The Red Sea
[Type] The Rea Sea is a semi-enclosed marginal seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean underlain by the Red Sea Rift, which is part of the Great Rift Valley of Africa.
- The Red Sea has an intense blue-green colour, but occasionally, death of the extensive population of the algae Trichodesmium erythraeum turns the sea into a reddish-brown colour.
- [Bordering Countries] The countries bordering the Red Sea are given by:
- DESSEY (Djibouti, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Yemen).
[Location] The Red Sea lies between Africa and Asia.
- It is bordered by the Sanai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez (which leads to the Suez Canal) in the north, and the Gulf of Aden in the south.
- It is connected to:
- The Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, in the north,
- Israel and Jordan, through the Gulf of Aqaba (with Egypt, Israel, Jordan & Saudi Arabia as bordering nations)
- The Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait (between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa).
[Dimensions] The Red Sea has a maximum length of 2250 km, a maximum width of 355 km and a maximum depth of ~3040 m.
[Geography] The Red Sea Eastern Boundary Current exists only in winter. Also, all other such eastern boundary currents head south in the northern hemisphere whereas the Red Sea Eastern Boundary Current flows in the direction of the North Pole.
- The Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, due to high evaporation, low precipitation, absence of significant rivers or streams draining into the sea, and the connection to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
[Climate] The Red Sea receives little precipitation in any form. The scarcity of rainfall and no major source of freshwater to the Red Sea result in excess evaporation. The summer temperatures are much higher with relatively high humidity.
- The climate of the Red Sea is the result of two monsoon seasons, namely – northeasterly and southwesterly monsoons.
Nearly 15% of the Red Sea fishes are of endemic species, which ranks the Red Sea among the top areas of high fish endemism in the world.
