Key facts about Yellow Sea

About Yellow Sea:

• It is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean.
• Location:
  • The Yellow Sea is situated between mainland China to the west and north, the Korean Peninsula to the east, and the Shandong Peninsula and Liaodong Peninsula to the south.
  • It connects with the Bohai Sea to the northwest.
• Size: Also referred to in China as Huang Hai and in North and South Korea as the West Sea, the Yellow Sea is 870 kilometres long and 556 kilometres wide.
• Depth: It is one of the largest shallow areas of continental shelf in the world with an average depth of 44 metres and a maximum depth of 152 metres.
• Inflow: Several major rivers, including the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, discharge into the Yellow Sea, carrying significant amounts of sediment and nutrients.
• Islands: The Yellow Sea is dotted with numerous islands, the largest of which include Jeju Island (South Korea), Shandong Peninsula islands (China), and Ganghwa Island (South Korea).
• Climate: The climate is characterized by very cold, dry winters and wet, warm summers.
• Currents:
  • The warm current of the Yellow Sea is a part of the Tsushima Current, which diverges near the western part of the Japanese island of Kyushu and flows at less than 0.5 mile (0.8 km) per hour northward into the middle of the sea. 
  • Along the continental coasts, southward-flowing currents prevail, which strengthen markedly in the winter monsoon period, when the water is cold, turbid, and of low salinity.