Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
East China Sea
Another Pacific arm lying between mainland China and the southern parts of Japan.
Vast oil deposits were discovered in the area in 1980.
Hudson Bay
Although called a bay, it is a large inland sea in northern Canada, connected to both the
Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans. The bay is named for the Dutch explorer Henry Hudson, who reached it in
1610 while searching for the Northwest Passage and died there when his men mutinied and set him adrift
in a small boat. Hudson Bay freezes over in the winter.
Sea of Japan
Lying between the Japanese islands and the Korean Peninsula, this arm of the Pacific
contains a warm flowing current that keeps the Russian port of Vladivostok, to the north, free of ice in the
winter, the only Russian port on the North Pacific open year-round.
North Sea
An arm of the Atlantic lying between Great Britain and Scandinavia, its waters have always
been rich fishing grounds. The discovery of gas and oil have also made the area a leading energy producer.
With an area of 222,000 square miles (575,000 square km), it is also known as the German Ocean.
Baltic Sea
(
Ostsee
in German) An arm of the Atlantic, the Baltic is bounded by the Scandinavian coun-
tries and north-central Europe. Shallow and with low salinity, it freezes over during the winter months.
The Baltic was thrust into prominence during the breakup of the Soviet Union because it gives its name
to the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, which were part of the Soviet Union until they
declared their independence in 1991, largely helping to bring about the demise of the USSR.
NAMES: Yellow Sea, Red Sea, Black Sea: Are They Truly Yellow, Red, and Black?
This is the nautical rainbow coalition. But does each of these seas get its name for very specific color reas-
ons? Well, two out of three isn't bad.
The
Yellow Sea
, or
Hwang Hai
, lies between mainland China and Korea and gets its characteristic col-
or from the rich yellow silt, called loess, deposited by the Yellow (Hwang Ho) and other rivers.
The narrow body of water separating northeastern Africa from the Arabian Peninsula, the
Red Sea
gets
its name from the masses of reddish seaweed found in its waters. The Red Sea was created when the Great
Rift running the length of Africa opened up and waters from the Indian Ocean rushed in. As the Great Rift
continues its slow geologic widening, the Red Sea will become larger. But don't wait around for it to hap-
pen.
Before Europeans figured out how to sail around Africa to get to the East, the Red Sea was a major
trade connection between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Orient. Its importance was restored when the
Suez Canal was opened in 1869, giving it direct access to the Mediterranean. Ships using the Suez-Red
Sea route avoided thousands of miles of difficult sailing around Africa. However, the significance of the
Red Sea has once again been diminished as most modern supertankers are too large to navigate the Suez
Canal.
The
Black Sea
, much-disputed through history, is a tideless inland sea between Europe and Asia, once
called the
Pontos Axeinos
or “inhospitable sea” by the Greeks and
Marea Neagra
by the Romanians. In
Greek myth, it was the sea Jason sailed across in his search for the legendary Golden Fleece. Together with
the Caspian and Aral Seas, it was once part of a much larger inland sea millions of years ago.
Although its waters are quite dark, its name is believed to be derived from its stormy character rather
than any particular color scheme.
