History of the Adriatic. Egidio Ivetic

History of the Adriatic - Egidio Ivetic


Скачать книгу
limit following the criteria of the International Hydrographic Organization.1 The Strait of Otranto, which is 72 kilometres wide, is conventionally recognized as being the gateway to the Adriatic. The average width of the sea is 248 kilometres, with a minimum width of 100 kilometres at the 45° parallel, between Istria and the Po Delta, and a maximum width of 355 kilometres between Vasto and Bar (Antivari). Airline routes fly the length of the Adriatic in less than an hour and its width in 20 minutes. This is the surface of the Adriatic. Underground there is also a geological Adriatic, which is more widespread, and is where the Adriatic lithospheric plate extends in a long narrow bow shape from eastern Sicily to the western Alps, between the Eurasian, African and Aegean plates, colliding with them.2 It is almost an island surrounded by more or less active faults, corresponding to the seismic zones (including Friuli, Abruzzo, Montenegro and the Ionian coasts) that follow the mountainous coasts along the sea and the Po Plain.

      Following hydrographic criteria, the Adriatic lies in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Nevertheless, in his weighty study of the geography of the Western Mediterranean, James Houston places the Adriatic in the west, with the exception of the Albanian coast.3 This book will observe the criteria of the International Hydrographic Organization and therefore considers the Adriatic as a segment of the Eastern Mediterranean. Its geography points to it, as do its navigational routes and times. In comparison to Atlantic navigation, the Adriatic is slightly marginal as it is separated from the ocean by three entrances: Gibraltar, the Strait of Sicily and the Strait of Otranto. No comparison can be made between the Adriatic marine traffic and that in the North Sea, or even with that in the Western Mediterranean, for example Marseilles or Genoa. Conversely, for a ship that sets sail from Alessandra, Suez, Jaffa or Izmir, the Adriatic is a short passage to the heart of Europe, and today it only a 30–40-hour voyage. Moreover, Gibraltar is 1,258 nautical miles distant from the Strait of Otranto, which is 885 miles distant from Port Said and 594 miles from the Dardanelles.

      The Adriatic is a contained sea with a surface area of 138,000 km2. Hence it is decidedly smaller than the Black Sea (436,000 km2), the Baltic Sea (377,000 km2), the Red Sea (438,000 km2) or the Californian Gulf (160,000 km2). Yet, comparing it with countries, it is larger than England (130,395 km2) or Greece (131,957 km2). The Adriatic coastlines stretch out for 1,836 kilometres, half of which are in Italy. However, what is most striking is the total length of the continental and island coasts which, including all bays and inlets, measure 7,841 kilometres. In other words, the African coastline in the Mediterranean, from Gibraltar to the Suez Canal, is 5,829 kilometres long, while the Eastern Mediterranean coastline, from İskenderun to the Gaza strip, is 719 kilometres long. This is due to the eastern Adriatic shore, to the archipelago of Dalmatian islands: between Duino and Corfu lies the fourth most indented coastline in Europe, after the Scandinavian peninsula, Great Britain and Greece, and the second longest in the Mediterranean. The Croatian coast alone measures 5,835 kilometres, of which 4,058 kilometers are the 1,246 islands and islets with countless inlets. However, the total surface area of the islands along the eastern coasts (ex-Yugoslavia) is 3,177 km2, less than the 3,600 km2 of Majorca. The Italian Adriatic shoreline is 1,272 kilometres long, Albania 406, Montenegro 284, Slovenia 46, Greece 41, and Bosnia and Herzegovina 21.

      The Adriatic climate matches the parameters of the Mediterranean climate.6 Summers are hot and dry, and are affected by the Azores anticyclone (an influence that has been diminishing in recent years), whereas winters are generally wet and warm. The subtropical temperate climate and the hot climate extend approximately from Apulia to Pesaro. Temperate subcontinental weather stretches from Romagna to Trieste, where moderate heat starts again. This part of the coast is a break into the Mediterranean of the temperate climate; it is a unique case and an atypical area compared to the rest of the basin. The Mediterranean climate starts up again in Istria; the southernmost part of the peninsula is the northernmost point of the essential Mediterranean environment and climate. There are, however, specific characteristics. In the north-eastern quadrant, between November and February, a strong cold wind – bora – blows, with gusts up to 150 kilometres an hour. The bora blows down in cascades on clear days from the karst tablelands to Trieste and along the Velebit Mountians and in Dalmatia, hindering shipping and road traffic. In winter, currents of cold air from the Siberian anticyclone regularly make their way into the Balkans and often bring snow and low temperatures to the mid-Adriatic, Marche and Abruzzo. In autumn and winter months, on days of low atmospheric pressure, the scirocco, a warm wet wind, brings grains of sand from the Sahara to the foot of the Venetian Pre-Alps. Rainfall in the Dalmatian hinterland reaches high levels, similar to Scotland and Scandinavia. There is therefore no lack of contrast.

      The Apennines, the Alps, the Dinaric Alps, the Albanian mountains and the Pindus mountain range surround the sea and shape its perspective.7 The two openings, the Po Plain and the Strait of Otranto, represent a passage between


Скачать книгу