Sea of Japan - WikiHQ

The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific Ocean. This isolation also affects faunal diversity and salinity, both of which are lower than in the open ocean. The sea has no large islands, bays or capes. Its water balance is mostly determined by the inflow and outflow through the straits connecting it to the neighboring seas and the Pacific Ocean. Few rivers discharge into the sea and their total contribution to the water exchange is within 1%.

The seawater has an elevated concentration of dissolved oxygen that results in high biological productivity. Therefore, fishing is the dominant economic activity in the region. The intensity of shipments across the sea has been moderate owing to political issues, but it is steadily increasing as a result of the growth of East Asian economies.

Names

Sea of Japan is the dominant term used in English for the sea. The sea is called (, ) in Japan, (, ) or originally (, ) in China, (, ) in Russia, (, ) in North Korea, and (, ) in South Korea.

Naming dispute

The naming of the sea is the subject of an ongoing dispute. Japan uses the name Sea of Japan and asserts that it has been the internationally accepted term since the early 19th century. In contrast, South Korea contends that the East Sea was historically used before Japanese colonial rule, and officially requests that it be used alongside Sea of Japan. North Korea advocates for the name East Sea of Korea.

Limits of Oceans and Seas (S-23), published by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), had been using the name Japan Sea since it was first published in 1928. It has not been updated since 1953 and is not able to effectively serve as an international standard in today's digital environment. In 2020, the IHO decided to develop a new digital standard, S-130, to meet modern Geographic Information System (GIS) requirements and replace the geographic names in S-23 with unique identifiers for each maritime area in S-130. The IHO Secretary-General stated that S-23, the previous version of the nautical chart made in 1953 will be kept publicly available simply to demonstrate the evolutionary process from the analogue to the digital era.

History

For centuries, the sea had protected Japan from land invasions, particularly by the Mongols. It had long been navigated by Asian and, from the 18th century, by European ships. Russian expeditions of 1733–1743 mapped Sakhalin and the Japanese islands. In the 1780s, the Frenchman Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, traveled northward across the sea through the strait later named after him. In 1796, a British naval officer, William Robert Broughton, explored the Strait of Tartary, the eastern coast of the Russian Far East and the Korean Peninsula.

In 1803–1806, the Russian navigator Adam Johann von Krusenstern while sailing across the globe in the ship Nadezhda also explored, in passing, the Sea of Japan and the eastern shores of Japanese islands. In 1849, another Russian explorer Gennady Nevelskoy discovered the strait between the continent and Sakhalin and mapped the northern part of the Strait of Tartary. Russian expeditions were made in 1853–1854 and 1886–1889 to measure the surface temperatures and record the tides. They also documented the cyclonal character of the sea currents.

Other notable expeditions of the 19th century include the American North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition (1853–1856) and British Challenger expedition (1872–1876). The aquatic life was described by V. K. Brazhnikov in 1899–1902 and P. Yu. Schmidt in 1903–1904. The Japanese scientific studies of the sea began only in 1915 and became systematic since the 1920s. Most entered the sea via Korea Strait and left via La Pérouse Strait, but some entered and exited via Tsugaru Strait. They primarily targeted right whales, but began catching humpbacks as right whale catches declined. They also made attempts to catch blue and fin whales, but these species invariably sank after being killed. Right whales were caught from March to September, with peak catches in May and June. During the peak years of 1848 and 1849 a total of over 170 vessels (over 60 in 1848, and over 110 in 1849) cruised in the Sea of Japan, with significantly lesser numbers in following years.

Geography and geology

thumb|upright=1.3|Relief of the Sea of Japan and nearby areas

thumb|Map showing [[Japanese archipelago, Sea of Japan and surrounding part of continental East Asia in Early Miocene (23–18 Ma)]]

thumb|Map showing Japanese archipelago, Sea of Japan and surrounding part of continental East Asia in [[Middle Pliocene to Late Pliocene (3.5–2 Ma)]]

The Sea of Japan was landlocked when the land bridge of East Asia existed. The Japan Arc started to form in the Early Miocene.

Nowadays the Sea of Japan is bounded by the Russian mainland and Sakhalin island to the north, the Korean Peninsula to the west, and the Japanese islands of Hokkaidō, Honshū and Kyūshū to the east and south. It is connected to other seas by five straits: the Strait of Tartary between the Asian mainland and Sakhalin; La Pérouse Strait between Sakhalin and Hokkaidō; the Tsugaru Strait between Hokkaidō and Honshū; the Kanmon Straits between Honshū and Kyūshū; and the Korea Strait between the Korean Peninsula and Kyūshū.

The Korea Strait is composed of the Western Channel and the Tsushima Strait, on either side of Tsushima Island. The straits were formed in recent geologic periods. The oldest of them are the Tsugaru and Tsushima straits. Their formation had interrupted the migration of elephants into the Japanese islands at the end of the Neogene Period (about 2.6 million years ago). The most recent is La Perouse Strait, which formed about 60,000 to 11,000 years ago closing the path used by mammoths which had earlier moved to northern Hokkaidō.

It has three major basins: the Yamato Basin in the south-east, the Japan Basin in the north and the Tsushima Basin (Ulleung Basin) in the south-west. The Japan Basin is of oceanic origin and is the deepest part of the sea, whereas the Tsushima Basin is the shallowest with the depths below .

File:Full-orbed sunrise over East Sea in South Korea.JPG|Sunrise over the Sea of Japan filmed in South Korea

File:Январское побережье Японского моря в Хасанском районе.jpg|The Sea of Japan seen from the south of Slavyanka. From a distance, the two islands of Antipenko (left) and Sibiryakov (right).

File:Бухта Сибирякова.jpg|A bay at Sibiryakov Island, south from Vladivostok

File:Закат на Воеводского.jpg|Sunset on near Vladivostok

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Climate

thumb|[[Kármán vortex street|Von Kármán vortices off the coast of Rishiri Island]]

The sea climate has warm waters and monsoons. This combination results in strong evaporation, which is especially noticeable between October and March when the strong ( or higher) north-western monsoon wind brings cold and dry continental air. The evaporation is blown further south, causing snowfall in the mountainous western coasts of Japan. This winter monsoon brings typhoons and storms, with the waves reaching which erode the western coasts of Japan. Tsunami waves have also been recorded in the sea. In addition, the monsoon enhances the surface water convection, down to the depths of .

The coldest months are January and February, with an average air temperature of in the north and in the south. The northern one-quarter of the sea, particularly the Siberian coast and the Strait of Tartary, freezes for about 4−5 months.

Hydrology

thumb|Tategami rock

thumb|[[Mitsukejima, "Battleship Island"]]

The sea currents circulate in the counterclockwise direction. The Kuroshio (Japan Current), the Tsushima Current and the East Korea Warm Current bring warmer and more saline water to the north. There they merge into the Tsugaru Current and flow into the Pacific Ocean through the Tsugaru Strait. They also feed the Sōya Current and exit through the La Perouse Strait to the Sea of Okhotsk. The returning branch is composed of the Liman, North Korea and Central (or Mid-) Japan Sea currents which bring fresh and cold water along the Asian coast to the south.

Economy

thumb|[[Zolotoy Rog bay near Vladivostok, Russia]]

thumb|Heishi rock near [[Kamome Island, Hokkaido]]

Fishery had long been the main economic activity on the Sea of Japan. It is mainly carried out on and near the continental shelves and focuses on herring, sardines and bluefin tuna. These species are however depleted from after World War II. Squid is mostly caught near the sea center and salmon near the northern and south-western shores.

Vladivostok is a base for the Russian whaling fleet. Although it operates in the northern seas, its production is processed and partly distributed in the Vladivostok area. Vladivostok is also a terminal point of the Trans-Siberian Railway which brings many goods to and from this major port. There is a regular ferry service across the Strait of Tartary between the Russian continental port of Vanino and Kholmsk in Sakhalin.