Yellow Sea

Yellow Sea, Chinese Huang Hai, Korean HwanghaeThe East China, South China, and Yellow seas.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.large inlet of the western Pacific Ocean lying between mainland China on the west and north and the Korean peninsula on the east. It is situated to the north of the East China Sea, which it bounds on a line running from the mouth of the Yangtze River (Chiang Jiang) to Cheju Island off South Korea. It measures about 600 miles (960 km) from north to south and about 435 miles (700 km) from east to west. In the northwest part of the sea, northwest of a line between the Liaodong Peninsula to the north and the Shandong Peninsula to the south, is the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli). The area of the Yellow Sea proper (excluding the Bo Hai) is about 146,700 square miles (380,000 square km); its mean depth is 144 feet (44 metres), and its maximum depth is some 500 feet (152 metres).

Physical features

Physiography and geology

The Yellow Sea, including the Bo Hai and Korea Bay, forms a flat, shallow, and partly enclosed marine embayment. Most of the sea, which is deeper than the Bo Hai, consists of an oval-shaped basin with depths of about 200 to 260 feet (60 to 80 metres).

The floor of the Yellow Sea is a geologically unique, shallow portion of the continental shelf that was submerged after the last ice age (i.e., roughly within the past 10,000 years). The seafloor slopes gently from the Chinese mainland and more rapidly from the Korean peninsula to a north-south-trending seafloor valley, with its axis close to the Korean peninsula. This axis represents the path of the meandering Huang He (Yellow River) when it flowed across the exposed shelf during times of lowered sea levels and emptied sediments into the Okinawa Trough. The Yellow Sea derives its name from the colour of the silt-laden water discharged from the major Chinese rivers emptying into it. The sea annually receives an immense quantity of sediments, mostly from the Huang He (via the Bo Hai) and the Yangtze River, both of which have formed large deltas. Relict sandy sediments occupy the northern part of the Yellow Sea, the nearshore northern Bo Hai, the offshore old Huang He delta, and the central part of the south Yellow Sea. The sandy layer is covered with silty and muddy sediments derived from the large rivers of China and Korea since the last glacial period. The dividing line between silt derived from China and sand derived from Korea nearly coincides with the seafloor valley.


Generally, the climate is characterized by very cold, dry winters and wet, warm summers. From late November to March a strong northerly monsoon prevails, which in the Bo Hai is sometimes accompanied by severe blizzards. Typhoons occur in summer, and in the colder season there are occasional storms. Air temperatures range from 50 to 82 °F (10 to 28 °C) and precipitation from about 20 inches (500 mm) in the north to 40 inches (1,000 mm) in the south. Sea fog is frequent along the coasts, especially in the upwelling cold-water areas.


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.

The tidal range is high (13 to 26 feet [4 to 8 metres]) along the shallower west coast of the Korean peninsula, with a maximum spring tide of almost 27 feet (8.2 metres). Along the coasts of China, it amounts to about 3 to 10 feet (0.9 to 3 metres), except around the Bo Hai, where it is somewhat higher. In the Yellow Sea the tides are semidiurnal (i.e., they rise twice daily). The tidal system rotates in a counterclockwise direction. The speed of the tidal current is generally less than 1 mile (1.6 km) per hour in the middle of the sea, but, near the coasts and in the straits and channels, stronger currents of more than 3.5 miles (5.6 km) per hour are recorded.

The innermost coastal sections of the Bo Hai freeze in winter, and drift ice and ice fields hinder navigation in parts of the Yellow Sea. Surface temperature ranges from freezing level in winter in the Bo Hai to summer temperatures of 72 to 82 °F (22 to 28 °C) in the shallower parts. In winter the temperature and salinity in the sea are homogeneous from surface to bottom. In spring and summer the upper layer is warmed and diluted by the fresh water from rivers, while the deeper water remains cold and saline. This deep layer of cold water stagnates and moves slowly south in summer. Around this mass of water, especially at its southern tip, commercial bottom-dwelling fishes are found. The dominant salinity in the region is relatively low: in the Bo Hai it is 30 to 31 parts per thousand, while in the Yellow Sea proper it is 31 to 33 parts per thousand. In the southwest monsoon season (June to August) the increased rainfall and runoff cause a further reduction in salinity in the upper layer.

Economic aspects

The Yellow Sea, like the East China Sea, is famous for its fishing grounds. The rich demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish resources have been exploited by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese trawlers for years. Although the overall annual catch has grown, the catch by the Japanese has decreased, while those of the Chinese and South Koreans have increased. The main species caught are sea bream, croakers, lizard fish, prawns, cutlass fish, horse mackerel, squids, and flounders; all species, however, are overfished, and the catch of particularly valuable species has declined.

Oil exploration has been successful in the Chinese and North Korean portions of the Yellow Sea. In addition, the sea has become more important with the growth in trade among its bordering countries. The main Chinese ports are Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Qinhuangdao; the main South Korean port is Inchʾŏn (Incheon), the outport for Seoul; and that for North Korea is Nampʾo, the outport for Pʾyŏngyang.

Study and exploration

The Yellow Sea has been studied extensively, but its geologic, physical, and biological properties remain incompletely understood. There is, for example, no comprehensive report on the sea’s fisheries, despite the awareness of stock depletion. There has been some cooperation between countries—China began joint oil explorations with foreign oil companies in 1979—but the political tension in the region since the mid-20th century has inhibited the sharing of scientific information. Thus, it has been difficult to evaluate the state of the sea’s marine environment.