Yellow Sea, Map, Bordering Countries, Geography, Climate

Yellow Sea

The Yellow Sea, which is part of the northeastern portion of the East China Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean situated between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. The golden-yellow colour of the water released from the main rivers gives rise to its name.

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Yellow Sea Map

To the north of the East China Sea is the Yellow Sea. Its northern and western borders are with Mainland China, while its eastern border is shared by North and South Korea.

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Yellow Sea Geography

The Yellow Sea is a sizable inlet of the western Pacific Ocean situated between the Korean peninsula on the east and mainland China on the west. It borders the East China Sea to the north on a line that extends from the Yangtze River mouth (Chiang Jiang) to Cheju Island off the coast of South Korea. From north to south, it is around 600 miles (960 km) long, and from east to west, it is about 435 miles (700 km).

The Bo Hai is located northwest of the sea, northwest of a line connecting the Shandong Peninsula to the south and the Liaodong Peninsula to the north (Gulf of Chihli). The Yellow Sea’s surface size is around 146,700 square miles (380,000 square kilometres), its mean depth is 144 feet (44 metres) and its maximum depth is about 500 feet (152 metres).

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Yellow Sea Bordering Countries

The major Chinese rivers that drain into the Yellow Sea release water that is soiled with dirt, giving the sea its name. Between the Korean peninsula on the east and west and mainland China on the west and north, the Yellow Sea is a sizable inlet of the western Pacific Ocean.

To the north of the East China Sea is the Yellow Sea. Its northern and western borders are with Mainland China, while its eastern border is shared by North and South Korea.There are three countries that border the Yellow Sea– China, North Korea, and South Korea.

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Yellow Sea Physical Features

The Yellow Sea forms a flat, shallow, and partially confined marine embayment along with the Bo Hai and Korea Bay. The majority of the sea, which is deeper than the Bo Hai, is a basin in the form of an oval with a depth of roughly 200 to 260 feet (60 to 80 metres).

The Yellow Sea’s floor is a shallow, geologically distinct area of the continental shelf that was submerged following the last ice age (i.e., roughly within the past 10,000 years). From the Chinese mainland, the seafloor dips gently, but more quickly from the Korean peninsula to a valley-shaped seafloor with a north-south trend, which has its axis close to the Korean peninsula.

This axis depicts the course taken by the meandering Huang He (Yellow River), which discharged sediments into the Okinawa Trough while flowing across the exposed shelf during periods of low sea levels. The major Chinese rivers that drain into the Yellow Sea release water that is soiled with dirt, giving the sea its name. The Yangtze River and the Huang He, both of which have created substantial deltas, contribute the majority of the enormous amount of sediments that enter the sea each year. The northern Yellow Sea, the northern Bo Hai nearshore, the offshore old Huang He delta, and the centre region of the southern Yellow Sea are all covered in relict sandy sands.

Since the last glacial epoch, silty and muddy sediments from China’s and Korea’s major rivers have been deposited on top of the sandy layer. The dip in the seafloor roughly marks the boundary between the silt from China and the sand from Korea.

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Yellow Sea Climate

The weather is typically described as having extremely cold, dry winters and wet, warm summers. The climate there is a moderate monsoon.A powerful northerly monsoon that frequently brings severe blizzards to the Bo Hai region occurs from late November to early March. In addition to storms that occasionally occur in the cooler months, typhoons happen in the summer. With precipitation varying from roughly 20 inches (500 mm) in the north to 40 inches (1,000 mm) in the south, air temperatures range from 50 to 82 °F (10 to 28 °C). Along the coasts, sea fog is common, especially where cold water is upwelling.

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Yellow Sea Fishing

Like the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea is well known for its fishing areas. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese trawlers have been using the abundant demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish resources for years. Even while the total annual catch has increased, the Japanese catch has gone down while the Chinese and South Korean catches have gone up. Sea bream, croakers, lizard fish, prawns, cutlass fish, horse mackerel, squids, and flounders are the principal species that are caught. All of these species, however, are overfished, and the capture of some species that are particularly valued has decreased.

The Yellow Sea’s Chinese and North Korean parts have seen success in oil development. Additionally, the importance of the sea has increased due to the expansion of trade between its neighbouring nations.

The principal ports in China are Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Qinhuangdao; the principal port in South Korea is Incheon, which serves as Seoul’s outport; and the principal port in North Korea is Nampo, which serves Pyongyang.

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Yellow Sea UPSC

The Yellow Sea’s rivers transport so much mineral-rich soil that it really colours the water yellow. The Yellow Sea is also distinctive in that it is a somewhat semi-enclosed body of water with its normal depths being only 60-80m, with China to the west and North and South Korea to the east.

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