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The Black Sea pp 27–47Cite as

Geophysics of the Black Sea Basin

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Abstract

The Black Sea covers an area of 466,200 km2, while the its catchment basin’s area is of 1,874,904 km2, of which 0.817 million km2 belong to Danube River, representing 43.57% of the total. The total length of Black Sea catchment area’s watersheds is of 11,200 km, of which 8650 km on Europe territory. The Black Sea basin length between Burgas and Poti, on 45°30′ parallel is of 1200 km, while the maximum width is of 610 km and is reached in the Western part of the basin, between Oceanov and Eregli Cape. The average width is of 367.82 km. The maximum depth of the Black Sea is of 2245 m, according to the first Russian expeditions data. Recent measurements identified a maximum depth of only 2212 m (UNEP data). The Black Sea basin is a tectonic basin consisting of two compartments, Western and Eastern, separated by the Andrusov crest with a horst appearance. The entire region overlaps a basis developed on oceanic crust and continental crust unevenly distributed in West-East transversal profile of the basin. The relief of the Black Sea basin is divided, in terms of morphotectonic and morphostructure, in two regions: central and boundary. The central region, developed on the oceanic type basaltic crust and partially on the continental crust, encompasses the Euxinic Abyssal Plain located at depths under 2000 m. The primary tectonic relief was buried by the sediments deposited during the last 80–100 million years so that the actual relief, developed on fine and ultra-fine non consolidated sediments is particularly plain and smooth. The boundary region has a more complex structure. The relief of this region may be associated with the oceanic continental borders, showing significant differences on each of its sides. The morphogenesis of the Black Sea basin is due to the subsidence processes which followed the original continental rifting and which developed with different directions, intensities and rhythms in the two component basins of the Black Sea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Emil Vespremeanu

  2. The National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa”, Constanta, Romania

    Mariana Golumbeanu

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  1. Emil Vespremeanu
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  2. Mariana Golumbeanu
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Correspondence to Emil Vespremeanu .

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Vespremeanu, E., Golumbeanu, M. (2018). Geophysics of the Black Sea Basin. In: The Black Sea. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70855-3_4

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