Consider the seawater exchange at the entrance of the Black Sea, which is an enc
ID: 293960 • Letter: C
Question
Consider the seawater exchange at the entrance of the Black Sea, which is an enclosed ocean basin in communication with the Mediterranean Sea. The salinity of the bottom layer inflow is 35. The measured volume transport of the upper layer outflow is 12 x 103 m3/s with a salinity of 17.5. The volume of the entire Black Sea has the same density a) What is the volume transport of the bottom layer inflow to the Black Sea. b) Is the Black Sea an evaporative or precipitation basin? Justify your answer c) The volume of the Black Sea is 0.6 x 106 km3 and does not change in time. What is the residence time of the Black Sea?Explanation / Answer
a) salinity gets double when volume is reduced to half. so volume transport of bottom layer inflow to the black sea is given as Vb=(17.5/35)*12000=6000 m3/s.
b) precipitation basin as it recieves more water from rivers and rainfall than water loss due to evaporation.
c) black sea input is 200 km3/yr.
residence time=volume/input; residence time of black sea=600000/200=3000yrs.
therefore black sea residence time is 3000 yrs.