10 facts about the Red sea

The red sea — whose name is a direct translation of the Greek Erythra Thalassa that came from ancient times. However, the "Red" sea is called only in the European languages. For example, in Hebrew, it is called "Yam Suf" — cane, reed, named, most likely due to the reed-beds of the Gulf of Suez in Egypt, "green space".

1. The red sea is the saltiest sea of the World ocean. In 1 liter of water it contains 41 grams of salt (in the open ocean, 34 g, in the Black sea 18, in the Baltic just 5 grams of salt per liter of water).

2. The red sea – the warmest of all the seas. The water temperature in spring in the southern part of the sea reaches +30°C, and in the Northern +22°C! There is an assumption that the bottom water temperature around +21°C. In winter months the temperature does not fall below +20°C.

3. For the year falls over the sea not more than 100 mm of precipitation (and even then, not everywhere, and only in winter months), then as it evaporates during the same time 20 times more — 2000 mm. This means that every day from the surface of the sea evaporates more than a half centimeter of water. In the absence of water inflow from the land this water deficit in the sea kompensiruet only the flow of water from the Gulf of Aden.

4. In Bab-El-Mandeb Strait at the same time there is a natural flow, incoming into the Red sea and coming out of it. For the year in the sea water is introduced at approximately 1000 cubic km more than it is extracted from it.

5. For a complete exchange of water in the Red sea requires just 15 years.

6. The peculiarity of the red sea is that it does not fall into any one river, but rivers usually carry the silt and sand, significantly reducing the transparency of sea water. Therefore, the water in the Red sea crystal clear.

7. The red sea is very young. Its formation began about 25 million years ago when the earth's crust there was a crack and formed the East African rift. Under the action of centrifugal force due to the rotation of the Earth of the African continental plate separated from the Arabian and their reversal with formation of spirals, twisting in the North-East, and between the earth's crust was formed failure, which gradually over thousands of years filled with sea water.

8. Plates move all the time — a relatively flat coast of the red sea in different directions at a speed of 1 cm per year or 1 m per century At this rate of expansion in the next 200 million years the Red sea will be the width of the Atlantic ocean.

9. In 1869, the opening of the Suez canal, the waters of the Mediterranean flowed into the Red Sea and the migration of underwater flora and fauna in both directions.