| Moro Gulf | |
|---|---|
 The gulf seen from Lebak | |
  Moro Gulf Location within the Philippines  Moro Gulf Moro Gulf (Philippines) | |
| Location | Mindanao Island |
| Coordinates | 6°51′00″N123°00′00″E / 6.8500°N 123.0000°E |
| Type | Gulf |
| Etymology | Moro |
| Part of | Celebes Sea |
| Basin countries | Philippines |
| Settlements |
|
The Moro Gulf is the largest gulf in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Mindanao Island, and is part of the Celebes Sea. The gulf is one of the country's tuna fishing grounds. [1]
The gulf stretches between and is surrounded by the main section of Mindanao on the east, and the Zamboanga Peninsula of Mindanao on the west. The peninsula's major drainage goes towards the gulf. [2]
Sibuguey Bay and Illana Bay are its major bays.
Zamboanga City, which is an international port, is bound by the Gulf and Celebes Sea in the East. [3] Cotabato City, on the eastern coast, is another major port.
The Moro Gulf is also an area of significant tectonic activity with several fault zones in the region capable of producing major earthquakes and destructive local tsunamis, such as the devastating 1976 Moro Gulf earthquake which killed over 5,000 people and left over 90,000 people homeless as it hit the west coast of Mindanao.
Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of the same name that also includes its adjacent islands, notably the Sulu Archipelago. According to the 2020 census, Mindanao had a population of 26,252,442, while the entire island group had an estimated population of 27,021,036.
The Philippines is an archipelago that comprises 7,641 islands, and with a total land area of 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi), it is the world's fifth largest island country. The eleven largest islands contain 95% of the total land area. The largest of these islands is Luzon at about 105,000 square kilometers (40,541 sq mi). The next largest island is Mindanao at about 95,000 square kilometers (36,680 sq mi). The archipelago is around 800 kilometers (500 mi) from the Asian mainland and is located between Taiwan and Borneo.
The Sulu Archipelago is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in the southwestern Philippines. The archipelago forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea and southern limit of the Sulu Sea. The Sulu Archipelago islands are within the Mindanao island group, consisting of the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi; hence the archipelago is sometimes referred to as Basulta, derived from the first syllables of the three provinces.
Zamboanga del Sur, officially the Province of Zamboanga del Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Zamboanga Peninsula region in Mindanao. Its capital is the city of Pagadian.
Zamboanga Peninsula is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region IX. It consists of three provinces including four cities and the highly urbanized Zamboanga City. The region was previously known as Western Mindanao before the signing of Executive Order No. 36 of 2001. The city of Zamboanga was designated as the regional center until Pagadian was designated as its new regional center, although Zamboanga City remains the region's cultural, commercial, economic, and educational center.
The Celebes Sea or Sulawesi Sea of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawesi's Minahasa Peninsula, and the west by northern Kalimantan in Indonesia. It extends 420 miles (675 km) north-south by 520 mi (840 km) east-west and has a total surface area of 110,000 square miles (280,000 km2), to a maximum depth of 20,300 feet (6,200 m). South of the Cape Mangkalihat, the sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea.
Pagadian, officially the City of Pagadian, is a 1st class component city and the capital of the province of Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. It is the regional center of Zamboanga Peninsula and the second-largest city in the region and in the province, after the independent city of Zamboanga. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 210,452 people. The city will be converted to a highly urbanized city by the virtue of Proclamation No. 1247, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte dated November 8, 2021.
Tukuran, officially the Municipality of Tukuran, is a 4th class municipality in the province of Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 42,429 people.
The Iranun are an Austronesian ethnic group native to southwestern Mindanao, Philippines. They are ethnically and culturally closely related to the Maranao, and Maguindanaon, all three groups being denoted as speaking Danao languages and giving name to the island of Mindanao. The Iranun were traditionally sailors and were renowned for their ship-building skills. Iranun communities can also be found in Malaysia and Philippines.
The Sultanate of Maguindanao was a Sunni Muslim sultanate that ruled parts of the island of Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, especially in modern-day Maguindanao provinces, Soccsksargen, Zamboanga Peninsula and Davao Region. Its known historical influence stretches from the peninsula of Zamboanga to bay of Sarangani until Davao Gulf. During the era of European colonization, the sultanate maintained friendly relations with British and Dutch traders.
Sibuguey Bay is a large bay of the Moro Gulf, situated off the southwestern coast of Mindanao Island in the Philippines.
USS Kalamazoo (AOG-30) was a T1-M-A2 Mettawee-class gasoline tanker acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of transporting gasoline to warships in the fleet, and to remote Navy stations.
The 1976 Moro Gulf earthquake and tsunami occurred on August 17, 1976, at 00:11 local time near the islands of Mindanao and Sulu, in the Philippines. It measured 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale occurring at a depth of 20 km (12 mi). The earthquake was accompanied by a destructive tsunami that resulted in a majority of the estimated 5,000 to 8,000 fatalities. It was the deadliest and strongest earthquake in the Philippines in 58 years since the 1918 Celebes Sea earthquake.
Zamboanga City, officially the City of Zamboanga or Jambangan in the native Subanon language, is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Zamboanga Peninsula region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 977,234 people. It is the fifth-most populous and third-largest city by land area in the Philippines and also the second most populous in Mindanao after Davao City. It is the commercial and industrial center of the Zamboanga Peninsula Region.
The 2002 Mindanao earthquake struck the Philippines at 05:16 Philippine Standard Time on March 6. The world's sixth most powerful earthquake of the year, it registered a magnitude of 7.5 and was a megathrust earthquake. It originated near the Cotabato Trench, a zone of deformation situated between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Sunda Plate, and occurred very near to the Philippines' strongest earthquake for the 20th century, the 1918 Celebes Sea earthquake.
The 1897 Mindanao earthquakes occurred on September 20, 1897, at 19:06 UTC and September 21, 1897, at 05:12 UTC. The estimated epicentres of the two earthquakes are identical, lying just off the southwestern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines, south of Basilan island. The earthquakes were originally given estimated magnitudes of 8.6 and 8.7 on the surface wave magnitude scale by Charles Richter, but these were revised downwards by Katsuyuki Abe to 7.4 and 7.5 Ms, respectively. Contemporary reports noted that with few exceptions, all the masonry buildings in Zamboanga and Basilan were left in ruins.
The 1918 Celebes Sea earthquake occurred on August 15 at 12:18 UTC near the Moro Gulf coast of Mindanao. It had a magnitude of 8.3 on the moment magnitude scale and a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. It triggered a tsunami of up to 7 m in height and the combined effects of the earthquake and tsunami led to the deaths of 52 people.
Dumanquilas Bay is an arm of the Moro Gulf on the southern side of the Zamboanga Peninsula in western Mindanao island in the Philippines. It is shared between the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur on the eastern and northern shore, and Zamboanga Sibugay on the western shore. An irregularly shaped peninsula extending to Flecha Point separates it from Pagadian Bay to the east, while to the west, the bay connects with Sibuguey Bay through Canalizo Strait which separates Olutanga island from the mainland of Zamboanga. Politically, it is divided between the Zamboanga del Sur municipalities of Margosatubig, Vincenzo Sagun, Lapuyan and Kumalarang, and the Zamboangay Sibugay municipalities of Buug, Malangas and Alicia.
The Cotabato Trench is an oceanic trench in the Pacific Ocean, off the southwestern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines. Along this trench the oceanic crust of the Sunda Plate beneath the Celebes Sea is being subducted beneath the Philippines Mobile Belt. It forms part of a linked set of trenches along the western side of the Philippines formed over east-dipping subduction zones, including the Manila Trench and the Negros Trench. At its northern end the rate of convergence across this boundary is about 100 mm per year. It is a relatively young structure, forming during the late Miocene to Pliocene. This age is consistent with the estimated age of the sedimentary rocks in the accretionary wedge associated with the trench and the age of adakitic arc rocks on Mindanao thought to date the onset of subduction.
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