Caspian Sea Isobaths from Russian Topographic Maps

Caspian Sea Isobaths - Taken from 1:1,000,000 Mapping

Caspian Sea Isobaths - Entire Sea (1:5,000,000)

If I'm not careful, I can turn a finite mapping project into a never ending task, one that requires tweaks on top of tweaks. My Caspian Sea isobaths fall into that type of project. I have worked on the Caspian Sea shoreline and now isobaths since 2006 and I'm still not finished. The northern shore, including the Volga River delta remain my final shoreline to map. At my current rate I should be finished around 2012. In the mean time I would like to share my recently completed Caspian Sea isobaths. These isobaths were taken from Russian topographic maps downloaded from Poehali.org. One can download Russian topographic maps for free. The maps are georeferenced and load easily into most mapping programs. My Caspian Sea topographic map is a mosaic of 65 individual maps at scales between 1:500,000 to 1:100,000. All of these maps contain isobaths. Using the most detailed scale, I constructed the following isobaths: -10m, -20m, -50m, -100m, -150m, -200m, -300m, -400m, -500m, and -700m. Compared to the other Caspian Sea isobaths, mine differ. I hesitate to claim my isobaths are more accurate. I suspect they are, as they were derived from 1:500,000 to 1:100,000 scale maps. The other isobaths were taken from 1:1,000,000 scale maps.

Caspian Sea Isobaths - Baku Vicinity (1:250,000)

Where my isobaths prove most interesting is when one zooms into an area. An interesting area to study these isobaths is around Baku, the site of many oil rigs. The isobaths twist and turn in and around oil rigs as one would expect.

Caspian Sea Isobaths - Baku Vicinity Offshore (1:62,500))

Currently, my Caspian Sea isobaths are quietly residing on my hard drive. Before I do anything with them, other than my own mapping, I need to secure permission from Poehali.org. I know I did an excellent job tracing these unique isobaths. Not sure this is going to be a "give away". Would love to make a buck or two off of this data set. We'll see.

Enjoy!

Ostrov Tyuleniy RS

Ostrov Tyuleniy - Google Map Locator

Ostrov Tyuleniy - Landsat Image N-38-40_2000 (1:50,000)

Ostrov Tyuleniy - EVS Map (1:50,000)

This Caspian Sea island is off of the coast of Dagestan. I have been digitizing this island for the past week. It was a fairly complex project due to the marshland that makes up much of the island. My research uncovered reports on Tyuleniy birds, insects, fish and crude oil exploration. The crude oil exploration was conducted back in 2005 by the German company Wintershall. Turns out they are one of the big players in the world of oil. They are working with Russian groups to explore this potentially oil rich region in the Caspian. My look into Wintershall's website did not uncover any additional information.

I like my map. It looks good and is as accurate as Landsat imagery allows.

Enjoy!