Key Facts about Sea of Japan

About Sea of Japan:

• It is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean.
• It is bounded by Russia and Sakhalin Island in the north, by North Korea in the west, South Korea in the southwest, and by the Japanese archipelago (Hokkaidō, Honshū, and Kyūshū islands) in the east and south.
• Its area is 377,600 square miles (978,000 sq.km).
• It is connected with the East China Sea in the south via the Tsushima and Korea straits and with the Okhotsk Sea in the north by the La Perouse and Tatar straits.
• In the east, it is connected with the Inland Sea of Japan via the Kanmon Strait and the Pacific Ocean by the Tsugaru Strait.
• The average depth is 1,667 meters.
  • Dohoku Seamount, an underwater volcano, is its deepest point.
• Its relatively warm waters contribute greatly to the mild climate of Japan.
• Very few rivers empty into it, and their water amounts to less than one percent of the sea’s content.
• There are no large islands in the Sea of Japan. Except for the South Korean Island of Ulleungdo, all the other small islands are situated near the eastern coast of the sea.
• Mining for mineral deposits like magnetite, natural gas, and petroleum are some of the major economic activities that are carried out in the Sea of Japan.
• Ports:
  • Russia: Vladivostok, Sovetskaya Gavan, Nakhodka, Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, and Kholmsk. 
  • North Korea: Hamhung, Chongjin, and Wonsan.
  • Japan: Niigata, Tsuruta, and Maizuru.

Q1: What is a Seamount?

A seamount is an underwater mountain with steep sides rising from the seafloor. Most seamounts are remnants of extinct volcanoes. Typically, they are cone shaped, but often have other prominent features such as craters and linear ridges and some, called guyots, have large, flat summits. There is a broad size distribution for seamounts but to be classified as a seamount, the feature must have a vertical relief of at least 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above the surrounding seafloor.

Source: Russia and China conduct joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan