The Black Sea froze over for the first time in 30. A rare phenomenon on the Black Sea

As a rule, the Black Sea does not freeze in winter. But it happens that winter temperatures drop so low that the sea near the coast in the northwestern part freezes for a short time. The Black Sea climate is mainly continental.

It has a significant effect on the weather over the Black Sea Atlantic Ocean, over which most of the cyclones originate, bringing bad weather and storms to the sea.

Sea water is a natural aqueous solution of various salts, in which the bulk is made up of sodium, magnesium, potassium, calcium, chlorine, sulfur ions, and also contains suspended solid particles, dissolved gases, and some organic compounds.

The presence of dissolved salts in seawater affects the freezing point of water. Sea water, which has an average salinity for the oceans (3.5%), freezes at -1.9 degrees Celsius. So let's note - the waters of the Black Sea, as a rule, are not subject to freezing.

But in history there are cases when the Black Sea froze over.

Let's consider them:
The first information about an unusually harsh winter and the fact that the Black Sea was partially frozen are found in the letters of Ovid, a poet of ancient times, exiled at the beginning of the 1st century BC. e. in the lower reaches of the Danube. He writes: "... Istria (Danube) became three times from the cold, and the sea wave hardened three times."
From other, later reports of unusual cold weather in the Black Sea region, we learn a lot of interesting things:

-Winter 400-401 g... “... for 20 days the straits of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles and most of the Black Sea were frozen. In the spring ice went mountains in the streets of Constantinople for 30 days. "

-In winter 557-558"... the Black Sea was covered with ice over a large area."

Byzantine, Arab and Western European chronicles indicate that in 763-764 y.“… Winter is fierce. From the beginning of October, there was a great severe cold not only in our land (Byzantium), but also in the east, north, west, so that the northern part of the Pontic (Black) Sea, 100 miles from the coast, turned to stone ... And the same happened from Zikhia ( Taman Peninsula) to the Danube, from the Kufis River (Kuban) to the Dniester and the Dnieper, from all other banks to the Media. When the snow fell on such a thick ice, its thickness increased even more, and the sea took the form of land. And they walked along it like dry land from Crimea to Thrace and from Constantinople to Skutari. " In February, the ice split into pieces, like great mountains. There were so many crystal blocks rushing from the Black Sea that they formed a huge ice bridge in the Bosphorus.

The winter was extremely strong 1233-34... A number of authors confirm that the northern part of the Black Sea has frozen over.

Winter 1543-44 was extremely cold for many European countries - Germany, France, the countries of the Northern Black Sea region. The North of the Black Sea was covered with ice.

According to the information of the South Russian Chronicle, and in Russia "there were great snows and the winter was heavy with frosts, from which the Swedes died a lot", the northern part of the Black Sea froze.

- "Great" is called winter 1788-89 In the Crimea, frosts reached -25 degrees, in the Northern Black Sea region "the winter is severe, full of frosts, they crawled out of the houses through the roofs because of the great snows", the northern part of the Black Sea froze. It was in this winter on December 6, in the bitter frost, that the Russian army stormed the fortress of Ochakov.

Winter 1953-54... is rightfully called "the winter of the century". On the southern coast of Crimea, frosts persisted for three months in a row, the average monthly temperature in February was 10-12 degrees below normal, in Yalta, the height of the snow cover during this period exceeded 30 centimeters. The Sea of ​​Azov was completely frozen, a stable road connection was opened through the Kerch Strait, the northern part of the Black Sea was frozen.

So, over the past 2 thousand years, more than 20 "strong" winters have been recorded in the Black Sea region. The time interval between them is on average 75 years (in most cases from 60 to 90 years).

Stunning photographs of the frozen Black Sea by Dmytro Dokunov

Frozen sea

The familiar coastline was cluttered with flat, rather thick ice floes, glowing at the site of the breaks with the blue-green glass of the Black Sea water; on top they were sugar-white, and you could walk on them without sliding; but it was difficult to climb from one heaped ice floe to another; sometimes you had to sit on the raised edge of one ice floe, lowering your feet to the other, or jump, resting one hand on a broken edge, which looked fragile, but in fact was strong, like granite. It was necessary to walk through this chaos for a long time before stepping onto an even field of the sea, frozen to the very horizon. However, it was not easy to walk along this seemingly flat ice space: every now and then on the way came across joints between individual ice floes, small hummocks and ripples of a wave, suddenly caught by the frost and turned into an ice floe.

Up to the horizon, under the bright, cold sun, shining like the mercury bullet of Captain Hatteras, the untouched whiteness of the salty, coarsely frozen ice gleamed, and only on the very horizon was the blue-black strip of the open sea and the silhouette of a foreign coal steamer frozen into the ice.

Ice thundered under my feet, making it clear that under me was a resounding, dangerous space of very deep water and that I was walking as if along the echoing vault of the cellar, the gloomy darkness of which was guessed below me in the depths.

I remember clusters of white air bubbles soldered into the ice, like lilies of the valley.

On the right and on the left, the lighthouses brightly lit by the January sun - one for the port, the other for the Big Fountain - and a small icebreaker that smoked at the entrance to the Practical Harbor, reminiscent of the famous "Fram" of Fridtjof Nansen, wiped out to the very masts in the Arctic ice, under the organ hanging above it, were brightly lit by the January sun northern lights... Above all this was such a bright blue sky and there was such a high, unnatural silence, and the coast of Dofinovka was painted with such a soft pink winter color, which was impeccably clearly visible through the burning, crystal air, from which a spiral of breath and furry frost grew on the edges of the camel's hood, which was my head was wrapped over my gymnasium cap, which made fourteen degrees of frost on Réaumur seem like a temperature that no living creature could withstand.

However, in the distance, on the ice field, here and there moving human figures could be seen. These were the townspeople taking their Sunday stroll on the frozen sea in order to gaze up close at the overseas steamer.

An azure shadow stretched from each person, and my shadow was especially dazzling and great, shimmering in front of me over the irregularities of the ice field and jumping over the hummocks.

Finally I reached the edge of the ice, behind which, in the almost black steaming water, stood the enormous crimson hull of an Italian coal miner with a white monogram on a dirty black chimney, a monogram consisting of crossed Latin letters, which gave the steamer an oddly alluring, almost magical attraction.

Very high on the deck was an Italian sailor in a thick sweater, with a canvas bucket in his hand, smoking a long, cheap Italian cigar with a straw at the end, and from the round hole - kingston from the height of a three-story building, water was continuously pouring like a waterfall from the engine room, leaving on the old iron sheathing is already fairly overgrown ice icicles.

An Italian sailor was waving his hand to someone, and I saw two figures receding to the shore, which sometimes stopped and, in turn, waved their hands to the Italian sailor. Behind them was the double azure trail of the sled, which they dragged along with them.

After walking along the edge of the ice and admiring the Italian coal miner, I went back. The sun was already noticeably bent to the west, outside the city, behind the white roofs with columns of smoke, behind the blue dome of the city theater, behind the monument to Duke.

The frost intensified with each passing minute.

I mechanically walked along a long double track of a sled, and suddenly, quite close to the coast, I saw on the surface of an obliquely reared ice floe with a green breakage of some kind of inscription, deeply and coarsely carved with something sharp, perhaps the end of an iron cane from among those that they liked to take our artisans and factory workers with us for a Sunday stroll.

Maybe they made for themselves these iron canes with a round handle.

For the first time in my life, I read a combination of words that were not quite clear to me on an ice floe:

"Proletarians of all countries, unite!"

There was something formidable and full of some secret meaning in this azure luminous phrase, which subsequently spread so widely and powerfully throughout our land.

What could mean this spell, in an instant, as it were, brought me closer to people of all countries? I thought with inexplicable anxiety.

Jumping from the last ice floe onto the icy stones of the coast, I saw three border soldiers in caps and caps with green bands, who were climbing over sharp hummocks, heading for the Italian steamer. The pink sun glinted at the tips of their blued four-sided bayonets with grooves for blood drainage.

They looked like people who were late.

What all this could mean and what did it have to do with the word "Iskra", which was carved on the last ice floe, probably with the same homemade iron cane, one of those who carried something on their sled, wrapped in a mat.

Chapter five. Kim Klinov's story. A squadron of minesweepers on a harsh and long march. Storm in the Bering Sea. The sea is a school of life and courage On an unusually sunny and warm day, which is rare on the Kola Peninsula, in the middle of July 1952, a squadron of minesweepers left

For those who are at sea Sleep from the 21st to the 22nd. I am navigating a ship or ship in a completely unfamiliar sea. And suddenly I find out: there are no maps on board - neither in the navigator's room, nor in the storehouse. And there is no globe. Horror, nightmare. I wake up wet, have a smoke. And ten more times a nightmare

SEA I saw the sea for the first time almost half a century ago. I remember that the train took us for a long time from north to south to my mother's new place of work - the Black Sea. I remember that my brothers and I fell asleep and woke up with the only thought: “What is it, warm, fabulous, on the shore of which we will be now

Chapter 7. About the rivers flowing into the eastern sea from the mouth of the Avacha to the south to the Kuril Lopatka, and from the Kuril Lopatka to the Penzhin Sea to the Tigil and to the Empty River From the mouth of the Avacha river to the Lopatka itself there are no notable rivers, because the ridge that Kamchatka splits,

Sea I walked by the sea. How gentle Was the sapphire color of the wave. The sea breathed life and freshness Even into the dead boulders, Straight into the heart burst with the power of Beauty, seething around. But the sea suddenly appeared to me as a great mass grave. Under the deep blue water In the terrible years, without

“Only the sea and the sea. Where is ours today ... ”Only the sea and the sea. Where is our today Torn away from tomorrow, lost yesterday ... At the moment when they removed and threw the gangway And calmly swam home

The sea The sea, the sea - as if there is no land, As if there is no cherished pier ... The sea, the sea ... And in it they gave a radiant Heaven. Somewhere, in this blue abyss, A little noticeably the point turned white, Maybe a large ship passed, Maybe just a seagull

Severe frosts also reached the Black Sea coast. In the regions of Kerch, Evpatoria, Odessa, the water turned into ice. On the beaches, ice crumbs float in the water, and small icebergs can be seen 100 meters from the coast.

Due to the current situation, the sea traffic in the Ukrainian ports was closed until February 15. The Romanian port of Constanta is closed; on the shores of the beaches, the ice thickness reaches 40 centimeters. Both Romania and Bulgaria have declared "yellow" and "orange" hazard codes.

Nevertheless, the inhabitants of these countries do not despair: they use the frozen water as a skating rink, they build sculptures from ice and snow. The last time such weather anomalies occurred in 1977, then the Black Sea off the coast of Odessa completely froze over.

Photo: Frozen Black Sea near Constanta, Romania

Ice-covered ship off the coast of Evpatoria.
http://bigpicture.ru/?p=254667

01.03.2011
According to the Hydrometeorological Center of the Black and Azov Seas. - “This winter was distinguished by sharp and prolonged cold weather, which led to the freezing of water near the coast. This phenomenon is extremely rare. The last time off the coast of Odessa the sea was completely frozen in 1977. "

For the third time since the beginning of winter, the Sea of ​​Azov also froze over. The thickness of the ice in a number of places reaches 20 cm, ice blocks up to 5-10 m high have been nailed to the village of Sedovo in the Novoazovsky district, which lined up along the entire coastal strip. Due to strong winds, ferry flights from Crimea to Russia are temporarily limited.

The thickness of the ice in the coastal zone is about 20 cm. It can easily support the weight of an adult, but there are no people who want to walk on the ice in such weather.

Well, if 1977 is still preserved in the memory of old-timers, then archival and literary sources say that over the past two millennia in the Black Sea region there have been more than 20 "cruel" winters with an average interval of 78 years (from 60 to 90 years ). The first information about an unusually harsh winter, in particular that the Black Sea was partially frozen, is found in the letters of Ovid, a poet of ancient times, exiled at the beginning of the 1st century. BC e. in the lower reaches of the Danube. Ovid writes: "... Istria (Danube) became three times from the cold, and the sea wave hardened three times."

There are other more recent reports of unusual cold weather in the Black Sea region. So, for example, in the winter of 400-401. “... for 20 days the straits of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles and most of the Black Sea were frozen. In the spring ice went mountains in the streets of Constantinople for 30 days. "

In the winter of 557-558. "... the Black Sea was covered with ice over a large area."
Byzantine, Arab and Western European chronicles testify that in 763-764. “... winter will be fierce. From the beginning of October, there was a great severe cold not only in our land (Byzantium), but also in the east, north, west, so that the northern part of the Pontic (Black) Sea, 100 miles from the coast, turned to stone ... And the same happened from Zikhia (Taman Peninsula) to the Danube, from the Kufis River (Kuban) to the Dniester and the Dnieper, from all other banks to the Media. When the snow fell on such a thick ice, its thickness increased even more, and the sea took the form of land. And they walked along it like dry land from Crimea to Thrace and from Constantinople to Skutari. "

The winter of 1233-1234 was extremely fierce throughout the Mediterranean. According to the testimony of Arago, "... loaded carts moved on the ice across the Adriatic Sea near Venice." A number of other authors confirm that many lagoons of the Mediterranean and the northern part of the Black Sea were frozen over.
Two hundred years earlier, in 1010 - 1011. frosts bound the present Turkish Black Sea coast. Terrible cold reached Africa (!), The lower reaches of the Nile were frozen with ice.

Winter 1543-1544 was also extremely cold for many European countries - Germany, France, the countries of the Northern Black Sea region. The North of the Black Sea was covered with ice. In France there were such frosts that it was necessary to "chop" the wine frozen in large barrels.

In the chronicles of 1708-1709 we read: "... An unusually harsh, snowy and long winter throughout Europe", the bays were completely frozen Adriatic sea, in Venice, the air temperature dropped to -20C, "many thousands of people died from the cold, orange trees cracked." In the same year, winter was unusually cold in France and Switzerland, strong freeze-up was observed on the Thames, Seine, Rhone. In the Baltic Sea, the ice thickness reached 80 cm.

At the end of the eighteenth century. in Russia, "there were great snows and the winter was heavy with frosts, from which a lot of the Swedes perished", the northern part of the Black Sea froze over. The chroniclers call the winter of 1788-1789 "great". All over Europe there were severe cold weather: in France (-21C), in Italy (-15C), "severe frosts and snowfalls" in Switzerland, cold weather in Germany, the Vistula froze a month earlier and opened a month later than usual. In the Crimea, frosts reached -25C - in the Northern Black Sea region, "the winter is severe, full of frosts, they crawled out of the houses through the roofs because of the great snows", the northern part of the Black Sea froze.

The winter of 1875-1876 was exceptionally severe, long and snowy in Central and Eastern Europe. In the mountains of Switzerland, the number of avalanches has increased dramatically. Almost all southern rivers were covered with ice much earlier than usual, catastrophic drifts were observed on the Caucasian roads, and the Black Sea froze again.

The most severe winter of the twentieth century. the winter of 1953-1954 is considered. Fierce, unprecedented cold weather from November to April was on the vast territory from Spain and France to the Ural ridge. On the southern coast of Crimea, frosts persisted for three months in a row, the average monthly temperature in February was 10-12C below normal, in Yalta the snow cover height exceeded 30 cm, in the Caspian Sea floating ice reached the Absheron Peninsula. The Sea of ​​Azov was completely frozen, a stable road connection was opened through the Kerch Strait, the northern part of the Black Sea was frozen.

By the way, the winter of 1962-1963 was remembered by the searing frosts and fierce snowstorms. Ice bound the usually non-freezing Danish Strait, and the canals of Venice and the rivers of France froze again. The 1968-1969 season is also called "the winter of violent frosts".

In 2002, due to frost in Germany, the movement of ships along the Main-Danube Canal, which is an important European water transport artery, was completely stopped. The thickness of the ice, into which more than 20 ships were frozen, reached 70 cm in places.

Then, due to severe cold weather, the Venice lagoon froze over, gondolas froze into the ice. The same frosts were in Venice in 1985.

At the end of 2005, most of the countries of Central and Western Europe were also hit by heavy snowfalls. In Germany and the Netherlands, unusual cold weather for this time of year led to icing and broken power lines. In Paris, due to icing, the Eiffel Tower, the main attraction of France, was closed for several hours.

As for the current situation, according to forecasters, the ice in the coastal zone Sea of ​​Azov will last until the second decade of March. In the Odessa region, the sea will clear up in the coming days.

Ice sheet in the Black Sea is often formed only on the northern shores, and then in relatively severe winters. Ice usually does not appear on the Caucasian and Anatolian coasts. Almost every year, the Dnieper-Bug and Dnestrovsky estuaries, lakes near the Danube delta and on the north-western coast freeze. In very cold winters, the Danube River is held down by ice and, in some cases, by the coastal strip of the sea. During the period of ice drift, the current carries the ice to the south to the Bulgarian shores; usually they reach Cape Kaliakra, and in rare cases they descend to the south. In extremely severe winters, when the sea freezes off the Bulgarian coast, broken ice carries even to the Bosphorus and Eregli.

On the Crimean coast, ice usually forms up to Cape Tarkhankut, and broken ice reaches Yevpatoria. Ice removed from the Sea of ​​Azov often appears near the Kerch Strait and in eastward reaches Anapa, in the west - to Feodosia.

The first information about freeze-ups in the Black Sea is given by Herodotus; he mentions that the Cimmerian Bosphorus (Kerch Strait) and Meotida (Sea of ​​Azov) are often covered with a fairly thick layer of ice, which, breaking in spring, is carried out to the Pontus (Black Sea). The Roman poet Ovid, exiled to Little Scythia (Dobrudzha), writes that from 7 to 17, during three winters, the Danube and coastal sea waters froze over a considerable length. Frequent freezing conditions on the Danube are reported by Nolian (3rd century). Significant freezing of the Black Sea observed in 401, Amianus Marcellin writes that almost the entire sea was frozen, in the spring ice fields filled the Bosphorus, and from it they went to the Sea of ​​Marmara and swam there for about a month. Byzantine sources mention the freezing of the Bosphorus in 739, 753 and 755. In 755, ice formed in the Sea of ​​Marmara and clogged the Dardanelles.

The most intense ice formation, in 762, is reported by the patriarch Nikifor and the chronicler Codrin: about 100 miles from the land, the Black Sea froze over, even in the Anatolian coast. From Messembriya (Nessebar) it was possible to walk along the ice to the Caucasian coast.

Freezing up in the Bosphorus was noted in 928 and 934. In 1011, not only the Bosphorus froze, but also part of the Sea of ​​Marmara. At the same time, great cold weather began in Syria and Egypt, ice appeared in the lower reaches of the Nile River. The northern part of the Black Sea froze over, according to the testimony of Prince Gleb Svyatoslavich, in 1068.

Ice appeared at southern shores The Black Sea and the Bosphorus and in 1232, 1621, 1669 and 1755. In 1813, the Black Sea was covered with ice off the northern shores to southern regions Crimea. The Bosphorus froze in 1823, 1849 and 1862.

In 1929, 1942 and 1954. ice formed almost along the entire Bulgarian coast, at the same time the ice penetrated into the Bosphorus. Freezing up in the northwestern part of the Black Sea and in the Sea of ​​Azov and a strong ice drift on the Danube in 1972 caused the appearance of ice fields near the Bulgarian coast even south of Cape Kaliakra. But sustained winds from land carried them to the open sea.

The appearance of ice and sludge in the shallow parts of the bays on the Bulgarian coast was also observed in other years. Lakes located near the sea coast freeze more often.

Ice formed from sea water contains less salt than water. In education sea ​​ice between ice crystals, consisting of pure water, small drops of sea water (brine) are retained. Over time, the brine ste

ice falls down, the ice is desalinated, and air bubbles appear in it, creating its porosity.

Fresh water freezes at 0 ° C, salty water at lower temperatures. In the oceans, water freezes at temperatures from -1.9 to -2 ° C, in the Black Sea - at a temperature of -0.9 ° C, but only in calm weather. With strong waves in the water, ice crystals are formed - ice porridge, while the water temperature can be about -1.1 or -1.2 ° C.

The salinity of the lower part of the ice immersed in water is higher than that of the upper one, even for freshwater ice that is in the sea, the lower part is saturated with seawater.

The salinity of the upper layers of sea ice is negligible. As ice ages, its chemical composition changes - the amount of chlorides decreases and the amount of bicarbonates increases.

In general, the ice sheet contains significantly less salt than seawater.