Island in the Andaman Sea near Phi Phi Island, Thailand.
Andaman Sea, Sea, eastern extension of the Bay of Bengal. Bounded by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Myanmar, the Malay Peninsula, and the Strait of Malacca and Sumatra, it covers some 308,000 sq mi (798,000 sq km). Trading vessels have plied the sea since ancient times. Part of the early coastal trade route between India and China, from the 8th century it formed a route between India (and Sri Lanka) and Myanmar. Its largest modern ports are George Town (Malaysia) and Yangôn (Myanmar). A large earthquake-generated tsunami in 2004 inundated many of the sea’s coastal areas.
