The Gulf of Thailand (Thai: อ่าวไทย, RTGS: Ao Thai, Thai pronunciation: [ʔàːw tʰaj]), also known to Malays as Teluk Siam, literally meaning Gulf of Siam, and Boeung Tonle Siem in Khmer is a shallow arm of the South China Sea.
The Gulf of Thailand is bordered by Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The northern tip of the gulf is the Bay of Bangkok at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River. The gulf covers roughly 320,000 km². The boundary of the gulf is d...
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The Gulf of Thailand (Thai: อ่าวไทย, RTGS: Ao Thai, Thai pronunciation: [ʔàːw tʰaj]), also known to Malays as Teluk Siam, literally meaning Gulf of Siam, and Boeung Tonle Siem in Khmer is a shallow arm of the South China Sea.
The Gulf of Thailand is bordered by Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The northern tip of the gulf is the Bay of Bangkok at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River. The gulf covers roughly 320,000 km². The boundary of the gulf is defined by the line from Cape Bai Bung in southern Vietnam (just south of the mouth of the Mekong river) to the city Kota Baru on the Malaysian coast. At the height of the last ice age the Gulf of Thailand did not exist, due to the lower sea level, the location being part of the Chao Phraya river valley.
The Gulf of Thailand is relatively shallow: its mean depth is 45 m, and the maximum depth only 80 m. This makes water exchange slow, and the strong water inflow from the rivers make the Gulf low in salinity (3.05-3.25%) and rich in sediments....
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