Suruga Bay (駿河湾,
Suruga-wan) is a bay on the Pacific
coast of
Honshū
in Shizuoka
Prefecture
, Japan
.
It is
situated north of an imaginary line joining Omaezaki
Point and Irōzaki Point at the tip of the Izu Peninsula
and surrounded by Honshū to the southwest and west
and the Izu Peninsula to the east.
Geology
Suruga Bay is a place of contrasts.
Japan's loftiest peak, Mount Fuji
at 3,776 m (12,388 ft), rises from the
2,500-m depth of the Suruga Trough
running up the middle of the bay, which makes it Japan's
deepest. Numerous rivers—especially the major Fuji
, the Ōi
, and Abe
Rivers—empty
into its western portion, giving that area of the bay a seabed rich
in submarine canyons and other
geographical features, whereas at the bay's easternmost end, only
the Kano
River
empties into a pocket (called Uchiura-wan) at
Numazu where the Izu Peninsula
connects to Honshū
, giving the
water greater transparency and leaving the seabed largely flat
except for a number of small rocky islands, some joined to the
mainland by tombolos. This seabed
variety coincides with coastline differences as well: The western
and central sections of the Suruga Bay coastline, roughly from
Shizuoka to Numazu, are
characterized by sandy beaches such as those at Yuigahama and
Tagonoura, whereas the eastern and northeastern stretches from
Numazu down the southwestern coast of the Izu Peninsula to Irōzaki,
are generally rocky.
The bay is
open to the Philippine
Sea
/Pacific
Ocean
to the south, but is mostly protected from oceanic
waves by Izu Peninsula. This, coupled with the seabed and
water characteristics mentioned above, results in conditions
favorable to fishing, sailing, windsurfing, swimmingand research on
deep-sea organisms
[203490]. An undersea plateau at the bay's
southwest end, known as Senoumi, is especially well known as a rich
fishing ground.
Suruga Bay
was formed by tectonic subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate
and the Eurasian
Plate at the Suruga Trough, making
it a source of considerable seismic
activity, [203491][203492] and giving the bay its extreme
depth.
Transport
Suruga Bay
can be reached by car from Tokyo
via Numazu
in two to five hours depending on traffic conditions on the
Tomei Expressway or in
Numazu.
A Google map of the bay
is available here.
Sources
In addition to the sources cited in the text, this article draws on
the content of the
corresponding article in the
Japanese Wikipedia, as well as Japanese articles corresponding
to other English Wikipedia articles linked to in the text.