Celebes Sea

The Celebes Sea (or Sulawesi ) is a 472,000 km ² marginal sea of ​​the Pacific Ocean.

Geography

The Celebes Sea is located north of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, in the west of the island of Borneo lies with the Malaysian province of Sabah and the Indonesian province of Kalimantan Timur and in a northeasterly direction, the Philippine island of Mindanao.

To the east is the Pacific Ocean, in the north- east, the Philippine Sea and to the north of the Sulu Archipelago, which is the border of the Sulu Sea. In the southwest of the Makassarstraße into the Java Sea, in the southeast, the Molukkensee.

The Celebes Sea has an average depth of 3,291 meters. This results in a water volume of 1.553 million km ³. In a north-south extent it extends 675 km and 837 km from the west toward the Sangihe Archipelago and the Talaud Archipelago.

In its northern Teil5.833319123.666694 lies about 80 km off the south coast of Mindanao, the largest sea depth of the water at about 6,220 m.

Formation

The sea is in the form of a basin. There are narrow shelves that drop more than 6,200 feet in depth at the edges. It is part of an old oceanic deep-sea basin, which was formed 42 million years ago. For 20 million years the Earth's crust pushes the Celebesbecken towards the Indonesian and Philippine volcanoes. 10 million years ago the Celebes Sea was flooded by continental deposits. Even coal came from the fast-growing mountains of Borneo in the sea, while the pelvis also pushed against the Eurasian plate.

Climate

There is throughout the year a humid tropical climate.

Through a system between the Celebesbecken and the Philippine Trench is the water exchange with the Pacific Ocean. In summer, the monsoon wind pushes the water through the Makassarstraße in the Java Sea.

Environment

In the Celebes Sea, there is a rich maritime largely unknown animal and plant world. Here are found for 26 of the 78 known species of cetaceans worldwide and about 580 types of coral. There are dolphins, sea turtles, barracudas, manta rays, abundant tuna and many other animals.

In the Celebes Sea acidification of the water caused the death of coral reefs - this is the fish habitat taken.

In September 1997, a new sub-species of coelacanth in Manado / North Sulawesi was discovered, the so-called. Manado Coelacanth, on which very little is known.

Others

The Sulawesi is known for pirates, who are equipped with the latest technology such as speed boats, radar and GPS and not only attacked fishing boats, but also large container ships. To provide the tourists enough protection, the Malaysian government has shifted naval forces in the area to prevent pirates threaten people, as in 2000, when Philippine rebels kidnapped tourists.