Molucca Sea
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Geology (main)
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Molucca Sea showing seismic (squares and triangles) and tsunami activity (circles). NOAA
The Molucca Sea (also Molukka Sea) is a semi-enclosed sea, surrounded by a variety of islands belonging to Indonesia, most significantly the island of Sulawesi (Celebes) to the west and northwest. It connects with the Celebes Sea and to the north and the Banda Sea to the south.
Although the Molucca Basin is open to the Pacific Ocean, deep Molucca Sea water is blocked from entering the Banda or Ceram Seas due to the presence of the Lifamatola sill.
The Molucca Basin is an area of extreme seismicity, producing numerous high intensity earthquakes and tsunamis in all recorded time, and using paleoclimate proxies, throughout ancient times.
Contents
Paleoclimate
Seabed core data from the northern Molucca Sea has yielded rich insights on the paleoclimate of the region, particularly as to details of the Last glacial maximum. At that time, approximately 18,000 years Before Present, salinity of the Molucca Basin was deduced to be slightly higher in a decidedly more arid atmosphere (Earth's atmosphere). Correspondingly, the sea surface temperature was shown to be no more than one degree Celsius cooler than present time.
Proxy paleoclimate data for terrestrial lands in the Molucca Sea demonstrate that greatest wildfire frequencies occurred in the Early Holocene, rather than in Industrial Era or modern time. (Haberle et al, 2010)
Molucca Sea. Source: CIA World factbook References
- E.J.Brill. 1933. The Snellius expedition in the eastern part of the Netherlands East-Indies, 1929-1930: under the leadership of P. M. Van Riel, Volume 2, Part 8
- Kathy MacKinnon, Gusti Hatta, Arthur Mangalik (1996) The Ecology of Kalimantan.
- Simon Haberle, Janelle Stevenson, Matthew Prebble (2010) Altered Ecologies: Fire, Climate and Human Influence on Terrestrial Landscapes
- International Hydrographic Organization. 1953 Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition.
- Tomas Tomascik. 1997. The ecology of the Indonesian seas, Volume 1. Tuttle Publishing. 1388 pages
See also
- Celebes Sea
- Seas of the World on Encyclopedia of Earth
