Islands bordering the Banda Sea includeSulawesi to the west,Buru,Ambon,Seram to the north, theAru Islands,Tanimbar Islands, andKai Islands to the east, and theBarat Daya Islands andTimor to the south. Although the borders of the sea are hazardous tonavigation, with many small rocky islands, the middle of the sea is relatively open. Island groups within the sea include theBanda Islands. Some islands in the Banda Sea are active volcanoes including Gunung Api and Manuk in the Banda Islands.
The Banda arc is famous for its 180° curvature and is, in Timor, generally agreed to be the product of a collision between a volcanic arc and the Australian continental margin.[3][4] The Banda Sea occupies the main portion of theBanda Sea plate. The southern margin of the sea consists ofisland arcs abovesubduction zones. To the east of theSunda Trench is theTimor Trough which lies south ofTimor, the Tanimbar Trough south of theTanimbar Islands and theAru Trough east of theAru Islands. These trenches are the subduction zone of theIndo-Australian plate beneath the Banda Sea plate, where the Indo-Australian plate moves northwards. Fore-arc sediments progressively carried northwards by the Indo-Australian plate have been folded and faulted forming Timor Island. To the northeast liesSeram Island which overlies the subduction of theBird's Head plate ofWest Papua.[5] The deepest point of the sea,Weber Deep, is an exposed oceanic fault and the world's deepestforearc basin, with depth more than 7.2 kilometres (4.5 miles).[6][7]
The Banda Sea, together with the adjacentFlores Sea, forms theBanda-Flores Sea marine ecoregion, included in the Global 200 list of ecoregions identified by the WWF as priorities for conservation.[9]
The islands surrounding the Banda Sea are part ofWallacea, a biogeographical region that contains the islands lying between Asia and Australia which haven't been joined to either continent. The islands of Wallacea are home to a mix of plant and animal species from both tropicalAsia (theIndomalayan realm) and theAustralasian realm which includes Australia and New Guinea.
The Tanimbar Islands, Kai Islands, and Barat Daya Islands (except for Wetar) in the southeastern Banda Sea form theBanda Sea Islands moist deciduous forestsecoregion. These islands are covered in mostly-intact rain forest, and home to a number ofendemic plants and animals including twenty-one bird species, a very high number for this small ecoregion. There are only twenty-two native mammals on these islands, including the raredusky pademelon(Thylogale brunii) andIndonesian tomb bat (Taphozous achates), and the endangeredendemicKei myotis bat(Myotis stalkeri). The birdlife is threatened by egg collectors and even more by cats and rodents that have been introduced to the islands.Yamdena in the Tanimbar Islands is an example of a large and fairly unspoilt habitat and is a protected area.[11] The base for visiting these islands is by plane or ship fromAmbon Island to the north. The Banda and Kai Islands, although remote, are visited by tourists for snorkelling and for their unspoilt beaches. Various cetacean species have been recorded including either or bothblue andpygmy blue whales[12][13][14] andOmura's whales.[15]
^Hamilton, W. (1979). Tectonics of the Indonesian Region (Report). United States Geological Survey Professional Papers. Vol. 1078. United States Government Printing Office.doi:10.3133/pp1078.
^Olson, D. M., Dinerstein, E. 2002. The Global 200: Priority ecoregions for global conservation.Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 89(2):199-224,[1]Archived 2016-05-13 at theWayback Machine.
^Wikramanayake, Eric; Dinerstein, Eric; Loucks, Colby J.; et al. (1 December 2001),Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment, Washington, DC: Island Press,ISBN978-1559639231
Ponder, H. W. (1944)In Javanese waters; some sidelights on a few of the countless lovely, little known islands scattered over the Banda sea & some glimpses of their strange & stormy history London, Seeley, Service & Co. ltd.
Patrick D. Nunn (1994)Oceanic Islands Oxford, Great Britain, Blackwell
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