Inland sea (geology)

Imagine a giant puddle that is trapped between land, kind of like when you make a mud puddle in your backyard but way bigger. This is called an inland sea. It's a really big body of water that is surrounded by land on all sides, kind of like an enormous lake.

In geology, an inland sea is formed when the land around the sea rises up, either from earthquakes or other natural processes. When this happens, the sea becomes cut off from the ocean and is completely surrounded by land. This can happen on a small scale, like a lake in a valley, or on a huge scale, like the Mediterranean Sea.

Once the sea is cut off from the ocean, it starts to change. The water becomes less salty because there is less salt coming in from the ocean, and the weather can have a big impact on the temperature and how much water is in the sea. If the climate is very dry and there is not a lot of rain, the water level in the sea will go down. If it's very rainy, the water level will go up.

Over time, the inland sea can change even more. Some inland seas disappear completely, leaving behind a dried-up basin or valley. Other inland seas become salt flats or deserts, like the famous Great Salt Lake in Utah. It all depends on how the land around the sea changes and how the climate affects the sea.

So, basically, an inland sea is a really big body of water that is trapped between land, and it can change a lot over time depending on the climate and other natural forces.