Story
Name of the sea
Subsequently, the sea was named in honor of the navigator Vitus Bering, under whose guidance it was explored in 1725-1743. The Bering Strait connecting the sea with the Arctic Ocean is also named after him.
First name Bering Sea It was proposed by the French geographer C.P. Fliorier at the beginning of the 19th century, but was introduced into use only in 1818 by the Russian navigator V.M. Golovnin. However, on New geographic road map of the Russian Empire 1833 it is still indicated - Beaver sea .
Modern history
Physical location
The area of \u200b\u200b2,315 million square meters. km The average depth is 1,600 meters, the maximum is 4,151 meters. The length of the sea from north to south is 1,600 km, from east to west - 2,400 km. The volume of water is 3 795 thousand cubic meters. km
The Bering Sea is marginal. It is located in the North Pacific Ocean and divides the Asian and North American continents. In the northwest it is limited by the coasts of Northern Kamchatka, the Koryak Upland and Chukotka; in the northeast - the coast of Western Alaska. The southern border of the sea is drawn along the chain of the Commander and Aleutian islands, forming a giant arc curved to the south and separating it from the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. In the north, it joins the Bering Strait with the Arctic Ocean and the numerous straits in the chain of the Commander-Aleutian ridge in the south - with the Pacific Ocean.
The islands are mainly located on the border of the sea:
- uS territory (Alaska): Pribilova Islands, Aleutian Islands, Diomede Islands (eastern - Kruzenshtern Island), St. Lawrence Island, Nunivak, King Island, St. Matthew Island.
- territory of Russia. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug: Diomida Islands (western - Ratmanova Island). Kamchatka Territory: Commander Islands, Karagin Island.
The large rivers Yukon and Anadyr flow into the sea.
The air temperature above the water area is up to +7, +10 ° C in summer and −1, −23 ° C in winter. Salinity is 33-34.7 ‰.
Every year since the end of September, ice forms, which melts in July. The surface of the sea (except the Bering Strait) is annually covered with ice for about ten months (about five months, half the sea, about seven months, from November to May, the northern third of the sea). Lawrence Bay in some years is not cleared of ice at all. In the western part of the Bering Strait, ice brought by the current can occur even in August.
Bottom relief
The bottom of the sea is covered with terrigenous sediments - sand, gravel, shell rock in the shelf zone and diatom silt of gray or green color in deep water places.
Temperature and salinity
The surface water mass (to a depth of 25-50 meters) throughout the sea in the summer has a temperature of 7-10 ° C; in winter, temperatures drop to −1.7-3 ° C. The salinity of this layer is 22-32 ppm.
The intermediate water mass (layer from 50 to 150-200 m) is colder: the temperature slightly varying by the seasons of the year is approximately −1.7 ° C, and salinity is 33.7-34.0 ‰.
Below, at depths up to 1000 m, there is a warmer water mass with temperatures of 2.5-4.0 ° C, salinity of 33.7-34.3 ‰.
The deep water mass occupies all the bottom areas of the sea with depths of more than 1000 m and has temperatures of 1.5-3.0 ° C, salinity - 34.3-34.8 ‰.
Ichthyofauna
402 species of fish of 65 families live in the Bering Sea, including 9 species of gobies, 7 species of salmon, 5 species of belgian arches, 4 species of flatfish and others. Of these, 50 species and 14 families are commercial fish. The objects of fishing are also 4 species of crab, 4 species of shrimp, 2 species of cephalopods.
The main marine mammals of the Bering Sea are animals from the order of the pinnipeds: ringed seal (akiba), common seal (largha), sea hare (lahtak), lionfish and Pacific walrus. Of the cetaceans - narwhal, gray whale, bowhead whale, humpback, finwal, Japanese (southern) whale, sail, northern blue whale. Walruses and seals form rookeries along the Chukotka coast.
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Notes
- on the website of the World Digital Library
- // Military Encyclopedia: [in 18 vol.] / Ed. V.F. Novitsky [et al.]. - SPb. ; [M.]: Type. t-va I.V. Sytin, 1911-1915.
- Leontiev V.V., Novikova K.A. Bering Sea // Toponymic Dictionary of the North-East of the USSR / scientific. ed. G. A. Menovschikov ; FEB AN USSR. North-East complex. Research institutes. Lab archeology, history and ethnography. - Magadan: Magad. Prince Publishing House, 1989. - P. 86. - 15,000 copies. - ISBN 5-7581-0044-7.
- A new geographic road map of the Russian Empire with the designation of 57 provinces, 8 regions, 4 city administrations, 4 administrations, 8 voivodships, the Land of Greater and Lesser Kabarda and Kyrgyz Kaysakov. With the indication of educational districts, cities, noteworthy places, waterways, postal roads, and the distance between them in miles. Compiled and published by Captain Mednikov, an employee at the Military Printing Office. 1833. St. Petersburg. The publication of this map serves solely as a guide for teachers and students of Russian geography at the rate of G. G. Professor. Arsenyev and Zyaslavsky and for traveling around Russia
- Leonov A.K. Regional oceanography. - Leningrad, Gidrometeoizdat, 1960. - T. 1. - S. 164.
- .
Literature
- // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- Shlyamin B.A. Bering Sea. - M.: Gosgeografgiz, 1958. - 96 p.: Ill.
- Shamraev Yu. I., Shishkina L.A. Oceanology - L .: Gidrometeoizdat, 1980.
References
- in the book: A. D. Dobrovolsky, B. S. Zalogin. Sea of \u200b\u200bthe USSR. - M.: Publishing house Mosk. University, 1982.
- [nationalatlas.rf / cd1 / 274-275.html Bering Sea (physical map, scale 1: 5,000,000)] // National Atlas of Russia. - M.: Roskartografiya, 2004. - T. 1. - S. 274-275. - 496 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-85120-217-3.
Excerpt from the Bering Sea
Princess Mary, bowing her head, stepped out of the circle and went into the house. Repeating the order to Dron that there were horses for departure tomorrow, she went into her room and was left alone with her thoughts.For a long time that night, Princess Mary sat by the open window in her room, listening to the sounds of the men’s howling coming from the village, but she did not think about them. She felt that no matter how much she thought about them, she could not understand them. She thought all about one thing - about her grief, which now, after a break made by caring for the present, has already become past for her. She could now remember, she could cry, and she could pray. With the sunset, the wind died down. The night was quiet and fresh. At twelve o'clock the voices began to subside, the rooster sang, a full moon began to come out from behind the linden trees, a fresh, white mist of dew rose, and silence reigned over the village and over the house.
One by one, she presented pictures of a close past - illness and the last minutes of her father. And with sad joy she now dwelt on these images, driving away with horror only one last idea of \u200b\u200bhis death, which - she felt - she was unable to contemplate even in her imagination at this quiet and mysterious hour of the night. And these pictures were presented to her with such clarity and with such details that they seemed to her either reality, now past, now future.
Then she vividly imagined the moment when a blow was made to him and they dragged him from the garden in the Bald Mountains under his arms and he muttered something with an impotent tongue, twitched his gray eyebrows and looked at her restlessly and timidly.
“He then wanted to tell me what he told me on the day of his death,” she thought. “He always thought what he told me.” And then she remembered with all the details that night in the Bald Mountains on the eve of the blow that struck him, when Princess Mary, foreseeing misfortune, remained with him against his will. She did not sleep and tiptoed down at night and, going to the flower door in which her father spent the night that night, listened to his voice. He spoke in an exhausted, tired voice with Tikhon. He apparently wanted to talk. “And why didn’t he call me? Why did he not allow me to be here in the place of Tikhon? - thought then and now Princess Marya. “Oh, he will never tell anyone now all that was in his soul.” This minute will never come back for him and for me, when he would say everything he wanted to say, and I, not Tikhon, would listen and understand him. Why didn’t I enter the room then? She thought. “Maybe he would then tell me what he said on the day of death.” He then in a conversation with Tikhon twice asked about me. He wanted to see me, and I stood here, outside the door. It was sad, hard to speak with Tikhon, who did not understand him. I remember how he spoke to him about Lisa, as if alive, - he forgot that she was dead, and Tikhon reminded him that she was gone, and he cried out: "Fool." It was hard for him. I heard from the door how, grunting, lay down on the bed and shouted aloud: “My God! Why didn’t I come up then? What would he do to me? What would I lose? Or maybe then he would be comforted, he would say this word to me. " And Princess Mary said aloud the kind word he said to her on the day of death. “Duh ka! - Princess Marya repeated this word and sobbed with tears facilitating the soul. She now saw his face in front of her. And not the face that she has known since she remembered herself, and which she always saw from afar; and that face is timid and weak, which on the last day, bending down to his mouth in order to hear what he was saying, she first examined closely with all his wrinkles and details.
“Darling,” she repeated.
“What did he think when he said the word?” What is he thinking now? - Suddenly a question came to her, and in response to this, she saw him in front of her with that expression on his face that he had in his coffin on his face tied with a white scarf. And the horror that gripped her when she touched him and became convinced that it was not only not him, but something mysterious and repulsive, that gripped her now. She wanted to think about something else, wanted to pray and could not do anything. She looked with large open eyes at the moonlight and shadows, every second she waited to see his dead face and felt that the silence that stood above the house and in the house shackled her.
- Dunyasha! She whispered. - Dunyasha! She cried out in a wild voice and, breaking free from the silence, ran to the girl's, to meet the nanny and girls running towards her.
On August 17, Rostov and Ilyin, accompanied by Lavrushka, who had just returned from captivity, and a veteran hussar, from their parking lot Yankovo, fifteen miles from Bogucharov, went riding on horseback - to try a new horse bought by Ilyin and find out if there was hay in the villages.
Bogucharovo was in the last three days between the two enemy armies, so that the Russian rearguard as well as the French avant-garde could have just as easily entered it, and therefore Rostov, as a caring squadron commander, wished the French first to take advantage of the food that remained in Bogucharovo.
Rostov and Ilyin were in the most cheerful mood. On the way to Bogucharovo, in a princely estate with a manor, where they hoped to find a large courtyard and pretty girls, they either asked Lavrushka about Napoleon and laughed at his stories, or distilled trying the horse of Ilyin.
Rostov did not know and did not think that this village to which he was going was the name of the same Bolkonsky, who was the groom of his sister.
For the last time, Rostov and Ilyin were sent to distill horses to the rank of Bogucharov, and Rostov, who overtook Ilyin, was the first to jump into the street of the village of Bogucharova.
“You took it forward,” said Ilyin, who was flushed.
“Yes, everything is ahead, and in the meadow ahead, and here,” Rostov replied, stroking the hand of his soaring bottom.
“And I am in French, Your Excellency,” Lavrushka spoke from behind, calling his harnessing nack to French, “I would have overtaken, but I didn’t want to shame him.”
They walked towards the barn, which had a large crowd of men.
Some men took off their hats, some, without taking off their hats, looked at those who had arrived. Two old long men, with wrinkled faces and sparse beards, came out of the tavern and, with smiles, swinging and singing some awkward song, approached the officers.
- Well done! - said, laughing, Rostov. - What, is there hay?
“And the same ones ...” said Ilyin.
“By weight ... oo ... ooh ... barking demon ... demon ...” the men sang with happy smiles.
One man left the crowd and went to Rostov.
“Which one will you be from?” - he asked.
“The French,” Ilyin answered, laughing. “That's Napoleon himself,” he said, pointing to Lavrushka.
- So, will you be Russians? Asked the man.
“Is there a lot of your strength here?” Asked another small man, walking up to them.
“Many, many,” answered Rostov. “Well, what are you doing here?” He added. - Holiday, what?
- The old people gathered, on a worldly matter, - answered the man, moving away from him.
At this time, two women and a man in a white hat appeared on the way from the manor house, walking to the officers.
- In my pink, do not beat off chur! - said Ilyin, noticing Dunyasha decisively moving towards him.
- Our will be! - Winked, said Ilyin Lavrushka.
- What, my beauty, do you need? - said Ilyin, smiling.
“The princess ordered to find out which regiment you are and your last names?”
“This is Count Rostov, a squadron commander, and I am your humble servant.”
“Be ... ce ... e ... du ... cabinet! - the drunk man sang, smiling happily and looking at Ilyin, talking to the girl. Following Dunyasha, Alpatych went to Rostov, removing his hat from a distance.
“I dare to trouble you, Your Honor,” he said with respect, but with a relative disregard for the youth of this officer and with his hand in his bosom. “My lady, the daughter of Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, the general of Anshef, who died on this fifteenth day, was in difficulty because of the ignorance of these people,” he pointed to the men, “he asks you to ... would you like to,” said Alpatych with a sad smile, “to leave a few, but it’s not so convenient when ... ”Alpatych pointed to two men who, from behind, were scampering around him like horseflies near a horse.
Every year since the end of September, ice forms, which melts in July. The surface of the sea (except the Bering Strait) is annually covered with ice for about ten months (about five months, half the sea, about seven months, from November to May, the northern third of the sea). Lawrence Bay in some years is not cleared of ice at all. In the western part of the Bering Strait, ice brought by the current can occur even in August.
Geographic Encyclopedia
Bering Sea - named as cap. Golovin in honor of the Russian captain commander V. Bering. B. Sea limited to Yu. about you Aleutian and Commander, k. gradually narrows and ends with the Bering Strait. Landline of the B. Sea: Shir. 52 ° and 66 ° 30 ′ ... ... Military Encyclopedia
BERINGOVA SEA, a semi-enclosed sea in the north of the Pacific Ocean, separated from it by the Aleutian and Commander about you. 2315 thousand km2. The greatest depth. 5500 m, in the north less than 200 m. Large bays: Anadyr and Olyutorsky (off the coast of Russia), Norton, ... ... Russian history
The semi-enclosed sea in the north of the Pacific ok., Separated from it by the Aleutian and Commander about you. 2315 thousand km & sup2. The greatest depth is 5500 m, in the north less than 200 m. Large bays: Anadyrsky and Olyutorsky (off the coast of the Russian Federation), Norton, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Modern Encyclopedia
Bering Sea - The Pacific Ocean, between Eurasia and North America, is bounded from the south by the Aleutian and Commander Islands. It is connected with the Chukchi Sea by the Bering Strait. Area 2315 thousand km2. Depth up to 5500 m. Large islands: St. Lawrence, Nunivak. ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (by the name of navigator V. Bering, the semi-enclosed Pacific Sea between the continents of Asia in the west (USSR), North America in the east (USA) and the Commander (USSR) and Aleutian (USA) islands in the south is closed by the Chukchi peninsulas in the north and ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
A semi-enclosed sea in the North Pacific Ocean, separated from it by the Aleutian and Commander Islands. 2315 thousand km2. The greatest depth is 5500 m, in the north less than 200 m. Large bays: Anadyrsky and Olyutorsky (off the coast of Russia), Norton, Bristol ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Bering Sea - The Pacific Ocean, between Asia (Russia: Chukchi and Koryak Autonomous Okrug, Kamchatka Region) and the North. America (USA, Alaska). It is named after the captain of the commander V.I. Bering (1681 1741), under whose command the participants of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions to ... ... Toponymic Dictionary
Or the Kamchatka Sea is the north-eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, bounded from the west by North America, and from the east by Asia and communicating with the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait. The narrowest part of this strait is the gap ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
Books
- Bering Sea. Encyclopedia. Zonn I.S., Kostyanoy A.G., Kumantsov M.I., Zonn Igor Sergeyevich, Kostnyaya Andrey Gennadievich, Kumantsov Mikhail Ivanovich. The publication is dedicated to one of the Russian Far Eastern seas - the Bering Sea, which is part of the Pacific Ocean. The encyclopedia contains more than 700 articles on hydrographic and geographical ...
- Bering Sea. Encyclopedia, Zonn Igor Sergeyevich, Kostyanoy Andrey Gennadievich, Kumantsov Mikhail Ivanovich. The publication is dedicated to one of the Russian Far Eastern seas - the Bering Sea, which enters the Pacific Ocean. The encyclopedia contains more than 700 articles on hydrographic and geographical ...
The Bering Sea is the easternmost Russian sea, stretching between Kamchatka and America. Area - 2304 thousand square meters. km Volume - 3683 thousand cubic meters. km The average depth is 1598 meters.
In the north, the Bering Sea is connected to the Chukchi Sea, in the south it borders on the Aleutian Islands and the open ocean.
Many rivers flow into the Bering Sea, the largest: Anadyr, Yukon, Apuka. The sea is named after Vitus Jonassen Bering, leader of the Great Northern Expedition.
The history of the discovery and development of the Bering Sea goes into the distant past and is associated with the names of the great pioneers who left forever their names in history.
After the conquest of Siberia by Ermak, the Cossack gangs, and with them many Russian merchants and hunters began to penetrate further east, to the very coast of the Pacific Ocean. From them, the Russian rulers and the boyars learned about the innumerable riches of Eastern Siberia. Furs, red caviar, valuable fish, hides, gold and the wealth of an unknown China became the reason for the rapid development of this region. Since the delivery of these goods by land was very difficult, they began to think about opening a sea route along the northern coast, so that we could reach America, Japan and China by sea.
Peter the Great paid special attention to this and contributed in every way to this. Even in his last days, he gave instructions to Admiral General Apraksin in which he wrote his orders:
1
. It is necessary to make one or two boats with decks in Kamchatka or in another customs place.
2
. On these bots near the land that goes to the north, and by aspiration (not knowing the end of it), it seems that that land is part of America.
3
. And in order to find where it converged with America; and in order to get to which city of the European possessions, or if they see which ship is European, to visit it, as they call it and take it on a letter, and to go ashore ourselves, and take a true statement, and putting on the card, come syudy.
Peter did not live up to the implementation of these plans, although in January 1725, just three weeks before his death, he appointed the head of the first Kamchatka expedition one of the best sailors of the time - Vitus Bering, a Danish who served in the Russian Navy. After his death, Vitus Bering led the expedition, which overland through Siberia went to Okhotsk. In winter, the expedition crossed the dogs to Kamchatka and a ship was built there in Nizhnekamchatsk for a sea voyage. It was a packet boat 18 meters long, 6.1 meters wide with a draft of 2.3 meters. It was made according to the drawings of the St. Petersburg Admiralty and at that time was considered one of the best warships. On June 9, 1728, during the launch of the bot on water, the day of the holy archangel Gabriel was celebrated and the bot was given the name "Saint Gabriel".
July 13, 1728 on the boat "St. Gabriel ”expedition moved north. During the voyage, a detailed map of the coast and islands was compiled. The weather was accompanied, and the ship passed the strait between Chukotka and America left on August 16 and reached latitude 67 ° 19 ′. Since the shore left to the west at the heading course and the land was not visible to the right, and a storm started, Bering turned back and returned to Kamchatka on September 3.
After wintering, on June 5, 1729, Bering and his team set sail again for the purpose of reaching the land in the east, which the inhabitants of Kamchatka spoke of. They almost reached the Commander Islands, but with the deterioration of the weather was forced to go back and fulfilling the requirement of the Admiralty Collegiums were engaged in the survey and description of the eastern coast of Kamchatka. The result of the voyage was a detailed map and description, which Bering presented to the Admiralty College in St. Petersburg. The materials of the expedition were highly appreciated, and Bering was awarded the rank of captain-commander.
Under the rule of Anna Ioannovna, the passions about the northern and eastern seas somewhat subsided. But after Vitus Bering presented his report to the Admiralty College and a new project of an expedition to the shores of America and Japan and an exploration of the northern coast of Siberia with profits from this, interest in new sea routes resumed. The project was expanded and the task was to study the northern seas and the coast of Russia. It was planned to draw up a full description of the North in a geographical, geological, botanical, zoological and ethnographic aspect. For this, seven independent detachments were created, five of which were to work on the entire coast of the Arctic Ocean from Pechora to Chukotka, and two in the Far East.
Bering was the commander of the detachment, which was to find a way to North America and to the islands in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. In 1734, Bering went to Yakutsk, where it was necessary to prepare equipment and food for the campaign. But the times of Peter passed and the local authorities were not particularly zealous in the organization, on the contrary, much intended for the expedition was stolen or of poor quality. Bering was forced to stay in Yakutsk for three years. Only in 1737 he came to Okhotsk. The local authorities of Okhotsk also did not help much in organizing an expedition and building ships. Only by the end of the summer of 1740 were built two expedition pack boats “Saint Peter” and “Saint Paul”.
And only in September, Vitus Bering at St. Peter and Alexey Chirikov at St. Paul were able to get to Avacha Bay in Kamchatka. There they were forced to stand up for the winter. The crews of the ships laid the prison, which became the capital of Kamchatka, named after the ships of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
After a difficult wintering, only on June 4, 1741, Bering on St. Peter and Chirikov on St. Paul went on a hike to the shores of America. But on June 20, the ships missed in dense fog. After futile attempts to find each other, the ships further followed separately.
Bering, moving east, July 16, 1741 at a latitude of 58 ° 14 ′ reached the shores of North America. Having landed on the island of Kayak and replenishing fresh water, the expedition moved on. The landing on the American coast was very short-lived and, of course, did not yield anything in the research plan. Either Bering was afraid of meeting with the local population, or did not want to stay there for the winter. But he, without consulting anyone, gave the command to turn back.
Following along the coast of Alaska and further along the Aleutian Islands, making their descriptions and mapping: the islands of St. John, the Shumagin and Evdokey islands, St. Stephen, St. Markian and the island of Kodiak, St. Peter was almost approaching the shores of Kamchatka. But on November 5, not reaching Kamchatka only 200 km away, the ship entered one of the islands to replenish water supplies. A storm broke out, a sharp cooling, snow did not allow to continue swimming and the team was forced to stay for the winter. On November 28, during a storm, a packet boat washed ashore.
Severe wintering conditions were not endured by all; out of 75 team members 19 people died from scurvy, and on December 8 Vitus Bering, who at that time was already 60 years old, also died. The navigator, Lieutenant Sven Waxel, became the commander of the expedition. Vitus Beging was buried there on the island, which was named after him by Bering Island, and the archipelago of the Commander Islands.
During the summer of next year, 46 surviving crew members from the wreckage of the packet boat built a small vessel - a hookor, which was also called "St. Peter ”and only in August 1742 they were able to get to Kamchatka.
The campaign of "St. Paul" also abounded with adventure. Alexei Chirikov, after they missed Bering, continued sailing to the east and on July 15, latitude 55 ° 21 ′, he went to the ground on which were visible mountains covered with forest. The boat sent to the shore did not find a suitable place for embarking and disembarking and they continued to move along the coast to the east. A second landing attempt was made two days later. A boat was sent to the shore, but it disappeared without a trace. On July 23, seeing the light on the shore, they sent a second boat, but she did not return. So 15 crew members disappeared, either they became victims of the Indians, or drowned at high tide, the story is silent about this.
After waiting 10 days, Chirikov gave the command to move on. After another 230 miles along the coast, the team was unable to land on the shore. It was impossible to get close to shore without damaging the ship, and there were no more boats. Fresh water was running out, food was running out. Nevertheless, they tried again to land ashore on rafts, but within two days the harbor suitable for landing was not found. At the meeting convened by Chirikov, there was a decision to go back.
On the way home, near the Aleutian Islands, they met locals twice in boats. Attempts to stock up with water and provisions did not lead to anything, the Aleuts requested weapons for water, which the Russian sailors refused. And so, without a supply of water and food, they continued on their way to the house. On the way, many, including Chirikov, fell ill, the command was received by the ship midshipman Elagin, who on October 12, 1741 brought the packet boat Saint Paul to Kamchatka. Of the 68 crew members, 49 people returned from the campaign.
The following 1742, Chirikov tried to find the missing Bering ship. On May 25, he again went to sea, but due to headwinds, only the islands of Attu could reach. On the islands that came in the way, he did not find anyone. As it turned out later, they passed very close to the island where the Bering expedition wintered, but the coast was invisible in dense fog and on July 1 Chirikov returned to Kamchatka. This is how the route of the packet boats St. Peter and St. Paul looks on the map.
In August 1742, while in Yakutsk, Chirikov sent an expedition report to Petersburg. And in 1746 he himself was called to Petersburg, where he personally reported on the campaign. While in the Admiralty College, he proposed founding a city at the mouth of the Amur River in order to build a ship’s marina and build a fortress that could be reached from the depths of Russia along the Amur River. But no one took his opinion into account, although later it was considered very far-sighted and in 1856 the port city of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur was built there.
Subsequently, Chirikov worked for a long time in Yeniseisk, compiled maps of Russian discoveries in the east, which were long considered lost and only in Soviet times were discovered and used to compile maps of the Soviet Union. The brilliant officer of the Russian fleet, who reached the shores of Northwest America, Alexei Chirikov, died in need at the age of only 45 in 1748, and his family remained forgotten and without a livelihood.
Nevertheless, the work of Russian sailors, though many years later, yielded results. Large seaports were built on the coast of the Far East and on Kamchatka, which turned into modern cities. Despite the numerous wars, the Russian Pacific Fleet became the most powerful in that region, and the Kamchatka Sea itself, from the year 1818, at the proposal of the Russian navigator and the head of two round-the-world expeditions of Vice Admiral V.M. Golovnin, became known as the Bering Sea.
Due to its geographical location, the Bering Sea has its own characteristics. In the Bering Strait, two continents are closest to each other - Asia and America. The distance between them is about 90 kilometers. In the middle of the strait are the islands of Diomede, separated by only five kilometer space. The western island - Ratmanova - belongs to Russia, the eastern island - Kruzenshtern - the USA. Between the islands runs our state border with America.
Residents of Ratmanova Island are the first in the country to meet the upcoming day. Their time is 10 hours ahead of Moscow. Here, starting between the islands of the Bering Strait and following the passage between the Commander and Aleutian islands, a day-shift line is drawn, which continues further south along the 180 ° meridian in the Pacific Ocean and is called the date line, or the line of demarcation. Mariners going east to America rearrange the calendar one day ago when crossing this line and count the same day of the week twice. Mariners going west to Russia add the day ahead to the calendar date and jump one day of the week.
Strictly speaking, this operation should not have been carried out in the Bering Strait, but to the west of it, at a 180 ° meridian. But this meridian passes through the Chukchi Peninsula. Having two calendars in the same territory would be extremely inconvenient. Therefore, they agreed to move the border line of the day to the east, to the Bering Strait. And in the southern part of the Bering Sea, this line is shifted, on the contrary, to the west from the 180 ° meridian to the Commander Islands. This is done in order not to change the calendar day in the Aleutian Islands.
Thus, the Bering Strait plays an important role both in political relations and in the modern calendar system.
Of all fourteen seas of Russia, the Bering Sea is the deepest. Depths greater than this lie only in the open ocean beyond the Kuril and Aleutian islands and east of Kamchatka. However, the northern part of the sea does not resemble the southern one in terms of bottom topography. The depths in it, on a vast area of \u200b\u200babout 1 million square kilometers, do not exceed several tens of meters.
The bottom rise in the northern part of the sea between the Koryak coast and the tip of the Alaska peninsula is quite steep. The transition of the relief from the southern to the northern half of the sea can be compared with a sharp transition to a high mountainous country, at the top of which there is a large plateau cut by a number of hollows. This plateau is the bottom of the northern part of the sea. And the hollows remind of the geological era when the whole plateau stood above sea level and was crossed by numerous rivers. Geologists have established that the raising and lowering of land in this area occurred several times.
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During the last glaciation, land was above the current level. On the site of the northern part of the Bering Sea and the Bering Strait, then a wide plain spread. As with previous land elevations, then the Pacific Ocean had no connection with the Arctic Ocean. Asia and America were interconnected by a dry isthmus. This explains why now in Asia and America, despite the separation of their sea, there are the same land animals and plants.
They spread across two continents at a time when there was a “land bridge” between them. Mammoths, in particular, crossed this "bridge". According to him, people who were distant ancestors of the current North American tribes could also cross from Asia to North America. This is reminiscent of the similarities in the appearance and culture of some tribes of Asia and America.
Then the land sank, the lowlands covered with water and the sea again lay between the two continents, as if no communication over land had ever existed. It took a long development of mankind and the growth of science to restore the history of the development of oceans and land.
The immersion of the “land bridge” occurred not so long ago, only a few tens of thousands of years ago. So, from the point of view of geology, the northern part of the Bering Sea should be considered young.
The Bering Sea is now one of the most developed in the world, despite the harsh climatic conditions. The water temperature on the surface in summer is + 7-8 °, in winter + 2 °. Water salinity is from 28-33 ‰. The tides in the Bering Sea are diurnal and semidiurnal. The average height of the water level fluctuation is 1.5-2m, in the Bering Strait it is only about 0.5m, and sometimes in the Gulf of Bristol it is 8 or more meters, the tidal speed is 1-2 m / s. In the waters of the sea cyclones with winds of up to 20-30 m / s are quite frequent, which cause strong and prolonged storms, the height of the waves is up to 14 m. For a long time in the year most of the Bering Sea is covered with ice.
The Bering Sea has long been considered one of the most commercial seas. Only underwater inhabitants, there are more than 400 species. About 35 species are commercial, mainly salmon, cod and flounder. For many years, red caviar, obtained from salmon fish, has been the most expensive delicacy exported and exported from here by tons, destroying millions of fish of valuable species. Some orders are being imposed in this, but poaching is still flourishing.
A special article is the fishing of crab. Crab meat was once the food of only Asians: Chinese, Japanese, etc. Over time, it gained popularity in many countries of the world. The Bering Sea is the place where the largest population of Kamchatka crab and during the crab fishing season, thousands of ships from many countries sail in the Bering Sea. Although the crab fishing season is only a few days, during this time they manage to get more than 30 thousand tons of crab out of the water. What foreigners are constantly violating the allocated quotas. But for many, this is a basic income and often a family business.
The fauna of the Bering Sea is very diverse. A huge number of walruses, sea lions, seals, and fur seals live in the waters. Often they can be seen on the high seas on ice floes.
On the Aleutian, Commander Islands, on the coast of Alaska and Chukotka, these marine animals arrange numerous rookeries where they breed their offspring.
In the waters of the Bering Sea, quite a lot of whales live. Once there were more of them here than anywhere else on the globe, but for many years they were actively hunted. Special whaling flotillas were created here, including the Russian “Glory” and “Aleut,” which beat hundreds of whales and their population dropped sharply. In recent years, the number of whales is gradually increasing.
It is not uncommon to find swimming polar bears in the open sea. Sometimes they stay on the shores for a long time, where there is more food than in the neighboring Chukchi Sea.
The fauna of the Berengov Sea is very rich and diverse. A large number of different animals live in the forests: bears, moose, wolves, foxes, sables, martens, squirrels, arctic foxes, ermines, etc. On the Chukotka Peninsula, numerous herds of reindeer have become one of the main riches of this region.
Created several years ago, Beringia National Park, located between Chukotka and Kamchatka, due to its conservation status, has now become so populated by rare animals that it is becoming one of the most popular tourist destinations.
The number and variety of birds in the Bering Sea is incredible. They arrange huge bird markets on the rocky shores, where they bring their chicks. The population density of birds on some islands exceeds 200,000 birds per 1 sq. Km.
This sea is the most eastern border of our country and therefore it is reliably protected. Border ships serve around the clock on the eastern maritime border of our homeland.
Climatic conditions in the Berengov Sea: in Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and the Chukchi Peninsula, are quite severe. The temperature is almost 9 months a year minus. Severe snowy winters and cold winds are common here. And still, rarely does anyone of their people living on the coast of this very eastern sea agree to move to the mainland.
Located in its northern part. From the vast ocean waters it is separated by the Aleutian and Commander Islands. In the north, through the Bering Strait connects to the Chukchi Sea, which is part of the Arctic Ocean. A pond washes the shores of Alaska, Chukotka, Kamchatka. Its area is 2.3 million square meters. km The average depth is 1600 meters, the maximum is 4150 meters. The volume of water is 3.8 million cubic meters. km The length of the reservoir from north to south is 1.6 thousand km, and from west to east it is 2.4 thousand km.
History reference
Many experts believe that during the last ice age, the sea level was low, and therefore the Bering Strait was a land. This is the so-called Bering Bridge, according to which the inhabitants of Asia fell into the territory of North and South America in ancient times.
This reservoir was investigated by the Danes Vitus Bering, who served in the Russian fleet as captain-commander. He studied the northern waters in the years 1725-1730 and 1733-1741. During this time, he carried out two Kamchatka expeditions and discovered part of the Aleutian ridge islands.
In the XVIII century, the reservoir was called the Kamchatka Sea. It was first called the Bering Sea at the initiative of the French navigator Charles Pierre de Fleurieu at the beginning of the 19th century. This name was fully entrenched by the end of the second decade of the 19th century.
general description
Sea bottom
In its northern part, the body of water is shallow, thanks to the shelf, the length of which reaches 700 km. The southwestern part is deepwater. Here the depth reaches 4 km in some places. The transition from shallow to deep ocean floor is carried out along a steep underwater slope.
Water temperature and salinity
In summer, the surface layer of water warms up to 10 degrees Celsius. In winter, the temperature drops to -1.7 degrees Celsius. The salinity of the upper sea layer is 30-32 ppm. The middle layer at a depth of 50 to 200 meters is cold and practically does not change throughout the year. The temperature here is -1.7 degrees Celsius, and salinity reaches 34 ppm. Below 200 meters, the water warms, and its temperature rises to 4 degrees Celsius with a salinity of 34.5 ppm.
The Bering Sea includes such rivers as the Yukon in Alaska with a length of 3100 km and Anadyr with a length of 1152 km. The latter carries its waters in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia.
Bering Sea on the map
The islands
The islands are concentrated on the boundaries of the reservoir. The main ones are Aleutian Islandsrepresenting an archipelago. It stretches from the coast of Alaska towards Kamchatka and has 110 islands. Those, in turn, are divided into 5 groups. There are 25 volcanoes on the archipelago, and the largest is the Shishaldina volcano with a height of 2857 meters above sea level.
Commander Islands include 4 islands. Located in the southwestern part of the reservoir. Pribylov Islands located north of the Aleutian skeleton. There are four of them: St. Paul, St. George, Otter and Walrus Island.
Diomede Islands (Russia) consist of 2 islands (Ratmanova island and Kruzenshtern island) and several small rocks. They are located in the Bering Strait at approximately the same distance from Chukotka and Alaska. The Bering Sea is also located island of St. Lawrence in the southernmost part of the Bering Strait. It is part of Alaska, although it is closer to Chukotka. Experts believe that in antiquity it was part of the isthmus connecting 2 continents.
Nunivak Island Located off the coast of Alaska. Among all the islands belonging to the considered reservoir, it is the second largest after St. Lawrence. The southern part of the Bering Strait is also located st. Matthew's Islandowned by the USA. Karaginsky island located off the coast of Kamchatka. The highest point on it (Mount High) is 920 meters above sea level.
Sea coast
Cape and bays are characteristic of the sea coast. Of the bays on the Russian coast can be called Anadyr, washing the shores of Chukotka. Its continuation is the Bay of the Cross, located to the north. Karaginsky Bay is located off the coast of Kamchatka, and to the north is Olyutor Bay. Deep in the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Korfa Bay wedges.
Off the southwestern coast of Alaska is Bristol Bay. To the north are smaller bays. This is Kuskokvim, which flows into the river of the same name, and Norton Bay.
Climate
In the summer, air temperature rises to 10 degrees Celsius. In winter, it drops to -20-23 degrees Celsius. The Bering Sea is covered by ice by the beginning of October. The ice is melting by July. That is, the pond is covered with ice for almost 10 months. In some places, such as St. Lawrence Bay, ice may be present year round.
Sea mammals such as bowhead and blue whales, saivals, finwales, humpback whales, and sperm whales live in the sea. There are also northern fur seals, beluga, seals, walruses, polar bears. Up to 40 species of various birds nest on the coast. Some of them are unique. In total, about 20 million birds breed in this region. There are 419 fish species recorded in the reservoir. Commercial value of them are salmon, pollock, Kamchatka crab, Pacific cod, halibut, Pacific perch.
The further development of the ecosystem of the reservoir in question is uncertain. Over the past 30 years, a slight but stable increase in sea ice has been recorded in this region. This made a sharp contrast to the seas of the Arctic Ocean, where the ice surface is steadily decreasing.