tons of hydrogen sulfide are covered by a thin film of water. What is the scenario for a probable cataclysm? As a result of the initial thermal shock, a volumetric explosion of H2S will occur. This can lead to powerful tectonic processes and movements of lithospheric plates, which, in turn, will cause destructive earthquakes throughout the globe. But that is not all! The explosion will release billions of tons of concentrated sulfuric acid into the atmosphere. This will no longer be the weak acid rain of today after our factories. Acid showers after the explosion of the Black Sea will burn out everything living and inanimate on the planet! Or almost everything. Nature is wise! The origin of life on the planet is a very expensive undertaking from an energy-informational point of view. Almost all biological forms on earth have a carbon basis for the structure of the body, and DNA with left polarization. But, as modern microbiologists know, there are 4 types of bacteria with right-handed DNA polarization. These bacteria “live” on the planet in conditions completely isolated from other forms. They were discovered in the acidic boiling water of volcanoes! Apparently, it is these bacteria that will give a new impetus to the development of life on Earth if our civilization fails to become intelligent and ends up committing global suicide! P.S. In order to clarify, it is necessary to clarify one more detail: when reading the article, it may seem that at the depths of the Black Sea there is not a solution of hydrogen sulfide in water, but a huge bubble of pure hydrogen sulfide gas, which, for unknown reasons, cannot float to the surface on its own and may explode... In reality, it's just a solution of hydrogen sulfide acid, i.e. it's just there mineral water. The same as in many hydrogen sulfide mineral springs, which bubble up on the surface and do not explode anything around. So, as you can see, there are many opinions on this matter.