38 articles
Andaman Sea
Andaman Sea, or Burma Sea, a ~790,000 km2 marginal sea of the eastern Indian Ocean between the Andaman-Nicobar Islands and Myanmar and Thailand, defined by IHO limits, monsoon-driven circulation, coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass, and the 2004 earthquake zone.
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is the northwestern Indian Ocean between India, Arabia, and Iran-Pakistan, linked to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, driven by reversing monsoon winds, and hosting the world's thickest oxygen minimum zone.
Arafura Sea
The Arafura Sea is a shallow tropical sea lying between northern Australia and southeastern New Guinea, bounded by the Timor Sea, Torres Strait, and Gulf of Carpentaria.
Bali Sea
Bali Sea: IHO-delimited sea (1953 S-23, MRGID 4340) of the Pacific Ocean north of Bali Island, Indonesia; 39,916 km², over the Bali Basin deepening from 200 m to 1,300 m toward Lombok Strait; Sunda Arc tectonics, sardine fisheries.
Banda Sea
The Banda Sea is a large, deep tropical sea in eastern Indonesia, lying within the Banda Arc and covering about 470,000 square kilometers, with depths near 7,500 m.
Banda Sea Plate
The Banda Sea Plate is a small oceanic microplate beneath the Banda Sea in eastern Indonesia, ringed by a 2,200 km subduction zone and shaken by deep earthquakes.
Bismarck Sea
Bismarck Sea, semi-enclosed equatorial sea off northeastern Papua New Guinea, bounded by the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, Manus). Former center of German New Guinea; back-arc basin with Manus Basin spreading, rich coral biodiversity, Solwara 1 seabed mine.
Bohai Sea (渤海)
The Bohai Sea (渤海) is a shallow, semi-enclosed inland sea on China's northeast coast, bordered by Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, and Tianjin, and receiving the Yellow River's discharge.
Bohol Sea
Bohol Sea, also called the Mindanao Sea, a Philippine sea between Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao; a cetacean hotspot with 18 species including blue whales, a mobulid fishery ground, and a marine Key Biodiversity Area.
Celebes Sea
The Celebes Sea, or Sulawesi Sea, is a semi-enclosed Pacific marginal sea between Borneo, Sulawesi, and the southern Philippines, over 290,000 km² in area, floored by Eocene oceanic crust, and crossed by the Indonesian Throughflow.
Ceram Sea
Ceram Sea (Seram Sea, Laut Seram), a small Pacific sea in eastern Indonesia between Seram, Buru, and New Guinea's Bird's Head; IHO-defined, about 161,489 km², monsoon-driven, within the Coral Triangle.
Coral Sea
The Coral Sea is a southwestern Pacific marginal sea off northeastern Australia between the Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, defined by the South Equatorial Current, rich marine life, and the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, the first all-carrier-aircraft naval battle.
Daito Ridge
Daito Ridge (大東海嶺), also called Daito Mountains, is a 500-km-long east-west undersea remnant island arc at the northwestern end of the Philippine Sea plate, with 13-20 km thick Cretaceous arc crust, now subducting beneath the Ryukyu Trench.
East China Sea
East China Sea: western Pacific marginal sea bounded by China, Taiwan, the Ryukyus, Kyushu, and Korea; 0.77 million km², Kuroshio transport 19–24 Sv, major fisheries, and 35% of global petroleum shipments (2023).
Flores Sea
Flores Sea (Laut Flores), Indonesian marginal sea between southern Sulawesi and Flores, Komodo, and Sumbawa; IHO East Indian Archipelago area of about 102,816 km², Flores Basin to 5,140 m, key Indonesian Throughflow pathway.
Gulf of Oman
The Gulf of Oman, or Sea of Oman, is the 560-km-long arm of the Arabian Sea linking the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to the Indian Ocean, a deep monsoon-driven basin with seasonal coastal hypoxia and major oil shipping routes.
Halmahera Sea
Halmahera Sea: quasi-confined marginal sea in eastern Indonesia between Halmahera Island and Irian Jaya, a secondary entry portal of the Indonesian Throughflow, with ENSO-linked variability, intense internal-wave mixing, and Coral Triangle coral biodiversity.
Java Sea
The Java Sea (Laut Jawa) is a shallow Sunda Shelf sea between Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, exposed during glacial lowstands, a major Indonesian fishing ground (FMA 712), and site of the 1942 Battle of the Java Sea.
Laccadive Sea
The Laccadive Sea, also called the Lakshadweep Sea, is a body of water in the northern Indian Ocean bordering India, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka.
Molucca Sea
Molucca Sea, marginal sea of the western Pacific in eastern Indonesia between Sulawesi and Halmahera; about 200,000 km², maximum depth 4,810 m; site of an active arc-arc collision with double-verging subduction of the Molucca Sea Plate and frequent earthquakes.
Montara oil spill
Montara oil spill: 2009 Timor Sea well blowout at PTTEP's Montara platform off Western Australia, releasing about 4.7 million liters of crude over 74 days; Australia's largest offshore-platform spill and third largest overall.
Nine-dash line (九段线)
The nine-dash line (九段线) is the U-shaped demarcation on Chinese maps claiming most of the South China Sea. Drawn as an eleven-dash line in 1947, it was ruled to have no legal basis for historic rights by the 2016 UNCLOS arbitration tribunal.
Philippine Sea
The Philippine Sea is the world's largest marginal sea, about 5 million km², east of the Philippine archipelago in the western Pacific. Its floor is the Philippine Sea Plate, ringed by subduction zones and the source region of many typhoons.
Samar Sea
Samar Sea, small semi-enclosed Philippine sea between southern Luzon and Eastern Visayas, bordered by Samar, Leyte, Masbate; 3,870 sq km, overfished since the 1980s, site of first Philippine red tide in 1983.
Savu Sea
The Savu Sea (also spelled Sawu Sea; Indonesian Laut Sawu) is an East Indian Archipelago sea in eastern Indonesia, enclosed by the islands of Flores, Sumba, and Timor.
Sea of Japan (日本海)
Sea of Japan (日本海), also called East Sea: a semi-enclosed Northwest Pacific marginal sea bordered by Japan, Russia, and Korea, area 1.013 million km2, max depth 3,700 m, connected by four shallow straits, a back-arc basin opened from the Eocene, warming faster than the global ocean.
Sea of Okhotsk (Охотское море)
Sea of Okhotsk (Охотское море), a marginal sea of the North Pacific between Siberia, Sakhalin, the Kurils, and Hokkaido; the Southern Hemisphere's northern counterpart in seasonal sea ice, source of North Pacific intermediate water, major pollock fishery, and site of declining ice cover.
Second Thomas Shoal
Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal; Ren'ai Jiao 仁爱礁) is a low-tide elevation reef in the Spratly Islands, South China Sea, occupied by the Philippines via the grounded warship BRP Sierra Madre since 1999 and contested by China, with a 2024 provisional resupply arrangement.
Sibuyan Sea
The Sibuyan Sea is an inland sea of the central Philippine archipelago between Tablas, Panay, Masbate, and Luzon's Bicol region, linking the Pacific to the South China and Sulu Seas.
South China Sea (南海)
The South China Sea (南海, Nanhai; Vietnamese: Biên Dông) is a large marginal sea of the northwest Pacific, a vital trade corridor and the center of major territorial disputes.