Absheron Peninsula

The name "Absheron" comes from Persian āb šuran (salty waters).{{Cite book |last=Everett-Heath |first=John |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191882913.001.0001/acref-9780191882913;jsessionid=78F6B40052CBFC13A7F09932867E5E9A |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names |date=2019-10-24 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-188291-3 |language=en-US |doi=10.1093/acref/9780191882913.001.0001}}

According to Conrad Malte-Brun in 1810, an alternative name for the peninsula was Okoressa.{{Cite book |last=Malte-Brun |first=Conrad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHA9AAAAYAAJ&dq=okoressa&pg=PA313 |title=Universal Geography: Or, A Description of All the Parts of the World, on a New Plan, According to the Great Natural Divisions of the Globe : Improved by the Addition of the Most Recent Information, Derived from Various Sources : Accompanied with Analytical, Synoptical, and Elementary Tables |date=1827 |publisher=A. Finley |language=en}}

During the late 19th century exploitation of the peninsula's petroleum resources caused large scale migrations of Iranian laborers to the Caucasus and Central Asia.[https://books.google.com/books?id=6rgGbKh3spgC The State and the Subaltern: Modernization, Society and the State in Turkey and Iran]

File:Azerbaijan map sumqayit.png

The Absheron peninsula is located in eastern Azerbaijan, along the western coast of the Caspian Sea with layers of deposits from the Cretaceous, Palaeogene, Neogene, Pliocene and Quaternary periods. The lithological composition up to the Neogene layers is made up of clays, sandy clays, sands and limestones. Middle Pliocene sediments are sandy clays. These are thick in areas with highly mineralized groundwaters. Fresh groundwater is unable to permeate the thick clays to reach underlying sequences, by the overlying layers of sediment deposits have a lower salinity. In the western areas of the peninsula there are outcrops of low permeability clays from the Cretaceous, Palaogene, Neogene, and Lower Pliocene. These clays are deeper in the eastern areas and covered by Quaternary sediments. Although the peninsula is tectonically a southeast continuation of the Greater Caucasus, its Quaternary deposits are isolated.R.G. Israfilov in [https://books.google.com/books?id=gZPCFcgUpXQC&dq=absheron+peninsula&pg=PA19 Urban Groundwater Management and Sustainability] (2006)

The Absheron Peninsula has a temperate semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk) with warm and dry summers, cool and occasionally wet winters, and strong winds all year long. The peninsula is the most arid part of Azerbaijan (precipitation here is around or less than {{convert|200|mm|in|0|abbr=on}} a year). The majority of the light annual precipitation occurs in seasons other than summer, but none of these seasons are particularly wet. The natural vegetation of the Absheron Peninsula is dry steppe and semi-desert. Due to the semi-arid climate, local agriculture requires irrigation.

File:Білуга (Huso huso).jpg]]

Petrochemical and refining industries on the peninsula have had environmental impacts on the Caspian Sea shore and the sea itself. Local scientists consider the peninsula (including Baku and Sumqayit and the Caspian Sea) to be the ecologically most devastated area in the world.{{Citation |title=Azerbaijan |date=2024-01-17 |work=The World Factbook |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/azerbaijan/#environment |access-date=2024-01-19 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Malling |first=Jens |date=2014-04-17 |title=Sumqayit, an ecological Armageddon |url=https://mondediplo.com/outsidein/sumqayit-an-ecological-armageddon |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Le Monde diplomatique |language=en}}

{{main|Petroleum industry in Azerbaijan}}

Beginning in the 1870s, the Absheron Peninsula was the site of some of the world's earliest petroleum production. Much of the landscape remains scarred with rusting oil derricks.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

The main highways of the country are in Baku and the Absheron Peninsula.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

• Absheron's stone roads

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090408062505/http://tv.oneworld.net/2008/10/29/azerbaijan-oil-spills-29-october-2008 Short Documentary about pollution from chemical and oil industries on the peninsula]

{{Authority control}}

{{Coord|40|27|50|N|49|57|30|E|dim:100000_region:AZ_type:landmark|display=title}}

Category:Peninsulas of Azerbaijan