Everything about Korean Peninsula totally explained
The
Korean Peninsula is a
peninsula in
East Asia. It extends southwards for about 684 miles (1,100
km) from continental
Asia into the
Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the
Sea of Japan (East Sea) on the east, the
East China Sea to the south, and the
Yellow Sea to the west, the
Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water.
Until the end of
World War II,
Korea was a single political entity whose territory roughly coincided with the Korean Peninsula. Since the
cessation of the
Korean War in 1953, the northern half has been occupied by
North Korea, while the southern half has been occupied by
South Korea. "Korean (or Korea) Peninsula", or "Korea", is sometimes used to refer to these two
states together, though in South Korea, and in common discourse among many native English speakers, the word "Korea" refers specifically to the South. (This may be due to the perception of North Korea being a taboo subject in and of itself. Also, since North Koreans rarely travel outside of North Korea, the presumption is that any Korean one encounters is from the south).
The northern boundaries for the Korean Peninsula are commonly (and ) taken to coincide with today's political borders between North Korea and her northern neighbors,
China (1,416 km along the provinces of
Jilin and
Liaoning) and
Russia (19 km). These borders are formed naturally by the rivers
Yalu/Amnok and
Tumen/Tuman/Duman. Taking this definition, the Korean Peninsula (including its islands) has an area of 220,847
km².
The peninsula is called
Joseon Bando in
North Korea and
Han Bando in
South Korea due to the
different names for Korea.
Physical geography
Mountains cover 70 percent of the Korean Peninsula and arable plains are generally small and far in between the successive mountain ranges. The peninsula becomes more mountainous towards the north and the east, with the highest mountains (including
Baekdu Mountain which stands at 2,744 m or 9,003 feet) found in the north.
The peninsula has 8,460 kilometres of coastline, and the south and west coasts are highly irregular in particular; most of the 3,579 islands off the peninsula are found along the south and the west coasts.
Climate
The climate of the Korean Peninsula differs dramatically from north to south. The southern regions experience a relatively warm and wet climate similar to that of
Japan, affected by warm ocean waters including the
East Korea Warm Current. The northern regions experience a colder and to some extent more inland climate, in common with
Manchuria. For example, the annual precipitation of the
Yalu River valley (600 mm) is less than half of that on the south coast (1500 mm). Likewise, there's a 20 °C difference in January temperature between the peninsula's southern and northern tips.
The entire peninsula, however, is affected by similar general patterns, including the East Asian
monsoon in midsummer and the frequent incidence of typhoons in autumn. The majority of rainfall takes place during the summer months, with nearly half during the monsoon alone. Winters are cold, with January temperatures typically below freezing outside of
Jeju Island. Winter precipitation is minimal, with little snow accumulation outside of mountainous areas.
Biology
Surveys of Korean flora have identified more than 3,000 species on the peninsula, of which more than 500 are
endemic. The peninsula's
floristic provinces are commonly divided between
warm-temperate,
temperate, and
cold-temperate zones. The warm-temperate zone prevails over the southern coast and islands, including
Jeju. It is typified by a large number of
broad-leaved evergreens. The temperate zone covers the great majority of the peninsula, away from the southern coast and high mountains. It is dominated by the
Korean pine and various broad-leaved deciduous trees. Cold-temperate vegetation is found along the peninsula's northern fringe and in the high mountains, including the upper reaches of
Hallasan on Jeju. Evergreens in this area include
larch and
juniper. Much of this vegetation is shared with Manchuria.
Geology
The terrain of the Korean Peninsula is rumpled, covered with low mountains. Most rocks are of
Precambrian origin, although isolated pockets of
Paleozoic,
Mesozoic, and
Cenozoic rock can also be found.
There are no active volcanoes on the peninsula. However,
Baekdu Mountain in the north and Hallasan in the south have
crater lakes, indicating that they were active not long ago. Furthermore,
hot springs indicative of low-level volcanic activity are widespread throughout the peninsula. Roughly two earthquakes are recorded per year, but few have any major impact.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Korean Peninsula'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://korean_peninsula.totallyexplained.com">Korean Peninsula Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
