Inland sea

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An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large in area and is either completely surrounded by dry land or connected to an ocean by a river, strait or "arm of the sea". An inland sea will generally be brackish, with higher salinity than a freshwater lake but usually lower salinity than seawater. As with other seas, inland seas experience tides governed by the orbits of the Moon and Sun. [1]

Contents

Definition

What constitutes an "inland sea" is complex and somewhat necessarily vague. [2] The United States Hydrographic Office defined it as "a body of water nearly or completely surrounded by land, especially if very large or composed of salt water". [3]

Geologic engineers Heinrich Ries and Thomas L. Watson say an inland sea is merely a very large lake. [2] Rydén, Migula, and Andersson [4] and Deborah Sandler of the Environmental Law Institute add that an inland sea is "more or less" cut off from the ocean. [5] [4] It may be semi-enclosed, [4] or connected to the ocean by a strait or "arm of the sea". [5] An inland sea is distinguishable from a bay in that a bay is directly connected to the ocean. [5]

The term "epeiric sea" was coined by Joseph Barrell in 1917. He defined an epeiric sea as a shallow body of water whose bottom is within the wave base (e.g., where bottom sediments are no longer stirred by the wave above), [6] as one with limited connection to an ocean, [7] [8] [4] and as simply shallow. [4] [a] An inland sea is only an epeiric sea when a continental interior is flooded by marine transgression due to sea level rise or epeirogenic movement. [6] [9]

An epicontinental sea is synonymous with an epeiric sea. [9] The term "epicontinental sea" may also refer to the waters above a continental shelf. This is a legal, not geological, term. [10] Epeiric, epicontinental, and inland seas occur on a continent, not adjacent to it. [4]

The law of the sea does not apply to inland seas. [11]

Modern inland seas

This 1827 map of Australia depicts a 'Great River' and a 'Supposed Sea' that both proved nonexistent. Maslens Inland Sea of Australia.jpg
This 1827 map of Australia depicts a 'Great River' and a 'Supposed Sea' that both proved nonexistent.

In modern times, continents stand high, eustatic sea levels are low, and there are few inland seas.

The Great Lakes, despite being completely fresh water, have been referred to as resembling or having characteristics like inland seas from a USGS management perspective. [15] [16]

Modern examples might also include the recently (less than 10,000 years ago) reflooded Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea that presently covers the Sunda Shelf. [b]

Former epicontinental seas in Earth's history

At various times in the geologic past, inland seas covered central areas of continents during periods of high sea level that result in marine transgressions. Inland seas have been greater in extent and more common than at present.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Geologist Richard A. Matzner defines shallow as usually under 250 metres (820 ft) in depth. [7] Rydén, Migula, and Andersson do not define shallow, but cite examples of inland seas with a depth of 100 metres (330 ft) or less. [4]
  2. ↑ The Lord Howe Rise that covers much of the sunken "continent" of Zealandia and the largely submerged Mascarene Plateau that includes the Granitic Group islands of the Seychelles could not be considered "inland".
  3. ↑ Also in Australia the promise of an inland sea is often said to have been one of the prime motives of inland exploration during the 1820s and 1830s. Although this theory was championed by the explorer Charles Sturt, it enjoyed little support among the other explorers, most of whom were more inclined to believe in the existence of a Great River which discharged into the ocean in the north-west corner of the continent. [22]

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References

  1. ↑ Klein, George Devries; Ryer, Thomas A. (1 July 1978). "Tidal circulation patterns in Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Cretaceous epeiric and mioclinal shelf seas". Geological Society of America Bulletin . 89 (7): 1050–1058. Bibcode:1978GSAB...89.1050K. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1978)89<1050:TCPIPP>2.0.CO;2 . Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  2. 1 2 Ries, Heinrich; Watson, Thomas L. (1947). Elements of Engineering Geology. New York: J. Wiley & Sons. p. 286. ISBN   9785877732124. OCLC   486745.
  3. ↑ United States Hydrographic Office (1956). Navigation Dictionary. Washington, D.C.: Supintendent of Documents. p. 189. OCLC   3040490.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rydén, Lars; Migula, Pawel; Andersson, Magnus (2003). Environmental Science: Understanding, Protecting, and Managing the Environment in the Baltic Sea Region. Uppsala: Baltic University Press. p. 123. ISBN   9789197001700.
  5. 1 2 3 Sandler, Deborah (1994). Protecting the Gulf of Aqaba: A Regional Environmental Challenge. Washington, D.C.: Environmental Law Institute. p. 45. ISBN   9780911937466.
  6. 1 2 Pratt, Brian R.; Holmden, Chris (2007). Dynamics of Epeiric Seas. St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada: Geological Association of Canada. p. 1. ISBN   9781897095348..
  7. 1 2 Matzner, Richard A., ed. (2020). Dictionary of Geophysics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy. Boca Raton: CRC Press. p. 156. ISBN   9780367455279.
  8. ↑ Morris, Christopher, ed. (1992). Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 757. ISBN   9780122004001.
  9. 1 2 Monkhouse, Francis J. (2008). A Dictionary of Geography. New Brunswick, N.J.: Aldine Transaction. p. 124. ISBN   9780202361314.
  10. ↑ Zaklin, Ralph (1974). The Changing Law of the Sea: Western Hemisphere Perspectives. Leiden, Netherlands: Sijthoff. p. 109. ISBN   9789028600843.
  11. ↑ Galletti, Florence (2015). "Transformations in International Law of the Sea: Governance of the Space or Resource". In Monaco, André; Prouzet, Patrick (eds.). Governance of Seas and Oceans. London: Wiley. p. 31. ISBN   9781848217805.
  12. ↑ "Baltic Sea Portal". Archived from the original on 22 September 2009.
  13. ↑ Šliaupa, Salius; Hoth, Peer (2011). "Geological Evolution and Resources of the Baltic Sea Area from the Precambrian to the Quaternary". In Harff, Jan; Björck, Svante; Hoth, Peter (eds.). The Baltic Sea Basin. Springer. ISBN   978-3-642-17219-9.
  14. ↑ Lidmar-Bergström, Karna (1997). "A long-term perspective on glacial erosion". Earth Surface Processes and Landforms . 22 (3): 297–306. Bibcode:1997ESPL...22..297L. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1096-9837(199703)22:3<297::AID-ESP758>3.0.CO;2-R.
  15. ↑ Rao, Yerubandi R.; Schwab, David J. (2007-01-01). "Transport and Mixing Between the Coastal and Offshore Waters in the Great Lakes: a Review". Journal of Great Lakes Research. 33 (1): 202–218. doi:10.3394/0380-1330(2007)33[202:TAMBTC]2.0.CO;2. ISSN   0380-1330. S2CID   53538578.
  16. ↑ "Great Lakes and Inland Seas | U.S. Geological Survey". www.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  17. 1 2 Encinas, Alfonso; Pérez, Felipe; Nielsen, Sven; Finger, Kenneth L.; Valencia, Victor; Duhart, Paul (2014). "Geochronologic and paleontologic evidence for a Pacific–Atlantic connection during the late Oligocene–early Miocene in the Patagonian Andes (43–44°S)". Journal of South American Earth Sciences . 55: 1–18. Bibcode:2014JSAES..55....1E. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2014.06.008. hdl: 10533/130517 .
  18. ↑ Nielsen, S.N. (2005). "Cenozoic Strombidae, Aporrhaidae, and Struthiolariidae (Gastropoda, Stromboidea) from Chile: their significance to biogeography of faunas and climate of the south-east Pacific". Journal of Paleontology . 79: 1120–1130. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079[1120:csaasg]2.0.co;2. S2CID   130207579.
  19. ↑ Guillame, Benjamin; Martinod, Joseph; Husson, Laurent; Roddaz, Martin; Riquelme, Rodrigo (2009). "Neogene uplift of central eastern Patagonia: Dynamic response to active spreading ridge subduction?". Tectonics . 28.
  20. ↑ "Peru finds giant crocodile fossil in Amazon". Daily Times . 12 September 2005.
  21. ↑ Clode, Danielle (August 2015). Prehistoric marine life in Australia's inland sea. Museum Victoria. ISBN   978-1-921833-16-8. OCLC   895759221.
  22. ↑ Cathcart, Michael (2009). The Water Dreamers: How Water and Silence Shaped Australia. Melbourne: Text Publishing. chapter 7. ISBN   9781921520648.
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