A STUDY ON TEMPERATURE AND SALINITY OF 

 THE SURROUNDING WATERS OF TAIWAN 



By Chu Tsu-yao 



Taiwan Weather Bureau, Taipei, Taiwan 



I. Introduction 



Taiwan lies 150 km. off the coast of Fukien and is now a province 

 of China. It consists of a main island and many small ones. The main 

 island, widely known as Formosa, resembles a spindle extending from 

 north to south with a coast line about 1500 km. The Penghu or Pes- 

 cadores is a group of islands in the middle of the Taiwan Channel. 

 Other small islands such as Penkiayu, Lanyu, Lotao, etc. are found in 

 the vicinities along the north and east coasts of the main island. 



The main island of Taiwan stands on the edge of the continental 

 shelf of Asia and some of the small islands are of volcanic origin. The 

 depths of the surrounding waters are, therefore, strictly different be- 

 tween the east and west sides of the island. In the Pacific ocean off the 

 east coast, the slope of the bottom is very steep and the deep water 

 1 caches close to the island. At some places such as Hu'alien and Tai- 

 tung, the bathymetric line of 3000 meters is within 100 km. from the 

 coast. On the other hand, the water in the Taiwan Channel is very 

 shallow and in most parts of it the depths are below 100 meters. The 

 topography of the bottom is very irregular and numerous rocks, reefs 

 and banks rise from the bottom and some of them are exposed to the 

 open air during the time of low tide. In the East China Sea off the 

 north coast of the island, the depths are also less than 200 meters. It 

 is much deeper in the South China Sea where we can find the deep 

 water over 3000 meters. 



Taiwan is located in the subtropical zone of the West Pacific where 

 the North Equatorial Current turns northward and becomes the source 

 region of the "Kuroshio" with properties of warm current. The main 

 iloAv of the Kuroshio passes along the east coast of Taiwan and curves 

 gradually northeastward far to the coast of Japan. A small part of the 

 Kuroshio runs westward through the Bashi Channel and, after passing 

 it, divides to two branches. One enters into the South China Sea while 

 the other runs north^vard around the west coast of the island and re- 

 joins the main flow of the Kuroshio in the East China Sea. Along the 

 coast of Fukien province, there is a different system of current running 

 from north to south. It has the name of China Coastal Current, and 



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