Sea
Molucca Sea
Natural Earth’s outline of the Molucca Sea measures about 217,000 km² (83,900 mi²), the 24th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, and about the same size as Guyana.
100 km
- Molucca Sea
- Guyana
The numbers
- 217,000km²Area, measured83,900 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 200,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · 8.6% below our measure, flagged
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%. This one is between 5% and 10% apart, so it is flagged and no comparison is built for it automatically.
What the numbers say about the Molucca Sea
- The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 19.0× the size of the Molucca Sea; the Molucca Sea ranks 24th.
- The Molucca Sea sits between the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (242,000 km²) and the Bay of Biscay (216,000 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, the Molucca Sea would be larger than 129 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 84th by area, between Laos (228,000 km²) and Guyana (211,000 km²).
- It is larger than 38 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Idaho, 216,000 km²) and smaller than 13.
- It is larger than 22 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Hunan, 211,000 km²) and smaller than 9.
- The closest US state is Idaho (216,000 km²): the Molucca Sea is about the same size as Idaho.
- The Molucca Sea lies at 1°N, close to the equator, where a standard web map (Web Mercator) is nearly true to size: it inflates area by only about 1.0×.
- Laid out flat, the Molucca Sea stretches about 681 km north to south and 578 km east to west.
- Our measured 217,000 km² is 8.6% above Wikidata’s published figure of 200,000 km². This difference is flagged for review: a lake’s outline may include islands or bays that the published figure leaves out, or the water level may differ. The outline is kept because it is within 10%, and this page is not matched automatically to any other.
About the same size as
Countries
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Indonesia lie within 25 km of the outline of the Molucca Sea. 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 Molucca Sea ranks
The Molucca Sea is the 24th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
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%.
- 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