Caspian Sea of around 149,200 square miles (386,400 square km)— bigger than the region of Japan—and its surface lies somewhere in the range of 90 feet (27 meters) below sea level. The sea bed in the southern part reaches as low as 1,023 m (3,356 ft) below sea level, which is the second lowest natural depression on earth after Lake Baikal (−1,180 m, −3,871 ft). The ancient inhabitants of its coast perceived the Caspian Sea as an ocean, probably because of its saltiness and large size. The sea has a surface area of 371,000 km (143,200 sq mi) (not including the detached
Weddell Sea Bottom Water water that enters the Weddell Sea from the southeast. Carmack and Foster estimated the production rate of bottom water from the mixing ratio of newly formed bottom water to entrained bottom water. Bottom water formation models based on hydrographic observations suggested that the bottom water formed at the edge of the continental shelf has an initial temperature of -1.4 to -1.2 °C. This range also represents the coldest bottom water observed at the base of the continental slope in the northwestern corner of the Weddell Sea. The fraction of newly formed bottom water in the outflowing WSBW ranges from about