I am about to head to Indonesia to explore the Banda Sea. In this introduction I wanted to ask the question: why is the Banda Sea important? I’ve linked to a few of the articles I’ve written over the last couple of years.
Updates from the expedition over the next couple of weeks
Over the coming days, I’ll post regular updates to you, describing what we are seeing and it’s significance.
The himalayas of the sea
This is one of the most important places on Earth for regulating ocean climate. It reduces the sea’s surface temperature by several degrees. This is because the Pacific Ocean snakes past and through thousands of islands, before entering the Indian Ocean. It’s the only place on Earth where entire oceans filter through an archipelago.
After passing through Raja Ampat, the currents make their way north, following the west coast of Sulawesi and into the Flores Sea. From there, they move east and travel into the Banda Sea. It’s here we find the Weber Deep, which is on average, deeper than the Pacific Ocean. The sea floor drops to 7,700m and the mixing of ocean currents returns cooler water to the surface.
The Himalayan mountains drive weather patterns globally and rise 8,800m above sea level. The mountain of Gunung Binaiya which we can see almost throughout our voyage is 3,027m high but the base of this mountain, the Weber Deep, is 7,440m making it almost as high as Everest (even if you take into account the Indian Ocean seafloor at similar distance). The result is phenomenal. (Read more).
