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The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. [2] [3] [4] An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia, south of the fertile plains of Southern Russia in Eastern Europe, and north of the mountainous Iranian Plateau.
The average lake on Earth has the mean depth 41.8 meters (137.14 feet) [9] The Caspian Sea ranks much further down the list on mean depth, as it has a large continental shelf (significantly larger than the oceanic basin that contains its greatest depths). Of the 127 registered lakes; 67 are known to be cryptodepressions.
In March 1980, workers blocked the Caspian link, due to concerns that evaporation was accelerating a fall in Caspian Sea. [2] The resulting "salt bowl" caused widespread problems of blowing salt, [ 5 ] reportedly poisoning the soil and causing health problems for hundreds of kilometers downwind to the east.
Caspian Sea [3] Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran. Caspian endorheic basin: 371,000 km 2 (143,000 sq mi) 78,200 km 3 (18,800 cu mi) 1.2% Baikal [4] Russia. Southern Siberia: Buryatia and Irkutsk Oblast: 31,722 km 2 (12,248 sq mi) 23,610 km 3 (5,660 cu mi) Fresh Tanganyika Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Zambia
The surface of the lake is 455.5 m (1,494 ft) above sea level, while the bottom of the lake is 1,186.5 m (3,893 ft; 648.8 fathoms) below sea level, and below this lies some 7 km (4.3 mi) of sediment, placing the rift floor some 8–11 km (5.0–6.8 mi) below the surface, the deepest continental rift on Earth. [5]
'Lakes by depth' is not a common comparison, but 'lakes by area' (what most people mean by one lake being bigger than another) is a common comparison, and even in popular usage the rankings ("X is the 4th largest lake" etc.) often only make sense if the Caspian is excluded.
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More precisely the average depth is 3,688 meters (12,100 ft). [72] Nearly half of the world's marine waters are over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. [27] "Deep ocean," which is anything below 200 meters (660 ft), covers about 66% of Earth's surface. [87] This figure does not include seas not connected to the World Ocean, such as the Caspian Sea.