The morphometry of the Black Sea (2)
	The Black Sea shoreline is about 4,340 km long (the Bulgarian coastline is 300 km long; the Georgian coastline 310 km; the Romanian coastline 225 km; the Russian coastline 475 km; the Turkish coastline 1,400 km and the Ukrainian coastline 1,628 km).
	The Black Sea shoreline is not ragged. The only large peninsula is the Crimea, with the Kerch Peninsula linked to it. Several small peninsulas (Capes Ince, Chum, Baba, etc.) are located on the Anatolian coast. The largest bays in the north are Odessa Gulf, Yagorliksky Bay, Tendrovsky Bay, Karkinitsky Bay and Kalamitsky Bay; Novorossisk Bay is in the east; Sinop Bay and Samsun Bay are in the south; while the bays of Igneada, Burgas, and Varna are in the west.
	The Black Sea shoreline is characterised by a wide diversity of landscapes. There are high mountains, vast lowlands, and valleys with low hills. Some parts of the shoreline are covered by rich subtropical plants, while other sections are poorly vegetated.
	The north-western shoreline, from the Danube delta to Sevastopol Bay, is not high. Here the Palaeozoic East-European Platform rises to 10 m above sea level in the south and up to 40-50 m above sea level in the north. It consists of a cover of predominantly sedimentary platform rock from the Neogene Quaternary period. The valley is cut by narrow gorges which end at the coast in a precipitous edge or low spits that cut the sea off from vast salt lakes and limans, which are former river mouths, now covered by sea water. There is a very large number of limans near Odessa. Some limans are completely separated from the sea, others have sporadic access. The limans in the estuaries of large rivers (such as the Dniester, the Southern Bug and the Dnieper) have a permanent connection to the sea. Almost all the large limans (e.g. Dneprovsko-Bugsky, Dnestrovsky, Khadzhibeisky, Kuyalnitsky, Tiligulsky and Berezansky) are shallow, although only a few hundred years ago they still were bays with a depth of 20-30 m.
	The shoreline becomes noticeably steeper beyond Sevastopol Bay. Along the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula, from Cape Feolent to Feodosia there are three parallel ridges of folded Mesozoic Crimean Mountains that thrust precipitous cliffs out into the sea. In some places between Cape Sarych and Yalta the mountains recede from the shore, sloping moderately. Further to the east, the main ridge of the Crimean Mountains retreats from the shoreline, gradually becoming lower; although the mountain slopes near to the sea are precipitous. The shoreline of the Kerch Peninsula is precipitous along almost its entire length.
	The north-eastern Black Sea shore from Anapa to Sukhumi is predominantly steep. Here Meso-Cenozoic folded offshoots of the main ridge of the Caucasus Mountains come close to the sea. In some places they form vertical cliff faces; in others well defined terraces. The highest peak is near Sochi (3,000 m), after which the mountains gradually become lower (down to 1,000 m) and retreat from the shoreline (in the vicinity of the Kodori river).
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