Why are there such strange names as Dead Sea, Black Sea, Red Sea?

Black Sea

The Black Sea covers an area of ​​about 422,000 square kilometers, the deepest possible place being 2,210 meters. This sea is located between Southeast Europe and Asia Minor.

The origin of the name Black Sea is still controversial. The scientific and widely accepted reason is that the sea water here is darker blue than usual because the salt concentration of this sea is quite low, so there are many dark-colored algae living on the surface of the water.

Some other opinions say that the name Black Sea comes from ancient times by the Greeks, Mesopotamians. At that time people used colors to indicate direction, for example red for the South, black for the North, yellow for the East, and blue for the West. The Black Sea is located in the North of Greece, hence its name.

In addition, there is also an opinion that the name Black Sea means 'dark' and is a warning because in ancient times, many ships were sunk here because of inclement weather.

Dead Sea

In fact, the Dead Sea is not a sea but a salt lake. This lake has an area of ​​810km2 with a maximum depth of 330m, located on the border between the West Bank, Israel, Jordan, specifically on the Jordan valley.

The name Dead Sea derives from its danger. The Dead Sea has too high a salinity that no fish or large aquatic organisms can live here, only very small bacteria and molds can live.

In addition, in winter, algae can live here because when it rains a lot, the salt in the lake will decrease by about 30%.

Red Sea

The Red Sea covers an area of ​​about 450,000 square kilometers and the deepest place is 2,500 meters. This is a small bay of the Indian Ocean, located between Africa and Asia.

The Red Sea is only slightly red but not really red due to the large amount of red algae called Trichodesmium erythraeum living right on the surface. However, this phenomenon does not occur all year round, but only at a certain time of the year.

David Pac

Update 03 June 2022