Gulf
Gulf of Carpentaria
Natural Earth’s outline of the Gulf of Carpentaria measures about 290,000 km² (112,000 mi²), the 21st largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, and about the same size as the Philippines.
200 km
- Philippines
- Gulf of Carpentaria
The numbers
- 290,000km²Area, measured112,000 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 300,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · 3.2% above our measure
- 82mGreatest depthWikidata
The area is measured from the outline drawn above, on the WGS84 ellipsoid; the published figure is shown beside it, and a water body is kept only if the two are within 10%.
What the numbers say about the Gulf of Carpentaria
- The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 14.2× the size of the Gulf of Carpentaria; the Gulf of Carpentaria ranks 21st.
- The Gulf of Carpentaria sits between the Gulf of Thailand (299,000 km²) and the Persian Gulf (243,000 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, the Gulf of Carpentaria would be larger than 139 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 74th by area, between the Philippines (293,000 km²) and Burkina Faso (273,000 km²).
- It is larger than 45 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Nevada, 287,000 km²) and smaller than 6.
- It is larger than 23 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Guangxi, 237,000 km²) and smaller than 8.
- The closest US state is Nevada (287,000 km²): the Gulf of Carpentaria is about the same size as Nevada.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 82 m.
- The Gulf of Carpentaria lies at 15°S, close to the equator, where a standard web map (Web Mercator) is nearly true to size: it inflates area by only about 1.1×.
- Laid out flat, the Gulf of Carpentaria stretches about 608 km north to south and 704 km east to west.
- Our measured 290,000 km² is 3.2% below Wikidata’s published figure of 300,000 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.
About the same size as
Countries
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Australia lie within 25 km of the outline of the Gulf of Carpentaria. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.
Where the Gulf of Carpentaria ranks
The Gulf of Carpentaria is the 21st largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare the Gulf of Carpentaria
Share this outline
Sources and method
- Outline
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Marine Areas (geography_marine_polys), public domain (Marine Areas (geography_marine_polys)). Natural Earth draws marine areas for labels and cuts them at named sub-areas; the outline is kept because its area matches the published one.
- Boundary
- A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own. The outline is a cartographic one, and the page says so by showing the measured area beside the published one.
- Area basis
- Measured outline: computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outline and shown rounded. Published figure: Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11. An outline is kept within 10% of the published figure and matched to other places automatically within 5%.
- Depth, volume, height
- As recorded in Wikidata; a volume that cannot be right for the area and depth is left out.
- Shore
- Countries whose Natural Earth outline contains or comes close to the water's outline; computed, not a statement of ownership.
- Drawing
- Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and two can be laid over each other.
- Data built
- 2026-11-11