Java Sea

The Java Sea (Indonesian: Laut Jawa) is a large (320,000-km²) shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf formed as sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The Java Sea lies between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its northwest links it to the South China Sea.

The sea measures about 1,500 km (900 miles) east-west by 420 km (260 miles) north-south and occupies a total surface area of 433,000 square km (167,000 square miles). It covers the southern section of the 1,790,000-square-km (690,000-square-mile) Sunda Shelf.

A shallow sea, it has a mean depth of 46 metres (151 feet). The almost uniform flatness of the sea bottom and the presence of drainage channels (traceable to the mouths of island rivers) indicate that the Sunda Shelf was once a stable, dry, low-relief land area (peneplain) above which were left standing a few monadnocks (granite hills that by virtue of their resistance to erosion form the present islands).