Microplastics in the western Pacific and South China Sea: Spatial variations reveal the impact of Kuroshio intrusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 117745
Author(s):  
Mengyang Liu ◽  
Yongcheng Ding ◽  
Peng Huang ◽  
Haowen Zheng ◽  
Weimin Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Spatial Variations ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Kuroshio Intrusion ◽  
China Sea ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Western Pacific

Impacts of the Madden-Julian Oscillation on South China Sea Monsoon

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qun Zhou ◽  
Lixin Wei
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Meridional Circulation ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Winter Monsoon ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Madden Julian Oscillation ◽  
China Sea ◽  
The Western Pacific ◽  
Local Meridional Circulation

Abstract It is of great practical importance to understand the variability of the South China Sea (SCS) monsoon on intraseasonal time scales, since the anomalous enhancement of the SCS monsoon may exert serious impacts on the safety of offshore engineering and marine transportation. Our composite analysis shows that the SCS surface wind anomalies are considerably varying with the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) eastward propagation. The SCS summer southwest monsoon tends to be stronger (weaker) in phases 5–8 (1–4) of MJO with the largest positive (negative) wind-speed anomalies when the MJO convection is centered in the western Pacific (far western Indian Ocean), suggesting the highest (lowest) probability of the gale over the SCS. The variation of the western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH), induced by the variations of the local meridional circulation, is shown to play a crucial role in the MJO-SCS summer monsoon linkage. The SCS winter monsoon is also shown to be modulated by the MJO with strengthened (weakened) surface northeasterly in phases 5–6 (1–2). The extra-tropical East Asian trough and East Asian westerly jet associated with the local meridional circulation can well explain the changes of the MJO-SCS winter monsoon relationship. The opposite responses of the wind direction during the same phases of the MJO between summer and winter may be attributed to the discrepancy of meridional circulation related to the wintertime equatorward shift of the MJO convection. The present study indicates that the MJO could be taken into consideration when applying extended-range weather forecast over the SCS as the predictability of the MJO activity is up to 15–20 day currently.

scholarly journals The South China Sea: A Geopolitical Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Martin D Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Geographic Setting ◽  
Territorial Water ◽  
The Western Pacific

Since 1945 the South China Sea and the western Pacific has functioned as an uncontested global common patrolled by overwhelming U.S. naval and air power projected from a series of peripheral and over the horizon bases. The dramatic rise of China alters this situation and has transformed the South China Sea into a frontier of control as China seeks to morph this maritime theater into a landward extension of the Chinese coast where it can deploy land-based tactics into an arena previously dominated by maritime power and tactics to secure the South China Sea as a de facto territorial water that serves multiple Chinese strategic interests. Hence, the attempt by a land-based Eurasian power (China) to carve a permanent bridgehead into Spykman’s Eurasian maritime periphery. Against, this trend the United States has countered with President Obama’s Asian Pivot. However, the implementation of the Asian Pivot is limited by several post Cold War developments and certain constraints inherent in the geographic setting of the South China Sea. Beyond the South China Sea, the geographic setting favors the U.S. and its allies. Consequently, American options acting singly or in coalition with other nations, most notably Japan and Australia, remain more flexible and able to serve as a long term counterweight to Chinese force projection capabilities into the western Pacific proper. 

Western Pacific marginal basin plate tectonics: overview, questions, and insights from mantle structure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonny Wu ◽  
John Suppe
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Subduction Zones ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Mantle Structure ◽  
Equatorial Latitude ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Marginal Seas ◽  
The Western Pacific

<p>The western Pacific marginal basins are a collage of plates and marginal seas that primarily formed in the Cenozoic and occupy the complex tectonic area between the converging major Eurasian, Indo-Australian and Pacific plates.  Strongly contrasting plate tectonic reconstructions continue to be proposed for this region.  Here we review current plate models, key questions, and highlight recent insights from mantle structure studies. </p><p>The Philippine Sea plate (PSP) is one of the largest marginal seas in the region.  The plate is currently moving WNW, in a similar orientation to the Pacific and Caroline plates.  Multiple studies show that PSP plate tectonics are key to unravelling the history of the region, for several reasons: (1) the PSP is far-travelled; paleomagnetism indicates relatively rapid (5.5 cm/yr) PSP northward motions since the Eocene from a near-equatorial latitude; (2) PSP tectonic histories imply interactions with many surrounding plates and regions, including the South China Sea (SCS), Taiwan, Japan, the western Pacific, and other smaller plates or fragments (i.e. Luzon or Celebes Sea); (3) the pre-subduction size of the PSP is not well-established because most of the plate is surrounded by subduction zones.  We review recent studies that attempt to ‘unsubduct’ the PSP from tomography and discuss their regional implications.</p><p>Another key but highly controversial topic is South China Sea (PSCS) formation and associated proto-South China Sea (PSCS) disappearance, if such a plate had existed.  The most popular proto-South China Sea plate model invokes southward subduction of the proto-South China Sea beneath NW Borneo during the Cenozoic.  Although southward PSCS subduction is most consistent with our current geological understanding, the regional mantle structure does not easily fit with this model; other scenarios may be possible.  In particular, it has not been straightforward for the southward PSCS model to explain the origin of sub-horizontal slabs under the present SCS at relatively shallow (500 to 800 km) depths.  We show an alternative ‘double-sided’ PSCS subduction model that produces testable hypotheses for future NW Borneo studies. </p><p>Finally, the Caroline Sea plate has an enigmatic history but is important for understanding the southern Marianas, Yap and Palau trenches.  We first review previous evidence for a ‘Caroline hotspot track’ and overlapping LIPs that traverse the northern Caroline plate.  We link these features to an imaged lower mantle plume and show their implications for Caroline-Pacific plate motions since the latest Eocene. </p>

Dry climate near the Western Pacific Warm Pool: Pleistocene caliches of the Nansha Islands, South China Sea

2005 ◽  
Vol 226 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 205-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shou-Yeh Gong ◽  
Horng-Sheng Mii ◽  
Kuo-Yen Wei ◽  
Chorng-Sherng Horng ◽  
Chen-Feng You ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Warm Pool ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Western Pacific Warm Pool ◽  
Nansha Islands ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Pacific Warm Pool ◽  
The Western Pacific

scholarly journals The South China Sea is not a mini-Atlantic: plate-edge rifting vs intra-plate rifting

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 902-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pinxian Wang ◽  
Chi-Yue Huang ◽  
Jian Lin ◽  
Zhimin Jian ◽  
Zhen Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Passive Margin ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The South ◽  
Plate Edge ◽  
China Sea ◽  
The Western Pacific

Abstract The South China Sea, as ‘a non-volcanic passive margin basin’ in the Pacific, has often been considered as a small-scale analogue of the Atlantic. The recent ocean drilling in the northern South China Sea margin found, however, that the Iberian model of non-volcanic rifted margin from the Atlantic does not apply to the South China Sea. In this paper, we review a variety of rifted basins and propose to discriminate two types of rifting basins: plate-edge type such as the South China Sea and intra-plate type like the Atlantic. They not only differ from each other in structure, formation process, lifespan and geographic size, but also occur at different stages of the Wilson cycle. The intra-plate rifting occurred in the Mesozoic and gave rise to large oceans, whereas the plate-edge rifting took place mainly in the mid-Cenozoic, with three-quarters of the basins concentrated in the Western Pacific. As a member of the Western Pacific system of marginal seas, the South China Sea should be studied not in isolation on its origin and evolution, but in a systematic context to include also its neighboring counterparts.

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