People who get here, are forever fascinated by the unique nature of the Philippine Sea, which is difficult to compare with any other part of the world. Clear water, coral lagoons, various life forms… As well as regular storms, of course — can you imagine tropical Islands without them?
Amazing facts about the Philippine Sea
- It washes the shores of territories belonging to the Philippines, Micronesia, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States — the latter includes Guam island, which de jure is not an American state, but has the status of a territory incorporated with the United States.
- The Philippine Sea is the second largest one after the Sargasso Sea, but the latter, as we know, has no banks, so among the seas bordering the land, the Philippine Sea is the largest one (interesting facts about the Sargasso sea).
- The whole of France could be placed on the Philippine Sea territory 10 times.
- Sometimes volcanic bombs during underwater eruptions fly over the sea surface here and quickly eroding ash islands are formed.
- Mountain ranges on the bottom of the Philippine Sea have a length of up to 1500 miles (about 2500 kilometers).
- The first Europeans who crossed the Philippine Sea were the famous navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his expedition members.
- The Pacific Ring of fire, the area of the world’s highest seismic activity, which arose at the junction of two lithospheric plates, passes through the Philippine Sea.
- There are really many underwater volcanoes at the bottom of the Philippine Sea, and some of them have a height of more than 10 000 feet (about 3 km) from the foot to the top.
- The average depth of the Philippine Sea exceeds 13450 feet (4100 meters).
- According to scientists, the volume of water in the Philippine Sea reaches 35,3 billion cubic feet (about 23.5 million cubic kilometers).
- The water of the Philippine Sea has almost the same salinity everywhere — in its different parts the difference in this indicator does not exceed 1 percent.
- The Challenger Deep, the deepest point on the Earth, is located in the Philippine Sea, in the Mariana trench. According to the results of the last investigations, the depth in this place is 36 070 feet (10 994 meters).
- Like the Republic of the Philippines, this sea got its name in honor of the Spanish king Philip.
- During the rainy season, from the end of May to the beginning of October, the Philippine Sea often has the strongest hurricanes in the world.