Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainlands of Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Öresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt. Kattegat then continues in the Skagerrak into the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The Baltic Sea is linked to the White Sea by the White Sea Canal and directly to the North Sea by the Kiel Canal.

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The Baltic Sea

Contents

8 Islands and Archipelagoes

Name

The first one to name it the Baltic Sea was Adam of Bremen and he seems to have based it on a large island, Baltia, mentioned by Xenophon and located in northern Europe. It is possibly connected to the Germanic belt, a name used for some of the Danish straits, while others claim it to be derived from Latin balteus (belt)[1] (http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/nfbb/0435.html). From this use, Baltic has been applied to the Baltic countries. Another proposed derivation from the Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, shining seems speculative.

The Baltic Sea is known by the equivalents of "East Sea", "West Sea", or "Baltic Sea" in different languages:

In the Germanic languages except English East Sea is used: Danish (Østersøen), Dutch (Oostzee), German (Ostsee), Norwegian (Østersjøen), and Swedish (Östersjön).

In the Baltic-Finnic languages spoken in the countries bordering the Gulf of Finland the naming varies by geography: in Estonian it is called West Sea (Läänemeri), while Finnish has East Sea (Itämeri).

Baltic Sea is used in English; in Latin (Mare Balticum) and the Romance languages French (Mer Baltique), Italian (Mare Baltico), Romanian (Marea Baltică) and Spanish (Mar Báltico); in the Slavic languages Polish (Morze Bałtyckie or Bałtyk), Kashubian (Bôłt), and Russian (Baltiyskoye Morye (Балтийское море)); and in the Baltic languages Latvian (Baltijas jūra) and Lithuanian (Baltijos jūra).

Prehistory

The Baltic Sea is a very young sea, formed by the last ice age. As the ice receded to north, the following stages of the Baltic formed:

As the ground rose after being pressed down by the ice, the Baltic Sea switched between being a sea and a lake, or something in between, and it was variously connected to the North Sea-Atlantic either through the straits of Denmark or at what are now the large lakes of Sweden, and the White Sea-Arctic Sea. Many of the stages are named after certain marine animals (like the Littorina mollusc) that are clear markers of changing water temperatures and salinity.

The Baltic Sea somewhat resembles a riverbed, with two tributaries (the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Bothnia). From geological surveys it has become apparent that there indeed was a river in the area in the Pleistocene: the Eridanos.

Due to the Post-glacial rebound, the ground is still rising after having been released from the weight of the Weichsel glaciation, especially around the Gulf of Bothnia: at places the ground is rising by almost one metre per century, which means that the shore can gain dozens and in some shallow places hundreds of meters in a human lifetime.

History

At the time of the Roman Empire, the Baltic Sea was known as the Mare Suebicum or Mare Sarmaticum. Tacitus in his AD 98 Agricola and Germania described the Mare Suebicum, named for the Suebi tribe, during the spring months, as a brackish sea when the ice on the Baltic Sea broke apart and chunks floated about. The Sarmatian tribes inhabited Eastern Europe and southern Russia. Jordanes called it the Germanic Sea in his work the Getica.

Since the Viking age, the Scandinavians have called it "the Eastern Lake" (Austmarr, "Eastern Sea", appears in the Heimskringla), but Saxo Grammaticus recorded in Gesta Danorum an older name Gandvik, "-vik" being Old Norse for "bay", which implies that the Vikings correctly regarded it as an inlet of the sea. (Another form of the name, "Grandvik", attested in at least one English translation of Gesta Danorum, is likely to be a misspelling.)

In addition to fish the sea also provides amber, especially from its southern shores. The bordering countries have traditionally provided lumber, wood tar, flax, hemp, and furs. Sweden had from early medieval times also a flourishing mining industry, especially on iron ore and silver. Poland had and still has extensive salt mines. All this has provided for rich trading since the Roman times.

In the early Middle Ages, Vikings of Scandinavia fought for power over the sea with Slavic Pomeranians. The Vikings used the rivers of Russia for trade routes, finding their way eventually all the way to Black Sea and southern Russia.

Finland and the Baltic states were the last in Europe to be converted into Christianity in the Northern Crusades: the former in the 12th century by the Swedes and the latter in the 13th century by the Germans. First the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and then the powerful German Teutonic Knights held the Baltic countries and fought with Danes and the Swedes, while the foundations of Russia were being laid in Novgorod.

Later on, the strongest economic force in Northern Europe became the Hanseatic league, which used the Baltic Sea to establish trade routes between its member cities. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, Poland, Denmark and Sweden fought wars for Dominium Maris Baltici (Ruling over the Baltic Sea). Eventually, it was the Swedish empire that virtually encompassed the Baltic Sea. In Sweden the sea was then referred to as Mare Nostrum Balticum (Our Baltic Sea).

In the 18th century Russia and Prussia became the leading powers over the sea. Russia's Peter the Great saw the strategic importance of the Baltic and decided to found his new capital, Saint Petersburg at the mouth of the Neva river at the east end of the Gulf of Finland. There was much trading not just within the Baltic region but also with the North Sea region, especially the eastern England and the Netherlands: their fleets needed the Baltic timber, tar, flax and hemp.

During the Crimean War a joint fleet of Britain and France attacked Russian fortresses by bombarding Sveaborg that guards Helsinki and Kronstadt that guards Saint Petersburg and destroying Bomarsund in the Åland Islands. After the unification of Germany in 1871, the whole southern coast became German. The First World War was fought also on the Baltic Sea. After 1920 Poland returned to the Baltic Sea, and Polish ports of Gdynia and Gdansk (German:Danzig) became leading ports of the Baltic.

During the Second World War Germany reclaimed all of the southern shore and much of the eastern by occupying Poland and the Baltic states. In 1945 the Baltic Sea became a mass grave for drowned people on torpedoed refugee ships. As of 2004, the sinking of the troopship Wilhelm Gustloff remains the worst maritime disaster of all time, killing (very roughly) 9,000 people.

After 1945 the sea was a border between conflicted military blocks: in case of military conflict in Germany, in parallel with a Soviet offensive towards the Atlantic Ocean, communist Poland's fleet was prepared to invade Danish isles.

In May 2004, the Baltic Sea became almost completely a European Union internal sea when the Baltic states and Poland became parts of the European Union, leaving only the Russian metropolis of Saint Petersburg and the enclave of Kaliningrad as non-EU areas.

The Baltic Sea starts to get very rough with the October storms. These winter storms have been the cause of many shipwrecks, like for example the Estonia in 1994. But thanks to the cold brackish water where the shipworm cannot survive, the sea is a time capsule for centuries-old shipwrecks. Perhaps the most famous one is the Vasa.

Subdivisions

The northern part of the Baltic Sea is known as the Gulf of Bothnia out of which the northernmost part is referred to as the Bay of Bothnia. Immediately to the south of it lies the Sea of Åland. The Gulf of Finland connects the Baltic Sea with St. Petersburg. The Northern Baltic Sea lies between the Stockholm area, southwestern Finland, and Estonia. The Western and Eastern Gotland Basins form the major parts of the Central Baltic Sea. The Gulf of Riga lies between Riga and Saaremaa. Bay of Gdansk lies east of the Hel peninsula on the Polish coast and west of Sambia in Kaliningrad Oblast. Bay of Pomerania lies north of the islands of Usedom and Wolin, east of Rügen. Bornholm Basin is the area east of Bornholm and Arkona Basin extends from Bornholm to the Danish isles of Falster and Zealand. Between Falster and the German coast lie the Bay of Mecklenburg and Bay of Lübeck. The westernmost part of the Baltic Sea is the Bay of Kiel. The Sound, the Belts, and the Kattegat connect the Baltic Sea with the Skagerrak and the North Sea. The confluence of these two seas at Skagen on the northern tip of Denmark is a visual spectacle visited by many tourists each year.

Biology

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Phytoplankton bloom in the Baltic Sea (July 3, 2001)

The Baltic Sea is very shallow (average 57 meters, max. 459 meters), and because the straits of Denmark are quite narrow, the waters of the Baltic are not regularly exchanged with the cold waters of the Atlantic. The flow of the rivers into the Baltic is quite high, however, and as a result the salinity of water in the Baltic Sea is somewhere between freshwater and seawater, known as brackish water. The low salinity has led to many slightly divergent species, like the Baltic Sea herring that is a smaller variant of the Atlantic herring. The benthic fauna consists maintly of Monoporeia affinis, which is originally a freshwater species. The Baltic Sea also has practically no tides, which also has affected the marine species as compared with the Atlantic.

The Baltic Sea is surrounded by countries practicing a lot of agriculture, which leads into a lot of fertilizers getting into the sea (also, the city of Saint Petersburg still doesn't process much of its waste water), and therefore every summer a lot of algae blooming takes place.

Economy

In 1999 the huge bridge over the Sound limited the Baltic Sea to the middle-sized vessels (see: Oresund Bridge). In meantime, the Baltic Sea is the main trade route for export of Russian oil. Many of the neighboring countries are rather concerned about this, since a major oil leak would be disastrous in the Baltic given the slow exchange of water, and the many unique species. The tourism industries, especially in economies dependent on tourism like for example in northeastern Germany, are naturally very concerned.

Shipbuilding is practiced in many large shipyards around the Baltic: Gdansk in Poland, HDW in Kiel, Germany, Karlskrona and Kockums AB in Malmö, Sweden, and Rauma, Turku, Helsinki in Finland and Klaipeda in Lithuania.

There are several cargo and passanger ferry operators on the Baltic Sea, such as Silja Line, Viking Line, Tallink and Superfastferries.

Countries

Main article: Baltic Sea countries

Islands and Archipelagoes

Main article: List of islands in the Baltic Sea

Åland Islands (Finland, autonomous)
Bornholm (Denmark)
Gotland (Sweden)
Hailuoto (Finland)
Hiiumaa (Estonia)
Öland (Sweden)
Rügen (Germany)
Saaremaa (Estonia)
Stockholm archipelago (Sweden)
Usedom or Uznam (split between Germany and Poland)
Valassaaret (Finland)
Wolin (Poland)

Cities

The biggest coastal cities:

Saint Petersburg (Russia) 4,700,000
Stockholm (Sweden) 743,703 (metropolitan area 1,823,210)
Copenhagen (Denmark) (metropolitan area 1,823,109) (facing the Sound)
Gdansk (Poland) 462,700
Gdynia (Poland) 255,600
Helsinki (Finland) 559,716 (metropolitan area 980,000)
Riga (Latvia) 760,000
Szczecin (Poland) 413,600
Tallinn (Estonia) 401,774
Kaliningrad (Russia) 400,000
Malmö (Sweden) 259,579 (facing the Sound)
Kiel (Germany) 250,000
Lübeck (Germany) 216,100
Rostock (Germany) 212,700
Klaipeda (Lithuania) 194,400
Turku (Finland) 175,000

Important ports (though not being big cities):

Swinoujscie (Poland) 50,000
Ventspils (Latvia) 44,000
Baltiysk (Russia) 20,000
Hanko (Finland) 10,000

Ports of the Baltic Sea

External links

Encyclopedia of Baltic History (http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/encyclopedia.html)
Old shipwrecks (http://www.abc.se/~pa/uwa/wrecks.htm) in the Baltic
How the Baltic Sea was changing (http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=4&Itemid=2) - Prehistory of the Baltic from the Polish Geological Institute (http://www.pgi.gov.pl/)
Late Weichselian and Holocene shore displacement history of the Baltic Sea in Finland (http://www.helsinki.fi/maantiede/geofi/fennia/demo/pages/oksanen.htm) - more prehistory of the Baltic from the Department of Geography (http://www.helsinki.fi/geography/) of the University of Helsinki
Baltic Environmental Atlas: Interactive map of the Baltic Sea region (http://maps.grida.no/baltic)
The Baltic Sea Environment (http://www.envir.ee/baltics/)

Tourism links

Zrot : Official Tourism Site Western Pomerania (PL) (http://www.zrot.pl) (Polish, English, German)
Zart : Polish Tourism Site Western Pomerania (PL) (http://www.zart.com.pl) (Polish, English, German)
Official German Tourism Site : Regional Tourist Board Vorpommern (D) (http://www.vorpommern.de) (English, German, Swedish, Polish)
Ost|See|Land - Overview: German Polish- Tourism site (D) (http://www.ostseeland.de) (English, German, Swedish, Polish)af:Oossee

bg:Балтийско море ca:Mar Bàltica cs:Baltské moře cy:Y Môr Baltig da:Østersøen de:Ostsee et:Läänemeri es:Mar Báltico eo:Balta maro fr:Mer Baltique gl:Mar Báltico id:Laut Baltik it:Mar Baltico he:הים הבלטי csb:Bôłt la:Mare Balticum lv:Baltijas jūra lt:Baltijos jūra nl:Oostzee nds:Oostsee ja:バルト海 no:Østersjøen pl:Morze Bałtyckie pt:Mar Báltico ro:Marea Baltică ru:Балтийское море sk:Baltské more sl:Baltsko morje fi:Itämeri sv:Östersjön zh:波罗的海

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Categories: Seas | Baltic Sea