The Italian Seas

With its extension from southern Europe towards Africa, the Italian peninsula almost divides the Mediterranean in two separate basins. Leaving aside the Strait of Messina, the shortest distance between Sicily and Africa (NE Tunisia) is circa 140 km, reduced to 70 km if it is measured from the island of Pantelleria. In this part of the sea (Channel of Sicily) the depth does not exceed 500 m. Furthermore, the eastern Mediterranean section, known as the Sea of Sicily and from which emerge the Maltese Islands, the Pelagian and Pantelleria, rarely exceeds a depth of 1,500 m. Considerably deeper, on the other hand, is the Ionian Sea. This extends eastwards from Sicily and Calabria and southwards from the Salentina Peninsula, touching on the 4,000 m isobath. Equally deep is the Tyrrhenian Sea, within the triangle formed by Corsica and Sardinia, Sicily and the Italian peninsula. At its centre it often exceeds a depth of 3,500 m. A narrow channel (the Canale di Corsica) separates it, to the north, from the Ligurian Sea. This latter exceeds a depth of 2,000 m in its western section corresponding to the Riviera di Ponente. The shallowest of the Italian seas is the Adriatic, which up to the level of Ancona does not exceed 80 m and only at Pescara does it decend below 200 m; off the coast of Puglia, however, it exceeds a depth of 1,200 m. Finally, in the area of the Strait of Otranto the two shores of the Adriatic draw close together and here the Italian and Albanian coasts are only 75 km apart. As for the rest of the Mediterranean, the surface temperature of the Italian seas is on average rather high. In the northern Tyrrhenian, the Sea of Sicily, Ionian and southern Adriatic it is circa 13º; in the Ligurian Sea circa 12º; in the southern Tyrrhenian circa 14º; but in the northern Adriatic, because of the shallowness of the waters, it drops to 9º. The quality of the water is also rather elevated, reaching over 38 per mille in the southernmost zones and the Sea of Sardinia, while being slightly less (33 per mille) in the northern Adriatic. The Adriatic is also subject to tides (which can range over about a meter) and these can sometimes create problems, such as the high waters in Venice and the lagoon.