Tigris and Euphrates

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Tigris and Euphrates
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Tigris
The Tigris is approximately 1,180 miles long,
rising in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey
and flowing in a generally southeasterly
direction until it joins the Euphrates near in
southern Iraq. The two rivers together form the
Shatt al-Arab waterway, which empties into the
Persian Gulf. The Tigris is joined by many
tributaries, including the Diyala and both the
Upper and Lower Zab rivers. The Tigris is
heavily dammed in Iraq and Turkey, to provide
water for irrigating the arid and semi-desert
regions bordering the river valley. Damming has
also been important for averting floods in Iraq,
to which the Tigris has historically been
notoriously prone following snowmelt in the
Turkish mountains around April. Recent Turkish
damming of the river has been the subject of some
controversy, both for its environmental effects
within Turkey and its potential to reduce the
flow of water downstream.
NASA satellite image of downtown Bagdad. The city
was founded on the banks of the river thousands
of years ago.
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Euphrates
The river is approximately 1,730 miles long. It
is formed by the union of two branches, the Kara,
which rises in the Armenian highlands of today's
eastern Turkey north of Erzurum and the Murat,
which issues from an area southwest of Mount
Ararat, north of Lake Van. The upper reaches of
the Euphrates flow through steep canyons and
gorges, southeast across Syria, and through Iraq.
The Euphrates provided the water that led to
the first flowering of civilization in Sumer,
dating from about the 4th millennium BC. Many
important ancient cities were located on or near
the riverside, including Mari, Sippar, Ur and
Eridu. The river valley formed the heartlands of
the later empires of Babylonia and Assyria. For
several centuries, the river formed the eastern
limit of effective Egyptian and Roman control and
western regions of the Persian Empire.
A false color-composite satellite image of
Euphrates between Lake Asad and the town of
Ar-Raqqah in Syria.
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Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest lake on Earth by
area. It has a surface area of 143,244 square mile
s and a volume of 18,761 cubic miles. It lies
between the southern areas of the Russian
Federation and northern Iran. It has a maximum
depth of about 3,363 ft. It is called a sea
because when the Romans first arrived there, they
tasted the water and found it to be salty. The
Volga River (about 80 of the inflow) and the
Ural River discharge into the Caspian Sea, but it
is endorheic, meaning there is no natural
outflow. Thus the Caspian ecosystem is a closed
basin, with its own sea level history that is
independent of the sea level of the world's
oceans. The Caspian became landlocked about 5.5
million years ago. The level of the Caspian has
fallen and risen, often rapidly, many times over
the centuries. Some Russian historians claim that
a medieval rising of the Caspian caused the
coastal towns of Khazaria to flood. In 2004, the
water level was 92 feet below sea level.
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Caspian Wildlife
Caspian White Fish
Caspian Tern
Caspian Seal
Caspian Salmon
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Bay of Bengal
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Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is a bay that forms the
northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It
resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered on
the east by Malay Peninsula, and on the west by
India. On the northern tip of the "bay" lies the
Bengal region, comprising the Indian state of
West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh, thus
the name. The southern extremes reach the island
country of Sri Lanka, and the Indian Union
Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Phytoplankton Concentrations in the Sea of
Bengal. This is used to monitor cholera outbreaks
in the region.
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Bay of Bengal- Marine Biology
Bay of Bengal is home to a large coral reef
system. As a result of the tsunami that struck
the region in December of 2004, many of the reefs
were partially destroyed.
The Mangrove forests along the Bay of Bengal
provide protection from storm surge and erosion.
They also provide a protective habitat for many
species young.
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Marine Animals
The Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) is one
of the smallest species of sea turtle
Although sometimes called the Irrawaddy River
Dolphin, it is not a true river dolphin but an
oceanic dolphin that lives near coasts and enters
rivers
Wrasse are commonly found patrolling the reefs in
the Bay of Bengal
Glory of Bengal Cone often wash up on the beaches
in the Bay of Bengal.