The Celebes Sea ( ; ) or Sulawesi Sea (; ) of the western

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 ...

is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

's Minahasa Peninsula, and the west by northern

Kalimantan Kalimantan (; ) is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area, and consists of the provinces of Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan. The non-Ind ...

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, ...

. It extends 420 miles (675 km) north-south by east-west and has a total surface area of , to a maximum depth of . South of the Cape Mangkalihat, the sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait into 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 ...

. The Celebes Sea is a piece of an ancient ocean basin that formed 42 million years ago in a locale removed from any landmass. By 20 million years ago, the earth's crust movement had moved the basin close enough to the

n and Philippine

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

es to receive emitted debris. By 10 million years ago the Celebes Sea was inundated with continental debris, including

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

, which was shed from a growing young mountain on Borneo and the basin had docked against Eurasia. The border between the Celebes and the Sulu Sea is at the Sibutu-Basilan Ridge. Strong

ocean current An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, sh ...

s, deep sea trenches, and seamounts, combined with active

volcanic island Geologically, a volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term high island can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

s, result in complex oceanographic features.

Delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone boundary

On 23 May 2013, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia signed an agreement to establish the boundary line that delimits the overlapping Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) between the two countries. It has been agreed that north of the boundary line will be under the jurisdiction of the Philippines (named ''Mindanao Sea'') and Indonesia be south of the boundary line (named ''Celebes Sea'').

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

''On the North.'' The Southern limit of Sulu Sea rom Tagolo Point, down the West coast of Mindanao to the Southwest extremity thence to the North coast of Basilan (island)">Basilan Island (), through this island to its Southern extremity, thence a line to Bitinan Island () off the Eastern end of Jolo Island, through Jolo to a point in long. 121°04'E on its South coast, thence through Tapul and Lugus Islands and along the North coast of Tawitawi Island to Bongao Island off its Western end (), and from thence to Tanjong Labian, the Northeastern extreme of Borneo">Tawi-Tawi">Tawitawi Island to Bongao, Tawi-Tawi">Bongao Island off its Western end (), and from thence to Tanjong Labian, the Northeastern extreme of Borneoand the Southwest coast of Mindanao. ''On the East.'' A line from Tinaca Point, the Southern point of Mindanao, to the North point of Pulau Sangihe Besar () thence through the Sangir Islands">pulau-pulau Sangihe to Tanjung Puisan, the Northeast extreme of Celebes [
Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...
]. ''On the South.'' The North coast of Celebes between tanjung Puisan and tanjung Binar (Cape Rivers) () and thence a line to Mangkalihat Peninsula, Tanjung Mangkalihat in Borneo, the Northern limit of Makassar Strait line joining Tanjung Mangkalihat, Borneo () and tanjung Binar (Cape Rivers), Celebes () ''On the West.'' The East coast of Borneo is between Tanjung Mangkalihat and Tanjong Labian, the Southern limit of the Sulu Sea.

Marine life

The Celebes Sea is home to a wide variety of fish and aquatic creatures. The tropical setting and warm clear waters permit it to harbor about 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

s, which grow as some of the most bio-diverse coral reefs in the world, and an impressive array of

marine life Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, aquatic plant, plants, algae, marine fungi, fungi, marine protists, protists, single-celled marine microorganisms, microorganisms ...

, including

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

s and dolphins,

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

s, manta rays, eagle rays, barracuda, marlin and other reef and pelagic species. Tuna and yellowfin tuna are also abundant. In addition to the high abundance of fish caught in the Celebes Sea, this sea also yields other aquatic products like sea tang. Kalasey Beach Manado

Commercial significance

The Celebes Sea is an important sea route for regional trade. The sea is also popular for scuba diving and luxury ocean cruising.

Geology

The Celebes Sea is underlain by an oceanic plate with a mid-oceanic spreading in the center part. This plate is subducted to the south and north. Several seismic surveys and research drillings were done in this area to gather geological information.

References

External links

Ocean Explorer (www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov)
- Public outreach site for explorations sponsored by the Office of Ocean Exploration.

- A rich collection of images, video an
audio podcast

NOAA, Ocean Explorer YouTube Channel
* {{Coord, 3, N, 122, E, type:waterbody_scale:5000000, display=title Marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean Seas of Asia Seas of Indonesia Seas of the Philippines Seas of Malaysia Geography of Mindanao Landforms of North Sulawesi Indonesia–Malaysia border Indonesia–Philippines border Malaysia–Philippines border Landforms of Kalimantan Maritime Southeast Asia