The So-Called Sea

The Baltic Sea (Östersjon, in Swedish, 'The Eastern Sea') is a relatively shallow inland sea surrounded by the countries of Northeastern Europe and Scandinavia. Its total area is about 370,000 km² and its volume about 21,000km². Then mean depth is only 55m, but the maximum depth reaches down to 459m. A total of nine countries border the sea: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. The sea also receives surface water drainage from five other countries: Belarus, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Norway, and Ukraine. Almost 80 million people live within the drainage area.

The Baltic, being connected to the North Sea and the oceans beyond only by way of narrow and shallow sounds between Denmark and Sweden (which comprise a series of basins separated by shallow sills that obstruct efficient water exchange), receives the greater part of its water from rivers and precipitation, and is consequently much less saline (8 PSU* in the Southern Baltic) than the oceanic norm (35 PSU).

The brackish surface water in the Southern Baltic, such as that which surrounds the town where we live, will typically freeze at -0.45C. The subzero temperatures we have been enjoying for the past three or four days have sufficed to turn it into a silent, glassy pane.

The restricted influx and outflux of water also limits the extent of the tides, whose maxima seldom exceed a few centimetres. The lack of tidal flow, coupled with a climate more prone to lie still and calm than to rage in violent storms lends a further lake-like character to this so-called sea. There is something of the Atlantic in my blood, and I will sometimes yearn to smell the salt, or to witness the howl of a gale, or the frenzied crashing of waves.

*PSU=Practical Salinity Units, almost equivalent to Parts per Thousand (PPT).

Baltic facts & maps taken from these sites.