Between Taiwan Province, China and Luzon Island, there is a strait that runs from east to west. Its name is bashi channel. Its length is about 370km, and its average width is185km.
Bashi channel is the natural dividing line between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean in China, with wide front and deep water, which is suitable for underwater activities of ships and submarines. It plays an important role in international shipping and is also a sea area of strategic significance in the western Pacific.
From Singapore, Jakarta, Manila and other Southeast Asian ports to the Far East, ships from Hong Kong to Hawaii and America mostly pass through bashi channel. Bashi channel's seabed is densely covered with international optical cables, which are concentrated in a very narrow range, and it is the undersea tunnel of the Internet.
Climate environment
Bashi channel and the Philippine North Strait are one of the big wave areas in the northwest Pacific. Affected by the monsoon, the frequency of strong winds and waves is high all year round. In the winter when northeast waves prevail, the gale frequency of magnitude 6 or above is as high as 37.5%-40%, the big wave frequency is 50%-60%, and the surge frequency is 70%, and the average wave height is more than 2 meters (1 1 month and1February), and the maximum wave is as high as 2.6-3.2 meters.
Compared with winter, the waves in summer in the Strait are smaller (except during typhoon), but the frequency of big waves and surges is still 20% and 30%-40%, with an average wave height of 1.5 m and a maximum of 6-7 m. The water depth1000 ~ 2000m, and there are two small shallow water areas in the middle of the strait, with the water depth less than 200m.
In addition, the water depth near Balintang is only 34-200m, and the sediment is mud. The tidal current in the strait is to the west or northwest, and the ebb current is to the east or northeast, and the velocity near the island is relatively fast.
Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-bashi channel