The Bali Sea (, ) is the body of water north of the island of

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

and south of Kangean Island in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. The sea forms the south-west part of the

Flores Sea The Flores Sea covers of water in Indonesia. The sea is bounded on the north by the island of Celebes and on the south by Sunda Islands, the Sunda Islands of Flores and Sumbawa. Geography The seas that border the Flores Sea are the Bali Sea ...

, and the

Madura Strait Madura Strait is a stretch of water that separates the Indonesian islands of Java and Madura, in the province of East Java. The islands of Kambing, Giliraja, Genteng, and Ketapang lie in the Strait. The Suramadu Bridge, the longest in Indones ...

opens into it from the west.

Geography

The Bali Sea is sometimes grouped with the Flores Sea for

oceanographic Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of top ...

purposes; however, in some

nautical chart A nautical chart or hydrographic chart is a graphic representation of a sea region or water body and adjacent coasts or river bank, banks. Depending on the scale (map), scale of the chart, it may show depths of water (bathymetry) and heights of ...

s, Bali Sea is written as a distinct sea for navigation. The sea has an area of and a maximum depth of .

Extent

The

International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) (French: ''Organisation Hydrographique Internationale'') is an intergovernmental organization representing hydrography. the IHO comprised 102 member states. A principal aim of the IHO is to ...

(IHO) defines the Bali Sea as being one of the waters of the East Indian Archipelago. The IHO defines its limits as follows:

''On the North.'' A line from the Western Paternoster Island to the East point of Sepandjang and thence through this island to the West point of Gedeh Bay on the South coast of Kangean (). ''On the West.'' A line from the West point of Gedeh Bay, Kangean Island, to Tg Sedano, the Northeast extreme of
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
and down the East coast to Tg Bantenan, the Southeast extreme of the island. ''On the South.'' A line from Tanjong Banenan through the Southern points of Balt and Noesa Islands to Tanjong Bt Gendang, the Southwest extreme of
Lombok Lombok, is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It forms part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is rou ...
, and its South coast to Tanjong Ringgit the Southeast extreme, thence a line to Tanjong Mangkoen () the Southwest extreme of Soembawa. ''On the East.'' The West and North coasts of Soembawa as far East as Tanjong Sarokaja (), thence the Western limit of Flores Sea line from Tg Sarokaja to the Western Paternoster island ()

Circulation

The circulation and mass water properties in Bali Sea are a continuation from Flores Sea to the

Java Sea The Java Sea (, ) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its northwest links it to the South Ch ...

in the north. In oceanographic, Bali Sea is concerned with the

Indonesian Throughflow The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF; ) is an ocean current with importance for global climate as is the low-latitude movement of warm, relative freshwater from the north Pacific to the Indian Ocean. It thus serves as a main upper branch of the glob ...

coming from

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

, the flow of which are mostly passing through

Bali Strait Bali Strait is a stretch of water separating Java and Bali while connecting the Indian Ocean and the Bali Sea. At its narrowest it is wide. Geography The Bali Strait is one of the bodies of water surrounding the island of Bali: Lombok Strait ...

and

Lombok Strait The Lombok Strait () is a strait of the Bali Sea connecting to the Indian Ocean, and is located between the islands of Bali and Lombok in Indonesia. The Gili Islands are on the Lombok side. Its narrowest point is at its southern opening, with a ...

Tsunamis

In a recorded

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

history, Bali Sea observed several tsunamis. The 1815 Tambora eruption (scale 7 of

Volcanic Explosivity Index The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) is a scale used to measure the size of explosive volcanic eruptions. It was devised by Christopher G. Newhall of the United States Geological Survey and Stephen Self in 1982. Volume of products, eruption c ...

) formed tsunamis on 22 September 1815 at coordinate and three years later (8 September 1818) from subsequent volcanic activities at coordinate . Two more tsunamis were recorded in 1857 and 1917 with maximum heights of respectively.

Accidents

2021

*On 21 April 2021, an Indonesian navy submarine called KRI Nanggala (402) was reported as missing in waters about 95 km (51 nautical miles) north of Bali during its torpedo drill. Few days later, debris was found within of the point of last contact and was believed to have come from the

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

. Nanggala was later declared sunk along with 53 people on board, including 49 crew members, 1 commander, and 3 weapons specialists.

References

{{Authority control Landforms of Bali Seas of Indonesia Landforms of East Java Landforms of Java