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Central Baltic Sea Facts

Central Baltic Sea Facts
The Central Baltic Sea is a Mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by the North and Central European Plain, Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Scandinavia. The Central Baltic Sea drains into the Kattegat through the Danish Islands' Oresund, Great Belt and Little Belt straits. The Central Baltic Sea includes the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Gdansk, the Gulf of Riga, and the Gulf of Finland. The Central Baltic Sea has a maximum length of 995 miles and maximum width of 120 miles.
Interesting Central Baltic Sea Facts:
The Central Baltic Sea covers an area of 146,000 square miles. Its average depth is 180 feet and maximum depth is 1,506 feet.
The water volume of the Central Baltic Sea is 21,700km cubed.
The shoreline of the Central Baltic Sea covers 5,000 miles.
The Central Baltic Sea is protected by the Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area.
The Central Baltic Sea was referred to as the Mare Suebicum or Mare Sarmaticum during the Roman Empire.
During the 8th to the 14th centuries, the Central Baltic Sea was a common region for piracy from Prussia and Pomerania.
The Central Baltic Sea has been a common chemical weapon dumping ground for the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom since World War II.
Storm surges often result in flooding in the Central Baltic Sea. There have been 110 floods in Warnemunde from 1950 to 2000 alone.
There have been historical floods in the Central Baltic Sea region including the 1304 All Saints' Flood, and floods in 1320, 1449, 1625, 1694, 1784, and 1825. The highest recorded flood occurred in 1872 when the sea level in Warnemunde was 8 feet over sea level.
The Central Baltic Sea's northernmost region is referred to as the Gulf of Bothnia.
The Central Baltic Sea is connected to Saint Petersburg via the Gulf of Finland.
Approximately 45% of the Central Baltic Sea is ice covered at its annual maximum.
The regions of the Central Baltic Sea that are usually ice covered in the winter include the Gulf of Bothina, the Gulf of Riga, the Gulf of Finland, the Stockholm archipelago, and the Archipelago Sea southwest of Finland.
Although a sea, the Central Baltic Sea's salinity is considered to be much less than ocean water.
Major tributaries to the Central Baltic Sea include the Neva, the Vistula, the Daugava, the Neman, the Kemijoki, the Oder, the Lulea lv, the Narva, and the Torne alv rivers.
Some of the islands and archipelagos located in the Central Baltic Sea include the Aland Islands, the Archipelago Sea, Falster, Gotland, Hailuoto, Kotlin, Oland, Rugen, and the West Estonian Archipelago.
The countries that border the Central Baltic Sea include Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden.
Countries that drain into the Central Baltic Sea but do not border it include Ukraine, Slovakia, Norway, Czech Republic, and Belarus.
Some of the major cities along the Central Baltic Sea include Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, Riga, Helsinki, and Gdansk, among several others.


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