Ocean Floor Map

Sulu Sea depth map

Sea: average depth about 1,639 m, deepest 5,211 m (GEBCO_2026 grid).

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

Sea level todayDrag the slider to lower the sea and see the land that would appear.

Sea level in metres below today’s. A simple bathtub model: it lowers the sea everywhere by the same amount and does not simulate how the water would really drain.

Key

Sea depth

  • Deeper than 6,000 m
  • 4,000 to 6,000 m
  • 2,000 to 4,000 m
  • 1,000 to 2,000 m
  • 200 to 1,000 m
  • Shallower than 200 m (the continental shelf)

Land height

  • Land up to 500 m
  • 500 to 2,000 m
  • Above 2,000 m

Drain the oceans

  • Seabed exposed when the sea is lowered A dashed white line marks today’s coast.

How to read the map. Darker blue is deeper water. Tap anywhere to see how deep the sea is there, or how high the land is, and the nearest named undersea feature. Depths come from the GEBCO_2026 grid, which in most of the deep ocean is predicted from satellite measurements of the sea surface rather than surveyed by ship, and the map’s tiles are coarser than the grid, so narrow trenches read shallower on the map than their true depth. Not for navigation.

Sulu Sea at a glance

  • 1,639 maverage depth
  • 1,199 mmedian depth
  • 5,211 mmaximum depth
  • 321,930 km²water area

Sulu Sea is a sea. Inside its outline the GEBCO grid has about 321,930 km² of water, with an average depth of about 1,639 m (the middle value is 1,199 m) and a maximum of 5,211 m, found at 7.43° N, 121.52° E.

Open the map at the deepest cell and tap to read the depth.

How deep is each part of the Sulu Sea?

The bar splits the Sulu Sea's water by depth. Each colour is a depth band, and the shares add up to 100%.

  • 0 to 200 m: 30.5%
  • 200 to 1,000 m: 16.7%
  • 1,000 to 4,000 m: 39%
  • 4,000 to 6,000 m: 13.8%
  • below 6,000 m: 0%

Named features near the deepest point: Sulu Trench (29 km), Submarine 1922 (483 km), Sangihe Trench (522 km), Philippine Trench (637 km).

The Sulu Sea if sea level dropped

The slider on the map lowers the sea in steps. This table shows how much of the Sulu Sea's water would be land at each step.

Sea level lowered byBecomes landShare of its water
10 m9,205 km²2.9%
20 m20,054 km²6.2%
50 m44,259 km²13.7%
80 m67,466 km²21%
120 m84,642 km²26.3%
200 m98,169 km²30.5%
500 m128,641 km²40%
1,000 m151,915 km²47.2%
2,000 m203,947 km²63.4%
3,000 m239,358 km²74.4%
4,000 m277,510 km²86.2%
6,000 m321,930 km²100%

A simple bathtub model: it lowers the sea everywhere by the same amount and does not simulate how water would really drain.

Nearby seas

Nearest by the centre of each outline. All oceans and seas

Frequently asked questions

How deep is the Sulu Sea?

On average about 1,639 m in the GEBCO grid (the middle value is 1,199 m). The deepest cell inside its outline is 5,211 m, at 7.43° N, 121.52° E.

How big is the Sulu Sea?

About 321,930 km² of water inside its Natural Earth outline, counted from the grid cells that are below sea level.

How much of the Sulu Sea would be land if sea level dropped?

With the sea 10 m lower, about 9,205 km² (2.9%) of its water would be land. At 6,000 m lower, 100% would be. This is a simple bathtub model that lowers the sea evenly everywhere.

Data: depths from the GEBCO_2026 grid, statistics worked out inside the Natural Earth outline of the sea. See data sources and licences. The GEBCO Grid should NOT be used for navigation or for any other purpose involving safety at sea.

All oceans and seas · Undersea features · Drain the oceans

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.