Arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between the E coast of Italy and the Balkan Peninsula; Gulf of Venice at its head (NW); separated from the Ionian Sea (S) by the Strait of Otranto; length 800 km/500 mi; width 93225 km/58140 mi; maximum depth 1250 m/4100 ft; highly saline; lobster, sardines, tuna; chief ports, Venice, Rijeka, Ancona, Bari, Brindisi; flat, sandy Italian coast; rugged, irregular E coast.
The Adriatic Sea is a large body of water on the west side of the Mediterranean Sea separating the Apennine peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges.
The western coast is Italian, while the eastern coast runs along Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania.
But even then the Adriatic in the narrower sense only extended as far as the Monte Gargano, the outer portion being called the Ionian Sea: the name was sometimes, however, inaccurately used to include the Gulf of Tarentum (the modern-day Gulf of Taranto), the Sea of Sicily, the Gulf of Corinth and even the sea between Crete and Malta (Acts xxvii.
The Adriatic Sea is situated largely between the eastern coast of Italy and Croatia, both major tourist attractions.
Extent and Bathymetry
The Adriatic extends northwest from 40° to 45° 45' N., with an extreme length of about 770 km (415 nm, 480 mi).
Moreover, the chain of islands which fringes the northern part of the eastern shore reduces the extreme breadth of open sea in this part to 145 km (78 nm, 90 mi).
The northern part of the sea is very shallow, and between the southern promontories of Istria and Rimini the depth rarely exceeds 46 m (25 fathoms).
From a point between Korčula and the north shore of the spur of Monte Gargano there is a ridge giving shallower water, and a broken chain of a few islets extends across the sea.
The deepest part of the sea lies east of Monte Gargano, south of Dubrovnik, and west of Durrës where a large basin gives depths of 900 m (500 fathoms) and upwards, and a small area in the south of this basin falls below 1,460 m (800 fathoms).
Coasts and islands
The west shore is generally low, merging, in the northwest, into the marshes and lagoons on either hand of the protruding delta of the river Po, the sediment of which has pushed forward the coastline for several miles within historic times — Adria is now some distance from the shore.
On islands within one of the lagoons opening from the Gulf of Venice, Venice has its unique situation.
The east coast is generally bold and rocky, with many islands.
The islands, which are long and narrow (the long axis lying parallel with the coast of the mainland), rise rather abruptly to elevations of a few hundred feet, with the exception of a few larger islands like Brač (Vidova gora, 778 m) or the peninsula Pelješac (St. Ilija, 961 m).
On the mainland, notably in the magnificent inlet of the Gulf of Kotor (Boka Kotorska, Bocche di Cattaro;
The prevalent colour of the rocks is a light, dead grey, contrasting harshly with the dark vegetation, which on some of the islands is luxuriant.
Major cities on the northeastern coast include Trieste in Italy;
Miscellaneous
The bora (northeast wind), and the prevalence of sudden squalls from this quarter or the southeast, are dangers to navigation in winter.
Both coasts are popular tourist destinations.
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