Q 01/05

The Caspian Sea holds what distinction among the world's lakes and seas?

A) Highest above sea level

B) Deepest lake

C) Saltiest sea

D) Largest inland one

Answer · why

D) Largest inland one

Largest inland one. It has a seagoing past: its basin was joined to the world ocean until it was cut off millions of years ago, and the stranded water...

Q 02/05

The 1971 treaty named after Ramsar, an Iranian resort on the Caspian, protects what?

A) Reefs

B) Wetlands

C) Whales

D) Forests

Answer · why

B) Wetlands

Wetlands. Delegates signed it in the resort in February 1971, and the marshes and lakes it protects around the world are now known as Ramsar sites.

Q 03/05

In Iran today the Caspian is often called by what name, after a province on its southern shore?

A) The Tehran Sea

B) The Isfahan Sea

C) The Tabriz Sea

D) The Mazandaran Sea

Answer · why

D) The Mazandaran Sea

The Mazandaran Sea. Over the centuries Persian writers named the sea after whichever people, town or province on its shores mattered most, and this lu...

Q 04/05

The Caspian Sea covers roughly the same area as which country?

A) Ireland

B) Nepal

C) Japan

D) South Africa

Answer · why

C) Japan

Japan. A lake on that scale dwarfs the famous ones: it is about one and a half times the area of all five North American Great Lakes put together.

Q 05/05

The surface of the Caspian Sea lies roughly how far below global sea level?

A) About 2 metres

B) About 27 metres

C) About 100 metres

D) About 400 metres

Answer · why

B) About 27 metres

About 27 metres. The level never sits still: it fell by roughly three metres between 1929 and 1977, then climbed back almost as far over the next two ...