Where is the Arafura Sea? Description, features

In this article, you can learn about one of the richest seas of the Indian Ocean, which has become the habitat for nearly one-third of the species of fauna and flora represented throughout the ocean. It is the continental marginal sea of the ocean.

Here you can find out information about what the Arafura Sea is, where it is. But first let's imagine in brief all the seas of the ocean.

Indian Ocean Seas: A Brief Description

Before we elaborate on the Arafura Sea, let us consider several seas.

1) In the north of the ocean there is the Andaman Sea, bounded from the east by the Indochina Peninsula, from the west by the Andaman Islands, and from the south by the island of Sumatra. 605,000 sq. M. Km - its area, depth average - 1043 m, and the deepest place - at around 4507 m.

2) The Arabian Sea is located in the northern ocean zone between the two peninsulas: Hindustan and Arabian. Area - 3.8 million square meters. Kilometers, the depth of the average - 2734 m, and the maximum - 4652 meters.

3) The Sea of Red stretched along the Egyptian coast, the shores of Sudan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Djibouti and Yemen. Its area is 450,000 square meters. Kilometers, 437 meters - the average depth. This is the most salty sea in the world.

4) The sea of the sea, located between the coast (south-western) of Hindustan, the Maldives and the Lakadiv Islands, is the Lakkadiv Sea, the area of which is 786,000 sq. Km. Kilometers, the average depth is 1929 m.

5) The Timor Sea separates the island of Timor from Australia. 432,000 sq. M. Kilometers is its area, the average depth is 435 m.

The Arafour Sea: description

It is not very deep in the mean values of the sea (186 meters) separates Australia from New Guinea. The area is 1 million square kilometers, and the biggest depth is 3,680 meters.

The name of the sea was derived from an aboriginal native tribe inhabiting the Moluccas. This is the "Al Fury", which translates from the local dialect as a "forest dweller".

The most attractive feature of the Arafura Sea is its very clear and pure water. Surrounding this natural pond land is not widely populated, does not have large ports, and also there is no mining of minerals. In this regard, the ecology of the sea is not yet any threats.

Located also between the islands of Tanimbar and Kai (the sea of Arafur in Indonesia is washed by the shores of several islands), it resembles in many ways the sea of Timor. This is due to the similarity of the climate and shelf proximity.

Sea formation, relief

The sea is relatively young. It was formed as a consequence of the rise in the level of the world ocean. At this point there was once a land uniting New Guinea with Australia. In this regard, the Arafura Sea is rather shallow. Only the north-western part of it has a small trough depth of 3680 meters.

On the map of the Arafura Sea, you can clearly see that its banks are rather rugged. The largest bay, located in the southern zone of the water area - Carpentaria. In the east with the Pacific Ocean the sea is connected by a small, but wide strait - Torresov. In the northern part, deeper straits connect the sea with the Banda and Seram (seas).

Border description

From the eastern part, the Arafura Sea borders on the Coral Sea (through the Torres Strait), with the Seram and Banda seas bordering on the north-west side, with the Timor Sea in the west. The southern border is represented by the northern coast of Australia, the northern one by the island of New Guinea, and the western by the islands of Selatan-Timur. The length of the sea along the length is 1,290 km, and the width is 560 km.

The sea, located in the subequatorial belt, is replete with a huge array of islands and coral reefs. Here, nature created ideal conditions for the life of numerous living organisms, which is associated with shallow water. This feature is also the cause of the occurrence of hurricanes and typhoons. And the climate in these places is peculiar: long rains are replaced by arid at times.

There are also islands in the Arafura Sea: the Kolepom, Groote Island, the small archipelagos of Aru and Wellesley. The coastline, overgrown with tropical vegetation, is mostly flat. The wetland coast is on New Guinea. There are the most unique animals.

Bottom relief

For the most part, the Arafura Sea is located in the shelf zone, which has the same name with it (an extensive shallow bank was called Krümmel in 1897). It refers to the eastern part of the shelf of the North Australian (or shelf Sahul). The Arafura Shelf from the outer arc of the Banda Island is separated by a fairly deep basin (3650 meters) Aru, which practically repeats the direction of the arc of the above-mentioned islands.

At the mouth of the Aru flat bottom and rather steep edges, and it ends with a cliff near the Nov Island. Guinea. Narrows in the direction of the south-west, where the depths also decrease (at a width of about 40 km its depth is 1600 meters). Then it extends to the Timor depression. At depths of more than 3,000 meters, Aru extends over an area of 11,000 square kilometers. Km.

A peculiar relief of the bottom is the Arafura Sea. The outskirts of the sea differ from the internal, and significantly. For the most part, the depth of the Arafura shelf ranges from 50 to 80 meters. The deepest areas are at the edge, where from the depth of 600 meters the reefs of corals rise abruptly. Located on the shelf of the island of Aru, and the five larger islands of this group are separated from each other by narrow straits, the depth of which is greater than in the surrounding. A small ascent along the Merauke (ridge) from the Aru Islands stretches to the south-east of the New Guinean southern coast towards Cape York (the peninsula).

Value of the sea

Surrounded by the Arafura Sea with sparsely populated lands, in connection with which and its waters are transparent and clean so far. And yet its enormous reproductive potential attracts fishermen here, because there are excellent conditions for fishing, for catching shellfish (for example, oysters). Therefore, today the problem of uncontrolled fishing becomes topical. And the sea itself is not polluted mainly because there are no more significant ports on its shores, and only sea routes to Manila, Singapore and Hong Kong pass through these waters.

In addition, the Arafura Sea is not very attractive for tourists. And most popular here are fishing underwater, diving and other water sports. Thus, the main attractions are mainly concentrated in the waters of the sea. However, the tourist infrastructure on the Australian coast is quite high.

In conclusion about the underwater world

The bottom of the natural reservoir is covered with sand, and in places - with lime mud. Deeper areas are represented by red clays. Almost all of the shelf has numerous shallows, banks and coral reefs.

The underwater world is also similar to the world of the Timor Sea and has the same vegetation (algae and corals). Since the water in this sea is too salty, there are few phytoplankton and phytophthy. But the sea of Arafur has also an abundance of mollusks, echinoderms, crustaceans and other benthic organisms. In total, there are more than 300 species of fish. There are dangerous animals: some coral polyps, blue-ringed octopus, cubomedusa, etc. There are also sharks, barracuda and caudex.