Vital Caspian Graphics - Challenges Beyond Caviar

Cyclic fluctuations in the level

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of the Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest closed body of water on the surface of the Earth. Its com- plete lack of any natural con- nection with the oceans makes it a very special ecosystem, and as such particularly vulnerable to external forces, such as cli- matic conditions or man-made changes to inflow.

In a century, between 1880 and 1977, the lev- el of the sea dropped four metres (from –25 metres to –29 metres below mean sea level) apart from short periods during which it rose slightly. During this time local people be- came accustomed to the gradual drop in the water level, carrying out all sorts of work on the shores, particularly after the second world war: port infrastructures, roads and railways, construction of housing and holiday facilities. In the Soviet Union the dramatic drying up of the Azov Sea, a side-basin of the Black Sea, which occurred at the same time, gave rise to genuine fears that the Caspian – or at least its very shallow northern part, which is less than 25 metres deep – would in turn shrink significantly. This led to hasty, misguided de- cisions such as the construction of a dyke in 1983 to close the Kara Bogaz Gulf. The sudden reversal of the trend after 1977, with a rise in the water level of about two metres, took everyone by surprise and caused widespread problems in several ar- eas: flooding of urban facilities, destruction of roads and railways, damage to industrial

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The Caspian Sea has been endoreic – inwardly draining – since the Pliocene epoch (about 5 mil- lion years ago), prompting some specialists to treat it as the world’s largest lake. Studies of its geomor- phology and hydrology have revealed alternating cycles of rising and falling water levels, raising many questions, scientific for some, more down- to-earth for those living on its shores.