Luzon Strait
21°0′N 121°0′E / 21.000°N 121.000°E
The Luzon Strait is the strait between the island country of Taiwan and Luzon island of the Philippines. The strait thereby connects the Philippine Sea to the South China Sea in the western Pacific Ocean.[1][2]
The strait is approximately 250 kilometres (160 mi) wide containing a number of islands grouped into two groups: the Batanes Islands of Batanes province and the Babuyan Islands of Cagayan province, both of the Philippines.
The strait is divided into a number of smaller channels. The Babuyan Channel separates Luzon from the Babuyan Islands, which is separated from the Batanes Islands by the Balintang Channel. Batanes is separated from Taiwan by the Bashi Channel.
This is an important strait for shipping and communications. Many ships from the Americas use this route to go important East Asian ports. Many submarine communications cables pass through the Luzon Strait. These cables provide important data and telephony services to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. [3]
History
The Luzon Strait was part of the Japanese invasion route in December 1941. On December 8 (the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack, because of the date line), they landed on Batanes. On December 10, they occupied Camiguin Island of Babuyan (not to be confused with Camiguin Island just north of Mindanao) in a soon-abandoned attempt to establish a seaplane base, and on the same day landed at Aparri, Cagayan on Luzon.
Subsequently, many US submarines hunted Japanese convoys passing through the strait on their way from the East Indies to Japan.
References
- ^ "Pacific Ocean". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved on 2011-06-20.
- ^ "Southeast Asia Map". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved on 2011-06-20.
- ^ Greenlees, Donald and Arnold, Wayne (2006-12-29). "Asia scrambles to fix quake damage to data cables". CNET News.com.