Caspian Sea. The phenomenon of the Caspian – Aral system On the eve of a new hypothesis
On the satellite image:
1. Volga River Delta
2. Caspian Sea
3. Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay
4. Remains of the former Aral Sea
5. Sarakamysh Lake
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CASPIAN SEA
The Caspian Sea has become catastrophically shallow and this trend will continue to increase in the future. Such a pessimistic forecast was made by prominent scientists at the beginning of the last century.
By 1977, the water level in the largest endorheic lake on Earth had dropped by three meters. The size of coastal islands increased, bays and bays became shallow or completely disappeared, and navigation conditions at the mouths of the Volga and Ural rivers became more difficult. The shallowing of the sea threatened to reduce fish catches, especially sturgeon, the reserves of which in the Caspian Sea accounted for about 90% of the world's total.
The population learned to benefit from the tragedy of the ancient sea. Builders were able to extract exposed deposits of shell rock, livestock farmers had additional pastures and hayfields, oil workers were able to search for and extract oil on land, and the sandy stripes of the receding sea gave wonderful beaches to coastal cities.
The drop in the level of the Caspian Sea was associated with the rapid development of irrigated agriculture in the Volga region, which began to deplete the waters of the Volga. According to the plans of the Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Management, it was necessary to take about six cubic kilometers of Volga water from the river for irrigation. The flow of the great Russian river into the sea has decreased.
The question arose about drastic measures to save the Caspian Sea, the greatest miracle of nature. Various high authorities decided to block the narrow (up to 200 meters) Kara-Bogaz-Gol strait connecting the Caspian Sea with the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay, which evaporated about six cubic kilometers of Caspian water from its surface per year.
Thus, according to the plan of the USSR Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Management, blocking the strait with a dam made it possible to compensate for the withdrawal of water for irrigation from the Volga.
In 1980, a dam between the Caspian Sea and the bay was built in record time, without conducting an examination or weighing the consequences. The inevitable change in the environmental situation, the deterioration of the living conditions of thousands of people living in the Bay Area, was not taken into account at all.
The centuries-long process of absorption of sea waters by Kara-Bogaz was interrupted.
Meanwhile, alarming signals about the approach of the sea began to arrive, which was not such a surprise for specialists. All hydrometeorological observatories along the coast have already recorded a sharp increase in the level of the Caspian Sea since 1978. An absurd situation was created when, in the quiet of offices, measures were being developed to save the sea from shallowing, and heroic efforts were being made locally to protect against sea waves that flooded hay meadows, haystacks, equipment, livestock camps, oil exploration sites and developed fields.
The sea, having increased by almost two annual Volga flows, rose by more than a meter. Rising sea levels created a serious threat to many coastal structures, and in Dagestan, for example, an entire state farm was flooded - 40 thousand hectares of land.
Experts suddenly saw the light, concluded that the sea level pulsates within a range of up to 4 meters with a historically verified periodicity depending on tectonic processes in the bowels of the earth's crust, and came to the conclusion that the Caspian does not need additional sources of water, which will soon be available anyway. excess.
KARA-BOGAZ-GOL BAY
The Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay was a unique natural object, a stable ecological system formed by nature over thousands of years and a rich raw material base for many industries. Valuable raw materials such as boron, bromine, and rare earth elements are extracted from underground brines. From brines, the industry produces bischofite, sodium sulfate, epsomite, medical Glauber's salt and other chemical products. The world's largest deposit of mirabilite is located here.
Under the pretext of saving the Caspian Sea, in 1980 the bay was closed with a dam without ceremony. Reclamation experts predicted the drying out of Kara-Bogaz-Gol no earlier than in fifteen years. But the water evaporated five times faster. A lifeless salt desert, where waves saturated with chemicals once rolled in heavy waves - that’s all that remained of Kara-Bogaz by this time.
When the bay dried up, industrial wells stopped recharging, underground brines became depleted in chemical elements, and the costs of mining enterprises for production increased sharply.
The living conditions of the population became even harsher. Fine salt from the bottom of the former reservoir, lifted by the winds, envelops populated areas in a white haze. Salt penetrates into houses, sits on crops and poor pastures of livestock farms, leading to the death of livestock. There were rumors about the closure of mining enterprises.
Correcting a bug of this magnitude is difficult. Eleven pipes of one and a half meters in diameter were passed through the dam. Through these pipes, about a third of the previous volume of water flows into the bay. But this doesn't solve the problem. The surface brine of the bay is recovering extremely slowly. Its complete loss threatens multi-billion dollar losses for the state.
The process of the bay's dying has gone so far that it is hardly permissible to change it by completely destroying the dam. A new ecological system has already begun to emerge in the Bay Area. It is difficult to predict what consequences the next human intervention in the “management” of natural processes will lead to, when environmental changes in the region are so obvious.
Academicians and corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who essentially stirred up this whole mess with the sensational “project of the century,” started a scientific dispute among themselves about the correctness of forecasts for the extinction of the Caspian Sea or the complete unsuitability of this forecasting technique. But the true picture of hydrological and hydrochemical changes and biological productivity of the sea is only at the stage of collecting information.
The problem can be resolved by a special water control structure at the entrance of the channel into the bay. However, as soon as it became clear that Kara-Boga-Gol did not interfere with the intake of water from the Volga for irrigation, the USSR Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Management lost all interest in it, and the USSR Ministry of Chemical Industry did not consider saving the bay its responsibility.
While the authorities are deciding who should design the water control device, who should build it and with what money, Kara-Bogaz-Gol is inexorably moving towards its end.
Presentation of materials from the newspaper “Trud” for 1988 from the author’s archives.
Reviews
The shallowing of the sea threatened to reduce fish catches, especially sturgeon, the reserves of which in the Caspian Sea accounted for about 90% of the world's......
Alexander, working at the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Ecology, I participated in commissions on the problems of the Caspian and Aral Seas and on Kara-Boga-Gol in particular.
The decrease in fish catches was not associated with sea level, but with the construction of hydroelectric power stations on the Volga, which blocked migration routes for spawning, and fish passage structures turned out to be ineffective. It was necessary to build fish factories for the reproduction of sturgeon. In addition, the terrible pollution of the Volga and poaching. This deprived We have the main stocks of sturgeon and are now the main supplier of black caviar to the world market - Iran.
“The shallowing of the sea threatened to reduce fish catches, especially sturgeon, whose reserves in the Caspian Sea accounted for about 90% of the world’s.” (Drama Kara-Bogaz-Gola)
It would be interesting to meet one of the academic destroyers of the Caspian Sea and Kara-Bogaz! It’s good that you didn’t take part in the turn of the northern rivers! Otherwise the Siberians would now be sitting on the Ob-Irtysh bottom!
As for the connection between the decline in fish catches and the shallowing of the Caspian Sea, trace, for example, the fate of the Aral Sea. There are no fish there now!
You have a very unique understanding of what you read. By the way, I also participated in writing the negative conclusion from the Academy of Sciences on the project of transferring northern rivers.
Firstly, the Caspian did not shallow like the Aral, and did not change the salinity of the water. So there is no need to talk about what you do not know. The Aral lost its freshwater fauna and flora, and in the part that remained, another ecosystem formed.
What “other ecosystem has formed” instead of the Aral Sea is well known to everyone, including you - this is the Aral-Kum.
I briefly described the global disaster of the great lake in the story “The Aral Robinson”. There are also space photographs of the destruction of the Aral Sea. You can’t call it an ecosystem, comrade academician! This is a catastrophe!
Exactly the same fate was prepared for the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay by scientists of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It's good that the dam was removed.
As for the decline in catches of Caspian sturgeon, you are absolutely right here. One of the main limiting factors is the construction of the Volgograd hydroelectric power station, which disrupted the habitat and usual habitat of the sturgeon. It has become almost impossible for fish to return from spawning back to the Caspian Sea.
Man's insane invasion of nature continues...
The land around the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay is a rather relative concept. Everything is covered with a whitish coating of salt. No wonder, because every cubic kilometer of water that makes its way through a narrow neck from the Caspian Sea brings up to 15 million tons of various salts into the bay. And yet - the hard, scorching sun, doubled by the salt reflection. People here are simply doomed to wear masks and black glasses. Beginners who neglect such precautions will get burned within a couple of hours.
Until the beginning of the 18th century, the Caspian Sea and Kara-Bogaz-Gol were depicted on maps very roughly. The first accurate map of the bay appeared in 1715, when, by order of Peter I, the Caspian expedition of Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky was sent here. On the map of Cherkassky, the inscription runs through the entire space of the bay: “The Karabugaz Sea”, and the strait is designated as “Kara-bugaz, or the Black Neck”.
More than a hundred years later, in 1836, the bay was visited by the expedition of G. S. Karelin. The researcher wrote: "...We followed to the Karabugaz Gulf and were the first of the Russians to set foot on its inhospitable, terrible shores. Here we almost died..."
Lieutenant of the Russian Navy I.M. Zherebtsov was the first navigator who dared to enter Kara-Bogaz by ship. In 1847, on the steamship Volga, he entered the bay and compiled a detailed geographical map of the coastline. “...The water of the Caspian Sea rushes into the bay with unheard-of speed and force, as if falling into the abyss. This explains the name of the bay: Kara-Bogaz in Turkmen means “black mouth”. Like a mouth, the bay continuously sucks the waters of the sea... For many years of wandering, I have not seen shores that were so gloomy and seemed to threaten sailors,” Zherebtsov wrote in his reports. He was the first to establish that “the soil of Kara-Bogaz-Gol consists of salt,” and the water in the bay is very “thick, has an acrid-salty taste, and fish cannot live there.”
By the way, the expedition also discovered that “this salt is special,” not food grade: “We put the salt found during soil testing on the deck to dry it, and the ship’s cook, a man of poor intelligence, salted borscht for the crew with it. Two hours later, the entire crew I fell ill with severe stomach weakness. Salt turned out to be equal in effect to castor oil..."
The Turkmen nomads were convinced that an underground river flowed under Kara-Bogaz, which rushed either into the Aral Sea or into the Arctic Ocean. There is still no answer to this question. But there are facts: when the Caspian Sea becomes shallow, the northern edges of the Central Russian Upland become swamped, when it rises, on the contrary, dry years begin.
In 1919, the famous Russian academician Nikolai Kurnakov (1860-1941) explored in detail this “richest natural laboratory of salts.” It turned out that the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay contains the world's largest reserves of the mineral mirabilite - Glauber's salt. At the same time, the romantic name “Bay of White Gold” appeared.
And in the 20s, Glauber’s salt began to be mined on the lifeless shores of Kara-Bogaz. They did this by hand, with shovels. The Karabogazkhim Trust took as a basis the basin method using natural factors: sun and frost. Every year after November 20, when the water temperature drops to 5.5-6 degrees Celsius, mirabilite begins to separate out in the form of colorless crystals that settle to the bottom of the bay. Winter storms throw it ashore, forming huge swells. Between November and March it is collected. By March 10-15, the water temperature in the bay again rises above 6 degrees, and its waters begin to take away their riches - the salts go into solution.
Together with the trust, a fishing center arose on the Southern Spit - the village and port of Kara-Bogaz-Gol. From here, the mined mirabilite was transported by sea on barges to Baku, Astrakhan, Krasnovodsk, but mainly to Makhachkala, from where it was delivered by rail to enterprises in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and the Baltic states.
Later, the fisheries moved to the Northern Spit, and the village of Bekdash was built there, and the depopulated former one was covered with sand.
In the middle of the twentieth century, the Caspian Sea began to become catastrophically shallow. Kara-Bogaz is with him. In Soviet times, someone’s “bright” head came up with the happy idea of draining the bay by separating it from the Caspian Sea with a dam. And in March 1980, the strait was blocked by a dam. By the end of 1982, the surface of the bay had decreased by almost five times. And two years later the bay turned into a salty swamp with fetid fumes.
In 1984, a hole was cut in the dam to partially replenish the level of Kara-Bogaz. But by that time the level of the Caspian Sea began to rise, and water flooded the surrounding area.
And in mid-1992, when sea level rose by more than 2 meters compared to 1978, by order of Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov, the dam was blown up in order to prevent further rise in sea level. But the water still comes.
And today Bekdash - the main settlement of the Karabogaz industries - is almost half flooded. About 6 thousand Turkmens, Kazakhs, Russians and Azerbaijanis live in the urban-type settlement, 250 kilometers north of the city of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk). 600 CIS enterprises, including 200 glass factories, are waiting for mineral salts from Bekdash like manna from heaven. But salt is mined only by Azerbaijani refugees from Karabakh. You can’t lure locals into this hard labor with any money. Moreover, they pay a pittance, and the main tools of production, like a hundred years ago, are a pick and a shovel.
Time has stopped here.
Gennady Alexandrov, Yuri Kozyrev (photo)
Insertion 1
Garabogazk "Ol, bay on eastern the shore of the Caspian Sea; Turkmenistan. The bay was first shown on the map of A. Bekovich-Cherkassky, 1715 G., and is designated as the Karabugaz Sea, and at the entrance to the bay the inscription Karabugaz or Black Neck was placed. Thus, the original researcher distinguished the Kara-Bugaz Strait ("black throat, strait") and Karabugaz Bay (Russian adjective derived from the name of the strait) . Later this distinction was lost and the bay began to be called the same as the strait, Kara-Bugaz. In the 1930s gg. clarify Russian transmission: in both names they take bogaz instead of bugaz, which is closer to Turkmenistan original, and, in addition, the name of the bay includes Turkmenistan term kvl (kel) - "lake, bay". This term was fixed in Russian passing the goal in the wrong form, although Turkmenistan goal - "lowland, hollow, depression", i.e. an independent word that is not related to the concept "bay".
Geographical names of the world: Toponymic dictionary. - M: AST. Pospelov E.M.
2001.
Kara-Bogaz-Gol (Turkic kara – “black”; bogaz – “throat”, “bay”, gol – “lake”), bay – lagoon Caspian Sea
off the coast of Turkmenistan.. It has a round shape, connected to the sea by the Kara-Bogaz Strait, approx. 9 km, depths 4–7 m. West. and south low-lying shores, northern and east steep. Strong evaporation in desert conditions causes high salinity (approx. 300 ‰) and causes a constant influx of water from the Caspian Sea. The water temperature in summer is 35 °C, in winter below 0 °C. On the shores and at the bottom there is the world's largest deposit of marine salts, especially mirabilite. It is being mined. With the outflow of water from the Caspian Sea into the bay (approx. 20 km³/year) at the beginning of the 20th century. its square exceeded 18 thousand km². In 1980, the strait was blocked by a dam, as a result of which K.-B.-G. became shallow, salinity increased to 310 ‰. In 1984, a culvert was built with a supply of approx. 2 km³ of water per year. In 1992, the natural connection of the bay with the sea was restored. At the end of the 1990s, the flow of Caspian waters into the bay exceeded 25 km³/year.. 2006 .
2001.
bay-lagoon in the Caspian Sea, off the coast of Turkmenistan. It has a round shape, connected to the Caspian Sea by the Kara-Bogaz Strait. OK. 9 km, deep. 4–7 m. Zap. and south low-lying shores, northern and east steep. Large evaporation from the surface of the bay in desert conditions causes high salinity (approx. 300‰) and causes a constant influx of water from the Caspian Sea. The water temperature in summer is 35 °C, in winter below 0 °C. Kara-Bogaz-Gol is the world's largest deposit of marine salts, especially mirabilite. It is being mined. In 1980, the strait was blocked by a blind dam, as a result of which the bay became shallow, the salinity increased to 310‰, and the conditions for the formation of mirabilite worsened. In 1984, a culvert was built with a supply of approx. 2 km³ of water. In 1992, the natural connection with the sea was restored. In con. 1990s The outflow of Caspian waters exceeded 40 km³ per year, which contributed to the stabilization of the level of the Caspian Sea.
Geography. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. A. P. Gorkina. 2006 .
See what “Kara-Bogaz-Gol” is in other dictionaries:
Turkm. Garabogazköl ... Wikipedia
Salt lake in western Turkmenistan; until 1980, the bay was a lagoon of the Caspian Sea, connected to it by a narrow (up to 200 m) strait. In 1980, the strait was blocked by a blind dam, as a result of which the lake became shallow and the salinity increased (over 310 ‰). In 1984 for... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Salt sedimentation basin to the east. shore of the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan. SSR. Pl. the bay of the same name in the original shores of 18,000 km2. Prom. raw materials are represented by salt deposits (halite, glauberite, astrakhanite, epsomite, etc.), surface... ... Geological encyclopedia
Salt lake in western Turkmenistan; Until 1980, the bay was a lagoon of the Caspian Sea, connected to it by a narrow (up to 200 m) strait. In 1980, the strait was blocked by a blind dam, as a result of which the lake became shallow and the salinity increased (St. 310.). In 1984, to maintain... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
The area of the bay of the same name in the original shores is 18,000 km 2. Industrial raw materials are represented by salt deposits (glauberite, astrakhanite, etc.), surface brine of the bay and intercrystalline underground brines (reserves of the last 16 km 3). In addition to salt and hydromineral raw materials, nonmetallic building materials (dolomite, gypsum, etc.) are known.
The first description and map of Kara-bogaz-gol were compiled in 1715 by A. Bekovich-Cherkassky. Subsequently, it was studied by G. S. Karelin, I. F. Blaramberg (1836), I. M. Zherebtsov (1847) and others. The results of the research of the complex expedition of 1897 were reported by A. A. Lebedintsev at the 7th session of the International Geological Congress in St. Petersburg, where for the first time the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay was characterized as a natural sedimentary basin of Glauber's salt.
Factory processing of underground brines and basin semi-products has been concentrated since 1968 in the village of Bekdash. During factory production, brine from wells is sent for artificial cooling to obtain mirabilite and its further dehydration by melting and evaporation. When evaporating magnesium chloride brines in a factory, bischofite is obtained, and when mirabilite is washed, medical grade is obtained. Products are sent by sea to the consumer or for transshipment to railway transport. The conditions and ratio of reserves of all types of raw materials depend on the volume of sea water entering the bay from the Caspian Sea. A decrease in natural flow from 32.5 to 5.4 km 3 /year through the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Strait, as well as the construction of a blind dam in 1980, led to the drying out of the surface brine in 1983. In order to preserve the surface brine reserves of the bay and stabilize the quality of underground brines in 1984, a temporary supply to the bay of 2.5 km 3 /year was organized
Kara-Bogaz-Gol(from the Turkmen Garabogazköl - “lake of the black strait”) - a bay-lagoon of the Caspian Sea in the west of Turkmenistan, connected to it by a shallow strait of the same name up to 200 m wide. This is a salt sedimentation basin on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, the area of the bay of the same name in the indigenous shores is 18 000 km 2. The bay is located within the Epihercynian Scythian platform, which includes the Turanian plate with the Central Turkmen region of uplifts, the western margin of which is the Karabogaz arch. Sedimentary cover (thickness 1500-3000 m) - continental, lagoonal and marine sediments of various ages (from Mesozoic to modern inclusive). Bottom sediments of the bay are represented by Oligocene clays, successively overlain by 4 horizons of silt and salt. The largest is the second salt horizon (salt thickness up to 10 m). Industrial mineral raw materials are represented by salt deposits (halite, glauberite, bledite (astrakhanite), epsomite, etc.), surface brine of the bay and intercrystalline underground brines (reserves of the last 16 km 3). In addition to salt and hydromineral raw materials, deposits of nonmetallic building materials (chalk, dolomite, gypsum, etc.) are known.
Due to high evaporation, the area of the water surface varies greatly between seasons. The small depth of the connecting channel does not allow the saltier water in Kara-Bogaz-Gol to return to the Caspian Sea - the incoming water completely evaporates in the bay without exchange with the main reservoir. Thus, the lagoon has a huge impact on the water and salt balances of the Caspian Sea: every cubic kilometer of sea water brings 13-15 million tons of various salts into the bay.
Until the 18th century. The Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay was not indicated on Russian and European maps, because navigation along it was considered dangerous. The first information about it was collected by the expedition of A. Bekovich-Cherkassky (1715), which was the first to put the bay on the map. Subsequent expeditions described the bay based on observations from the shores and stories of local residents. The first scientific expedition to visit the waters of the bay was the expedition of G.S. Karelin (1836), which refuted the myth of the “abyss” that supposedly sucked in everyone who entered the waters of the bay, which opened the way for subsequent expeditions. From this time on, a systematic study of the bay began.
The first comprehensive expedition of Russian scientists in 1897 played a decisive role in the study of the bay; summing up its results at the X Geological Congress made the wealth of the bay known to the entire scientific world and aroused the interest of European industrialists. Bali has established an international enterprise for the processing of Glauber's salt (glauberite) of the Bay and a syndicate for the production of mirabilite products.
Mirabilite has been mined from coastal emissions since 1910. In 1918, the Karabogaz Committee was created under the scientific and technical department of the Mining Council of the Supreme Economic Council, which developed a program for a comprehensive study of the bay. The work of the committee was headed by N.S. Kurnakov. In 1921-26. N.I.’s expedition worked in the bay. Podkopaev, in 1927 - B.L. Ronkin, and since 1929, the Salt Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, under the leadership of V.P., has been studying the bay. Ilyinsky. In subsequent years, issues of the integrated use of Kara-Bogaz-Gol resources were studied by the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Galurgy, the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and institutes of the Turkmen SSR. In 1929, the Karabogazkhim trust (later Karabogazsulfat) was created, which marked the beginning of the development of the chemical industry in the area. The sharp retreat of the brine line in 1939 and the massive crystallization of halite in the bay led to the cessation of existing fisheries. The main direction of work of the Karabogazsulfat plant during the war of 1941-45. What remained was the production of sodium sulfate, which was widely used in the defense industry. The conditions for its extraction worsened due to the drop in sea level, and it was necessary to lengthen the drainage channels. During these years, a new pool-lake was put into operation. Due to the salinization of the bay, shipping stopped and difficulties arose with the transportation of products; the export of products began to be carried out through the port of Bek-Dash, which became the production and social center of the plant. Since 1954, deposits of underground intercrystalline brines have been exploited. Since 1968, factory processing of underground brines and basin semi-products has been concentrated in the village of Bekdash. During factory production, brine from wells was sent for artificial cooling to obtain mirabilite and its further dehydration by melting and evaporation. When evaporating magnesium chloride brines in a factory, bischofite is obtained, and when mirabilite is washed, medical Glauber's salt is obtained.
In 1980, a dam was built separating Kara-Bogaz-Gol from the Caspian Sea, and in 1984 a culvert was built, after which the level of Kara-Bogaz-Gol dropped by several meters. In 1992, the strait was restored, through which water flows from the Caspian Sea to Kara-Bogaz-Gol and evaporates there. The dam caused damage to the industrial mining of mirabilite.
