The Adolphus Channel is a
channel located in the
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, �zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...
, situated northeast of
Cape York, in
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
, Australia.
Geography
The channel runs north of the
Albany Island, one of the islands of the Manar group of the
Torres Strait Islands
The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...
archipelago, and to the south of
Mount Adolphus Island.
It is about across at its narrowest point, mostly less than about in depth and opens towards the west (into the Torres Strait) and towards the east (into the
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
lagoon). Submarine dunes (
sand waves) up to tall migrate along the Adolphus Channel seabed, posing a potential risk to safe navigation.
[Harris, P.T., 1989. Sandwave movement under tidal and wind-driven currents in a shallow marine environment: Adolphus Channel, northeastern Australia. Continental Shelf Research 9, 981-1002]
Much of the area has dual naming with traditional names from the
Torres Strait Islander
Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...
people.
Shipping use
Adolphus Channel is a major shipping route for traffic passing from the eastern (
Coral Sea
The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...
) coast of Australia to the
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...
,
Arafura Sea and regions further west.
[
]
History
On the night of 28 February 1890, the Royal Mail Ship RMS ''Quetta'' struck a rock and sank in Adolphus Channel, sending 134 of her passengers to their deaths.
Islands
Adjacent to the channel are a group of islands, part of the Torres Strait Islands archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...
, comprising:
* Albany Island
*Bush Islet
*Eborac Island[
]
See also
* List of Torres Strait Islands
References
Further reading
* Gadke, Christopher (2001). The architecture of the Torres Strait Islands : from the vernacular to the 'South Sea' type t. Lucia, Qld.
{{Torres Strait , state=autocollapse
Torres Strait channels and passages