lies south of

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanag ...

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island se ...

, central Japan, contained within the scope of the

Miura Peninsula is a peninsula located in Kanagawa, Japan. It lies south of Yokohama and Tokyo and divides Tokyo Bay, to the east, from Sagami Bay, to the west. Cities and towns on the Miura Peninsula include Yokosuka, Miura, Hayama, Zushi, and Kamakur ...

, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the

Shōnan is the name of a region along the coast of Sagami Bay in Kanagawa Prefecture, central Japan. Centered on Sagami River, about 60 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, the Shōnan region stretches from Ninomiya in the west to Fujisawa in the east, i ...

coastline to the north, while the island of

Izu Ōshima is an inhabited volcanic island in the Izu archipelago in the Philippine Sea, off the coast of Honshu, Japan, east of the Izu Peninsula and southwest of Bōsō Peninsula. As with the other islands in the Izu Island group, Izu Ōshima for ...

marks the southern extent of the bay. It lies approximately southwest of the capital,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. Cities on the bay include

Odawara is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 188,482 and a population density of 1,700 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Odawara lies in the Ashigara Plains, in the far western por ...

Chigasaki is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 242,798 and a population density of 6800 people per km². The total area of the city is . Geography The city is located on the eastern bank of the Sagami ...

, Fujisawa,

Hiratsuka 260px, Hiratsuka City Hall is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 257,316 and a population density of 3800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Hiratsuka is located ...

, Itō, and Kamakura.

History

The center of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923 was deep beneath

Island in Sagami Bay. It devastated Tokyo, the port city of

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba,

Kanagawa is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanagaw ...

, and

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. The shallow nature of the seabed on the north of the bay, and the funnelling effect of

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

and

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

wave energy, contributed to certain parts of the Shonan coast having suffered considerable damage, including the destruction of the

Kōtoku-in is a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect, in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Its mountain name is , and its common temple name is . The temple is renowned for The Great Buddha of Kamakura, a monumental outdoor bronze st ...

temple housing the Great Buddha, or

Daibutsu or 'giant Buddha' is the Japanese term, often used informally, for large statues of Buddha. The oldest is that at Asuka-dera (609) and the best-known is that at Tōdai-ji in Nara (752). Tōdai-ji's daibutsu is a part of the UNESCO World Heritag ...

during the massive tsunami of 1498.

Natural environment

A branch of the warm

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black or or the is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

warms the bay, allowing it to host marine organisms typical of more southerly regions and giving a mild climate to the land bordering it. The maximum depth of Sagami Bay is about 1500 meters. Organisms from sub-arctic regions are advected into the bay by intrusions of the Oyashio Current resulting in very high

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

. It is the major study site for research programs at the University of Tokyo (ORI) and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). In 2004, soil samples from Sagami Bay were found to contain

radioactive contamination Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is unintended or undesirab ...

from the

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Seco ...

nuclear tests Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

that took place from 1946 to 1958.SEPA
The

Hikiji River The is a Class B river in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is also called and . The mouth of the river is known unagi spawning. Geography The source of the Hikiji River is Izumi no Mori (literally "Forest of Springs"), a park located in near ...

Sagami River The is a river in Kanagawa and Yamanashi Prefectures on the island of Honshū, Japan. The upper reaches of the river in Yamanashi prefecture are also sometimes known as the , and the portion near the river mouth as the . The river overall was ...

and Sakai River flow into the bay.

References

External links

* } {{Authority control Bays of Japan Landforms of Kanagawa Prefecture Manazuru, Kanagawa Yugawara, Kanagawa