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Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences talks Caspian Sea's decrease level

Society Materials 12 October 2018 13:53 (UTC +04:00)
Over the past 12-13 years, the level of the Caspian Sea has decreased by one meter.
Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences talks Caspian Sea's decrease level

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 12

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

Over the past 12-13 years, the level of the Caspian Sea has decreased by one meter, the Director of the Geography Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (ANAS), academician Ramiz Mammadov told Trend.

The director of the institute noted that, while ten years ago the level of the Caspian Sea was 27 meters below the world ocean level, now this figure has reached 28 meters.

Mammadov added that in recent years, the level of the Caspian Sea has been declining annually by about ten centimeters.

"Due to climatic changes, the evaporation above the Caspian surface has increased. The amount of evaporated water was about one meter, and if there was no evaporation, the water level would rise by a meter. On the other hand, the water supply of the Volga River, which flows into the Caspian Sea, has decreased," he explained.

Mammadov stressed that the fall in the water level of the Caspian Sea has a negative effect on the marine flora and fauna.

“With water level decreasing, the volume of the shelf zone of the sea decreases, therefore the habitat of representatives of the animal world living in the shelf zone is narrowed. Their food supply and oxygen volume decreases,” Mammadov stressed.

It is difficult to say how long the decline in the water level of the Caspian Sea will continue, Chingiz Ismayilov, Head of the "Caspian" Scientific Research & Information Center at Baku State University told Trend.

"This period can continue for 11-12 and even 30 years. The water level in the Caspian Sea fluctuates periodically, one day it falls, another day it rises," Ismayilov said.

Ismayilov noted that when conducting construction work and laying communications lines, it is necessary to take into account that the amplitude of the rise and fall of the Caspian Sea level varies between 1-1.5 meters.

"Otherwise, when the water level rises, the problem of flooding arises, and when the water level drops, the problems in implementation of agricultural work surface," he said.

Ismayilov noted that the Sun's activity also influences the change in the level of the Caspian Sea.

"But it is wrong to relate it only to the activity of the Sun," he said.

Of the 90 percent of the water mass flowing into the Caspian Sea from rivers, 80 percent fall to the share of the Volga river, six percent - the Kura river, and five percent - the Ural river. There are no rivers flowing into the sea on the east coast of the Caspian Sea.

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