In this article, you can learn about one of the richest seas of the Indian Ocean, which has become the habitat of almost a third of the species of fauna and flora represented throughout the ocean. It is the mainland marginal sea of the ocean.
Here you can find out information about what the Arafura Sea is, where it is located. But first, briefly imagine all the seas of the ocean.
Indian Ocean Seas: Short Description
Before we dwell in more detail on the Arafura Sea, we will consider several seas.
1) In the north of the ocean 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, the average depth - 1043 m, and the deepest place - at around 4507 m.
2) The Arabian Sea is located in the northern zone of the ocean between 2 peninsulas: Hindustan and the Arabian. Area - 3.8 million square meters. kilometers, the average depth is 2734 m, and the maximum is 4652 meters.
3) The Red Sea stretched along the Egyptian coast, the coast of Sudan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Djibouti and Yemen. Its area is 450, 000 square meters. kilometers, 437 meters - the average depth. It is the saltiest sea in the world.
4) The outskirts of the sea, located between the coast (southwest) of Hindustan, the Maldives and the Lakkadivsky Islands, is the Lakkadivskoe Sea, whose area is 786, 000 square meters. kilometers, average depth - 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.
Sea of Arafur: description
This not very deep average sea (186 meters) separates Australia from New Guinea. The area is 1 million square kilometers, and the largest depth is 3680 meters.
The sea received its name from an indigenous local tribe living in the Moluccas. This is “Al Fury”, which translates from the local dialect as “resident of the forests”.
The most attractive feature of the Arafura Sea is its very clear and clear water. The lands surrounding this natural body of water are little populated, do not have large ports, and there is also no mining of minerals. In this regard, there are no threats to the ecology of the sea.
Located also between the islands of Tanimbar and Kai (the Arafura Sea in Indonesia washes the shores of several islands), it resembles in many ways the Timor Sea. This is due to the similarity of climate and the shelf neighborhood.
Sea formation, relief
The sea is relatively young. It was formed as a result of rising sea levels. There was once land on this spot, uniting New Guinea with Australia. In this regard, the Arafura Sea is rather shallow. Only its northwestern part has a small trench up to 3680 meters deep.
On the map of the Arafura Sea, it is clearly visible that its shores are quite strongly indented. The largest bay located in the southern zone of the water area is Carpentaria. In the east, the sea is connected to the Pacific Ocean by a small but wide strait - Torressov. In the northern part, deeper straits connect the sea with the Banda and Seram (seas).
Border description
In the eastern part, the Arafura Sea borders with the Coral Sea (through the Torres Strait), with the Seram and Banda Seas borders on the north-west side, with the Timor Sea in the west. The southern border is the northern coast of Australia, the northern is the island of New Guinea, and the western is the island of Selatan Timur. The length of the sea is 1, 290 km in length and 560 km in width.
The sea, located in the subequatorial belt, is replete with a huge number of islands and coral reefs. Here, nature created ideal conditions for the life of numerous living organisms, which is associated with the shallow water reservoir. This feature is also the cause of hurricanes and typhoons. And the climate in these places is peculiar: long rains give way to arid times.
There are islands in the Arafura Sea: Kolepom, Groot Island, and the small archipelagos of Aru and Wellesley. The coastline, overgrown with tropical vegetation, is mostly flat. There is a swampy coast in New Guinea. The most unique animals are found there.
Bottom relief
Most of the Arafura Sea is located in the shelf zone, which has the same name as it (an extensive shallow bank was named by Krummel in 1897). It belongs to the eastern part of the North Australian shelf (or the Sahul shelf). The Arafura shelf from the outer arc of Banda Island is separated by a rather deep-water basin (3650 meters) Aru, which practically repeats the direction of the arc of the above islands.
The Aru Depression has a flat bottom and fairly steep edges, and it ends with a cliff near Nov Island. Guinea. It narrows in the southwest direction, where the depths also decrease (with a width of about 40 km its depth is 1600 meters). Then it expands into the Timor Depression. At depths of more than 3, 000 meters, Aru extends over an area of 11, 000 square meters. km
The Arafur Sea has a peculiar bottom topography. The marginal sea differs from the inland, and significantly. For the most part, the depth of the Arafura shelf ranges from 50 to 80 meters. The deepest sections are located at the edge, where coral reefs rise quite steeply from a depth of 600 meters. They are located on the shelf of Aru Island, and 5 larger islands of this group are separated from each other by narrow straits, the depths of which are greater than those in the environment. A small rise along the Merauke (ridge) from the Aru Islands stretches to the southeast of the New Guinean southern coast towards Cape York (peninsula).
Value of the sea
The Arafura Sea is surrounded by sparsely populated lands, and therefore its waters are transparent and clean for now. Nevertheless, its enormous reproductive potential attracts fishermen here, because there are excellent conditions for fishing, for catching mollusks (for example, oysters). Therefore, today the problem of uncontrolled fishing is becoming urgent. And the sea itself is not polluted for the most part 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 underwater fishing, diving and other water sports. Thus, the main attractions are mainly concentrated in the waters of the sea. However, on the Australian coast, tourism infrastructure is quite high.
