Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1882-11-30
The Physical Condition Of Inland Seas.

The Physical COndlT1On OF Inlanu seas
At the Lowell Institute, Boston, the
other evening, DIR. William B. Carpenter
lectured upon 1.-The Physical Condition
of Inland Seas The Caspian was the
first to receive DR.. Carpenters attention.
Its depth, the speaker said, may be di-
vided into three pOrtiOns-the northern,
middle and sOuthern-the former being
shallow, the second of greater depth and
the third very deep. The surface of the
Caspian is eighty-three feet below the
surface of the ocean, and if the sea
should be raised that eighty three feet,
it would overflow the steppes of Russia.
There is but little rise in the territory Of
Russia. A vessel can 90 up the Volga
and down the Dwina-by canal con-
Meeting their head waters-intO the
White Sea without ever passing through
q lock. 1t is probable that the Caspian
was formerly connected with the salt sea
to the north. 1t is a salt sea itself.
Herring are found in it, which could not
have come to it from any connection
with the Mediterranean or Black Sea,
for they have no herring. 1t is probable
that the Caspian once covered the
steppes of Russia, but the extent of its
evaporation area was so much greater
than could be maintained by even the
rivers flowing into 1.-THE great Volga,
the great Ural and the large rivers of the
Caucasus bring down large quantities of
melted snow-that it retreated till the
fresh water coming in could supply the
place of what was lost by evaporation.
A fact which supports this view is that
at eighty feet above the present level.
erosions of the cliffs are found, and they
are found again at the present level, but
not between these two heights, showing
that the subsistence of the water was so
fast that it was not at the level long
enough to mark any point by erosion.
The salinity of the Caspian is about one
fourth that of the ocean. The circum-
stances of the rapid deposit of salt in the
Black Gulf in this sea show that the salt
deposits in the red sandstone in England
were formed in the same way.
1t is morally certain that the Sea of
Aral was connected with the Caspian
at no remote period. In many respects
the Aral is very much like the Caspian.
The Red Sea lies in an almost rainlesS
country, between barren rocks. The
temperature of the surface is seldom be-
low eighty degrees, and sometimes rises
to 100 degrees. The mean winter tenn
perature of the deep water in the north
ern portion is seventy-One degrees,
which fixes the temperature of all the
other deep water. Hence the eVapOra-
ton is great. 1t has been estimated that
three-fourths of an inch evaporates every
day. AS the sea is about $50, 600 square
miles, the evaporation is equivalent to
taking off a layer of thirty-fve feet
thick over an erea of $50 square miles.
Nearly all this must be supplied by in
coming currents from the sea, for there
is almost no supply from rivers. If the
Strait of Babel-Mandeb should be closed,
the Red Sea would dry up IN about sixty
years. AS the salinity of the sea is only
one-fOurth above that of the ocean, it is
probable that deep undercurrent
carries out water surcharged with salt
The Mediterranean is almost land
locked. If the floor of this sea should
be raised 200 fathoms the sea would be
cut off from the Atlantic and the basin
east of the ridge across from Sicily to
Africa through Malta, would be cut off
from the western basin. Evaporation
from the eastern basin would be so fast
that it would require twelve Niles to
supply it, and the water would subside
till the rivers could maintain it at q
stated level. No more comes into
that basin from the Black Sea
than would be brought in by a
first-class river. The present level
of the Mediterranean is maintained by
currents through the Straits of Gibraltar,
and that sea does not increase in salinity.
Its salinity is 1929 to 1927 for sea-water
The reason that the salinity does not in
crease is because an undercurrent car
ries out the heavier water. 1t flows over
the ridge at the Strait. The surface of
the water is from the Atlantic running
in; the lower part is from the Mediter-
ranean running out. In the Black Sea
the salinity is about half that of sea-
water, and the excess of water from the
rivers is the caIlse of the Outcurrent into
the Mediterranean. The salinitY of the
Black Sea is maintained by an under in
flowing current. The outflow from the
Black Sea to the Mediterranean is at the
rate OF three miles an hour ON the surface,
yet the contrary undercurrenti is so strong
that apparatus made to feel the force of
both currents is carried rapidly toward
the Sea of Marmora. A like fact is found
to exist in the Baltic Sea. In long and
narrow bodies of water, when the wind
blows over their length continuously, a
head or water is raised at one end, and
to counterfeit it an undercurrent flows
back to the lowest part of the body of
water. A similar current is produced in
large bodies of water when the salinity
of one part is different from that in
another. The variation in the weight of
the several columns of water, owing to
the presence of salt, leads to q movement
in the whole body. In closing, DR.. Car
penter spoke of the gulf stream. saying
that it does much to temper the climate.
1t has probably no effect in summer, but
in winter it softens the rigor of the
weather and makes the Orkneys of about
the same temperature as the south of
England.
An Idle Of the Present.