Black Sea which are largely responsible for regional precipitation inputs and influence Mediterranean Sea Surface Temperatures (SST's). The relative strength of these systems also limits the amount of cold air arriving from northern regions during winter. Other influencing factors include the regional topography, as depressions and storms systems arriving from the Mediterranean are funneled through the low land around the Bosphorus, Pontic and Caucasus mountain ranges acting as wave guides, limiting the speed and paths of cyclones passing through the region. There are some islands in the Black sea that belong to Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine: The Black Sea is connected
Caspian Sea kind of oil which is white and very precious [i.e., petroleum]." In the 18th century, during the rule of Peter I the Great, Fedor I. Soimonov, hydrographer and pioneering explorer of the Caspian Sea charted the until then little known body of water. Soimonov drew a set of four maps and wrote "Pilot of the Caspian Sea", the first report and modern maps of the Caspian, that were published in 1720 by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Today, oil and gas platforms abound along the edges of the sea. Countries on the Caspian region, such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan,