Claude schools me on oceanology

The wonderful wife and I drove to Occoquan today to check out the Artist of the Month reception at the gallery (the Loft Gallery) that she recently joined.  While driving home, we found ourselves behind a license plate that intrigued me:  AE6EAN.  And that led me to ask Claude:  

What seas border the Mediterranean?

The Mediterranean Sea is bordered by several other bodies of water:

• Atlantic Ocean — via the Strait of Gibraltar to the west

• Black Sea — connected through the Turkish Straits (Bosphorus and Dardanelles) to the northeast

• Red Sea — linked via the Suez Canal to the southeast (an artificial connection)

• Adriatic Sea — an arm of the Mediterranean itself, to the northeast

• Aegean Sea — another arm, between Greece and Turkey

• Tyrrhenian Sea — off the west coast of Italy

• Ionian Sea — between Italy and Greece

• Ligurian Sea — off northwest Italy and Corsica

• Alboran Sea — the westernmost part, near the Strait of Gibraltar

The Adriatic, Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, Ligurian, and Alboran seas are technically sub-divisions of the Mediterranean rather than separate seas that "border" it, but they are all distinct named bodies of water connected to it.

I assume that those subdivisions don't have any distinguishing features other than the lands they are near (e.g. Aegean "near" Greece, Adriatic "near" Croatia, Slovenia, etc(?), Alboran "near" Gibraltar).

Actually, several of them do have distinguishing characteristics beyond just geography:

Adriatic — unusually shallow (average depth ~170m vs Mediterranean's ~1,500m), and significantly less salty due to freshwater input from Alpine rivers like the Po.

Aegean — dotted with thousands of islands (more than any other Mediterranean sub-sea), and has strong, predictable seasonal winds like the meltemi.

Tyrrhenian — one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean, and sits in a geologically active zone — Vesuvius, Stromboli, and the Aeolian Islands are all around it.

Ionian — the deepest part of the entire Mediterranean, with the Calypso Deep reaching about 5,267m. Relatively few islands compared to the Aegean.

Ligurian — known for nutrient-rich upwelling that makes it unusually productive for marine life, which is why it's a cetacean (whale/dolphin) sanctuary.

Alboran — ecologically distinct because it's the mixing zone where Atlantic water flows in through Gibraltar. This creates unusual current patterns and it has its own endemic species, including the Alboran Sea swordfish population.

So while the names do partly reflect the surrounding lands, several have genuinely distinct physical, geological, or ecological characters.