Major Straits of the World – Part 4

Straits of Pacific Ocean

Part 1

The Bering Strait is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska.
The present Russia-United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58′ 37″ W longitude, slightly south of the Arctic Circle at about 65° 40′ N latitude.
The Strait is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish explorer in the service of the Russian Empire.
The Bering Strait has been the subject of the scientific theory that humans migrated from Asia to North America across a land bridge known as Beringia.
This view of how Paleo-Indians entered America has been the dominant one for several decades and continues to be the most accepted one.

Cook Strait separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand.
The strait connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast.
It is 22 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, and is considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable waters in the world.
The strait is named after James Cook, the first European commander to sail through it, in 1770.

The Korea Strait is a sea passage in East Asia between Korea and Japan, connecting the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean.
The strait is split by the Tsushima Island into the Western Channel and the Tsushima Strait or Eastern Channel.
To the north, the Korea Strait is bounded by the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula.
And to the south, it by the southwestern Japanese islands of Kyūshū and Honshū.
It is about 200 km wide and averages about 90 to 100 meters deep.
Since a branch of the Kuroshio Current passes through the strait its warm branch is sometimes called the Tsushima Current.