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The Celebes Sea of the western Pacific Ocean,
bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of
the Philippines, on the east by the Sangi Islands chain, on the south by
Sulawesi, and on the west by Borneo. The
Sea is in the form of a huge basin, and plunges as deep as 6,200 m. It extends 420 miles (675 km) north-south by 520 miles (837
km) east-west and has a total surface area of 110,000 square miles (280,000 square km). The sea opens southwest through the
Makassar Strait into the Java Sea.
The Celebes Sea is a piece of an ancient ocean basin that formed 42 million years ago in a setting far from any land mass. By 20 million years ago,
crustal movement had pushed the Celebes basin close enough to the Indonesian and
Philippine volcanoes to receive volcanic debris. By 10 million years ago the Celebes
Sea was inundated with continental debris, including coal, which was shed from a rapidly
growing young mountain on Borneo and the basin had docked against Eurasia.
The border between the Celebes and the Sulu Sea is at the Sibutu-Basilan Ridge. Strong ocean currents, deep sea trenches and sea
mounts, combined with active volcanic islands, result in complex
oceanographic features. The
tropical setting and warm clear waters permit the Celebes sea to harbor about 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building
corals, which grow as some of the most bio-diverse coral reefs in the world, and an
impressive array of marine life, including whales and dolphins, sea turtles, manta rays, eagle
rays, barracuda, marlin and other
reef and pelagic species. It is a popular site for deep sea diving and luxury ocean cruising.
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