The dead lies beneath the Black Sea water

Scary  facts about the Black Sea is that the dead are believed to persist in waters of the Black Sea. Remains of ships and humans and other 

decomposable materials like ropes, wood etc can still be found at the bed of this sea, hundreds of years after their entry into the waters of the Black Sea. As thrilling as this fact sounds, the scientific explanation for it is that due to anoxic nature of the lower water layers of this sea, the process of decomposition is negligibly slow, hence, the persistence of remains of the dead inside the sea’s water.

 phytoplankton, countries that border the Black Sea, Islands of the Black Sea, other names for the Black Sea, physical statistics of the Black Sea,Situated in Asia between the northern coast of Turkey and the southern coast of The Ukraine,The Black Sea is connected to the oceanic system by way of the 61 km long ( 38 miles ) Dardanelles Strait and the Bosphoros Sea by way of the Aegean Sea,a region of the Mediterranean Sea, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

The map of Black Sea flaunts its 159,600 sq mi sea lying between South East Europe and Asia. This sea is connected with the Mediterranean Sea through Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles. It is an amazing feature on the map of Black Sea that it is surrounded by six different countries.

Sharing its shores with boundaries of Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia and Georgia, this sea is the connecting link between all these six different countries.

The Black Sea has a surface area of 436,400 square kilometres ( 168,500 miles ) a coastline of about 8,000 km ( 5,000 miles ) and a depth of 2,206 metres ( 7,238 ft ).
It is fed by a fluvial system of several rivers, the largest of which are The Don, The Dnieper and The Danube.
The Kerch Straits on it's northern shore with The Ukraine connects The Black Sea with the Sea of Azov.
The Black Sea's sea bed was formed by way of the uplift of the Caucasus, Pontides and Balkan mountain ranges, after the collision of the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, 5 - 12 million years ago. This uplift caused a vast, low lying valley. 
Eight thousand, five hundred years ago, global warming caused ice caps in Northern Canada to melt, which caused the sea level of the Atlantic Ocean to rise dramatically. The billions of gallons of water which flowed into the Atlantic during this period went on to further swell the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which in turn went on to flood this low lying valley into the area of water we know today as the Black Sea. The formation of the Black Sea was caused by the same phenomena and around the same time that the Bosphorous Sea was formed and Great Britain became seperated from the rest of Europe.The name Black Sea comes from the Ottoman Turkish word Kara, and although this does infact mean black in modern Turkish, actually meant ' North ' in the old medieval language.

 Mystery Surrounding the Origin of the name – Black Sea

One of the best and little known Black Sea facts is the origin of its name. There are various theories as to how this sea got to be called by this particular name. Of the many prevalent theories, there is one that says that the Black sea was called ‘the Sea’  for a long time before being called as the ‘inhospitable Sea’ before the Greeks took over its shore lines. Once Greeks made navigation through this sea very easy, the name changed from the inhospitable to the hospitable sea.

However, this sea has been given many names over the centuries by different people but this particular name happens to be the most famous one, believed to be given by the Turkish in medieval times.

In the time of the ancient Greeks, the sea was known as ' Euxeinos Pontos ' the Hospitable Sea ' and in Roman times was known as Mar Maggiore, the ' Large Sea '.
It's modern names from each of it's bordering countries are :
Cherno More - Bulgarian.
Chorne More - Ukrainian.
Chornoye More - Russian.
Kara Deniz - Turkish.
Marea Neagra - Rumanian.
Shavi Zghva - Georgian.
                                     
This picture shows the Black Sea's shallow perimeter, along with waves caused by a cyclonic gyre, and it's larger, deeper main basin.
The Black Sea is the world's largest meromictic basin, which means that it's layers of water do not mix.
This leads to the sea having anoxic water, meaning it's water is depleted of dissolved oxygen.

Anoxic water

One of the most intriguing facts about the Black Sea is its anoxic water. Black Sea happens to be the largest water body with a meromictic basin. This means the movement of water between the lower and upper layers of water in this sea is the least found anywhere in the world.

This makes a considerable temperature difference between these layers along with making the lower layers absolute free of oxygen and hence, inactive.

Oxygen is prevented from reaching it's deeper water levels by a pronounced density stratification, a condition that occurs when the rate of oxidation of organic matter is greater than the supply of dissolved oxygen.
The Black Sea's deeper water levels are fed by the warm, salty waters of the Mediterranean sea and have a salinity level of around 22 parts per thousand,whereas it's upper levels are cooler and less saline with a salinity level of around 18 parts per thousand.
This occurs by way of a cyclonic gyre, a rotating ocean current, along it's outer shelf, or perimeter. This phenonema helps support an active marine eco - system dominated by brackish water lovers such as Sea Horses, Stingrays and Spiny Dogfish as well as a large colony of Phytoplankton. 
                                 
Phytoplankton is a component of plankton that lives on the well lit surface layer of the Black Sea.It is an organism that produces complex organic compounds and when it finds it's self in favourable conditions, can lead to vast colonies of it.
The phytoplankton is a problem as it's growth and decay consumes all the available oxygen in the water, leading to large dead areas where fish and plants can not survive.
Phytoplankton accounts for half of the photosynthetic activity on earth.
 large blue ring of phytoplankton circling the outer, shallow perimeter of the Black Sea. Growth of the phytoplankton is aided by way of sediment flowing into the Black Sea from it's vast network of rivers, which contain silt and more importantly, fertiliser from agricultural run off, which feeds the phytoplankton. This can be seen as the large green area to the top left of the above picture, as sediment runs from the mouth of the River Danube.
The area is also of great interest to marine archaeologists, as shipwrecks have been found in it's waters in an excellent state of preservation.

 Believed to be the Landing Point of the Noah’s Ark :

 Maritime History

Another very interesting fact or perhaps rumor about the Black Sea is that the Mt. Ararat standing in the eastern Turkey along the coastline of the Black Sea is considered to be the landing point for Noah’s Ark.

Since there is no concrete way of verifying this rumor, black Sea happens to be one the most famous ways for people to check out the rumored mountain for themselves.

    Exotic Smaller islands

 The black sea is a house to many smaller islands all along its inland. These islands are about ten in number and are amazing store of fauna and flora that make this sea even more unique that it already is. These islands cover an expanse of three different countries, making each one a unique experience of its own.

The Black Sea is home to 10 small islands, they are:

St Anastasia - Bulgaria.

Berezan - Turkey.

St Cyricus - Bulgaria.

Dzharylgach - Ukraine.

Giresun - Turkey.

St Ivan - Bulgaria.

St Peter - Bulgaria.

Sacalin - Rumania.

Snake - Rumania.

St Thomas - Bulgaria.

 The Water Level Always Remains the Same 

Another one of the interesting Black Sea facts is that the water level in this sea always remains the same. Due to absence of any high or low tides, there is no fluctuation in the water level, making it a calm, quiet and serene sea on the surface.