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re: How the hell is the Caspian Sea brackish?
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:12 am to Harry Rex Vonner
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:12 am to Harry Rex Vonner
quote:
Mine either obviously
but the Caspian is almost as big as the Black sea (which of course is connected to oceans) and the Black sea has small sharks.
Seems like small sharks would have had plenty of room to reproduce in the Caspian.
They would certainly have plenty of room. My theoretical question is whether they had a population crash due to the initial interference with their reproductive cycles that they didn't recover from, whether due to predators, changes in water temperature, changes in water salinity, etc, etc.
0
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:14 am to Joshjrn
Damn! Great answer
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:15 am to Harry Rex Vonner
quote:
Damn! Great answer
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:16 am to Harry Rex Vonner
Some of y'all slept through geography in middle school and it shows.
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:18 am to PJinAtl
quote:But what if the African Shark was fully laden with the coconuts?
Depends on if they are African sharks or European sharks. African sharks are non-migratory.
What would be the velocity then?
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:28 am to diat150
quote:This does not appear to be correct. Water from the rivers certainly enter the Caspian Sea. But that same water evaporates out, otherwise the sea level would rise. Thus, the amount of water stays the same.
Rivers dilute it constantly. The Volga River (and several others) dump enormous amounts of freshwater into it. With no outflow to the ocean, this freshwater just mixes with the trapped saltwater, diluting it over time. That's why it's only about one-third as salty as the ocean — roughly 1.2% salinity vs. the ocean's ~3.5%.
Evaporation concentrates what's left. Water evaporates from the surface, but the salt stays behind. So you have two competing forces: rivers constantly freshening it, and evaporation constantly concentrating whatever salt remains.
It's also uneven. The northern part (where the Volga empties) is nearly fresh, while the southern parts are saltier — so it's not even uniformly brackish throughout.
Essentially it's a relic of an ancient ocean that's been slowly freshening for millions of years but hasn't finished the job yet. Given enough time with no geological changes, the rivers would theoretically freshen it completely — but evaporation and residual salt keep it in this in-between state.
The amount of salt does not decrease because salt does not evaporate. Thus, the amount of salt stays the same.
So, the salt in the Caspian Sea is not being diluted in total.
This post was edited on 3/13/26 at 10:43 am
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:29 am to Bullfrog
what you did there....i seent it
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:30 am to Harry Rex Vonner
quote:
I wonder why no sharks were included in the ancient saltwater dump?
There probably were at one point. But the change in food sources and migratory cutoff probably killed them off over time.
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:30 am to CapitalTiger
quote:
Some of y'all slept through geography in middle school and it shows.
you're not wrong
I loved the maps all over the globe and then strictly American geography of this or that location of whoever, but when the scientific parts started up, my ADHD kicked in
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:30 am to Harry Rex Vonner
That's a giant lake bro. Fresh water drains into it
Posted on 3/13/26 at 10:38 am to diat150
You don’t realize how long I’ve pondered over that…
Posted on 3/13/26 at 11:18 am to Harry Rex Vonner
North of Baku is an offshore city the locals call Oil Rocks, which IIRC started after WW2 and remains in active oil production, at peak 2,000 residents.
In the early 90's Russians were running oil production, a tough looking group of men. Sheep and goat herders moved through Baku grazing, development since I'm sure has pushed them out.
South of Baku is a 12th century small preserved trading post, part of the Silk Road. Fascinating to see just after the collapse of the Soviet empire.
My hotel ran out of food, but I found where the Russians ate dinner at a bar, it was like walking into the bar scene in the original Star Wars movie.
Lukoil executives flew in from Moscow on private jets, their "admins" clothed in short little red or black cocktail dresses. All gorgeous.
Baku back then looked like something out of the 1950's with asture Soviet architecture.
In the early 90's Russians were running oil production, a tough looking group of men. Sheep and goat herders moved through Baku grazing, development since I'm sure has pushed them out.
South of Baku is a 12th century small preserved trading post, part of the Silk Road. Fascinating to see just after the collapse of the Soviet empire.
My hotel ran out of food, but I found where the Russians ate dinner at a bar, it was like walking into the bar scene in the original Star Wars movie.
Lukoil executives flew in from Moscow on private jets, their "admins" clothed in short little red or black cocktail dresses. All gorgeous.
Baku back then looked like something out of the 1950's with asture Soviet architecture.
Posted on 3/13/26 at 11:22 am to diat150
quote:
Essentially it's a relic of an ancient ocean that's been slowly freshening for millions of years but hasn't finished the job yet. Given enough time with no geological changes, the rivers would theoretically freshen it completely
Unless the rivers are increasing the volume over time, wouldn’t the continued addition of salts from the rivers (however dilute they are) eventually result in it getting slatier over geologic time?
Posted on 3/13/26 at 11:23 am to Joshjrn
quote:
Yep yep. Take a pot of salty water and boil it. As water evaporates out, pour in more fresh water. As long as you keep the water level relatively stable, your salt to water ratio will remain relatively stable as well.
Unless you’re using RO or DI water, wouldn’t you eventually increase the salt in the water over time?
Posted on 3/13/26 at 11:26 am to diat150
How did the Great Salt Lake get there? It's nowhere near the ocean 
Posted on 3/13/26 at 11:58 am to Harry Rex Vonner
Captain Sea is cool and all but do they have a Causeway? 
Posted on 3/13/26 at 12:06 pm to Oilfieldbiology
quote:
Unless you’re using RO or DI water, wouldn’t you eventually increase the salt in the water over time?
Different waters would have different salt contents, but when I wrote "fresh water", I meant practically lacking in salt, like rainwater which evaporated and condensed.
Posted on 3/13/26 at 12:14 pm to Joshjrn
But the Caspian Sea is primarily filled by rivers is it not? Even the cleanest river, sustained by rain water, will pic up silt and rocks and ultimately dissolve minerals (slats) as it travels.
Yes, if you use rain water to refill a boiling pit your salt content will likely stay the same, but that’s not what’s happening to the Caspian Sea
Yes, if you use rain water to refill a boiling pit your salt content will likely stay the same, but that’s not what’s happening to the Caspian Sea
Posted on 3/13/26 at 12:34 pm to Oilfieldbiology
quote:
But the Caspian Sea is primarily filled by rivers is it not? Even the cleanest river, sustained by rain water, will pic up silt and rocks and ultimately dissolve minerals (slats) as it travels.
Yes, if you use rain water to refill a boiling pit your salt content will likely stay the same, but that’s not what’s happening to the Caspian Sea
But you're only adding one variable to my closed system hypothetical. So while yes, rivers will add slight minerality, every bit of seafood removed from the sea is removing slight minerality, etc, etc.
There are also (apparently; I obviously didn't know this beforehand) tidal lagoons (such as Kara-Bogaz-Gol) that become hyper saline and are farmed for sea salt, which would also contribute to maintaining or decreasing the salinity of the larger body of water by slowly (relative to the size of the sea) removing salt.
Posted on 3/13/26 at 12:35 pm to Harry Rex Vonner
Because God made it that way, baw.
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