Ocean Floor Map

Irish Sea depth map

Sea: average depth about 52 m, deepest 307 m (GEBCO_2026 grid).

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

Sea level todayDrag the slider to lower the sea and see the land that would appear.

Sea level in metres below today’s. A simple bathtub model: it lowers the sea everywhere by the same amount and does not simulate how the water would really drain.

Key

Sea depth

  • Deeper than 6,000 m
  • 4,000 to 6,000 m
  • 2,000 to 4,000 m
  • 1,000 to 2,000 m
  • 200 to 1,000 m
  • Shallower than 200 m (the continental shelf)

Land height

  • Land up to 500 m
  • 500 to 2,000 m
  • Above 2,000 m

Drain the oceans

  • Seabed exposed when the sea is lowered A dashed white line marks today’s coast.

How to read the map. Darker blue is deeper water. Tap anywhere to see how deep the sea is there, or how high the land is, and the nearest named undersea feature. Depths come from the GEBCO_2026 grid, which in most of the deep ocean is predicted from satellite measurements of the sea surface rather than surveyed by ship, and the map’s tiles are coarser than the grid, so narrow trenches read shallower on the map than their true depth. Not for navigation.

Irish Sea at a glance

  • 52 maverage depth
  • 46 mmedian depth
  • 307 mmaximum depth
  • 48,890 km²water area

Irish Sea is a sea. Inside its outline the GEBCO grid has about 48,890 km² of water, with an average depth of about 52 m (the middle value is 46 m) and a maximum of 307 m, found at 54.73° N, 5.23° W.

Open the map at the deepest cell and tap to read the depth.

How deep is each part of the Irish Sea?

The bar splits the Irish Sea's water by depth. Each colour is a depth band, and the shares add up to 100%.

  • 0 to 200 m: 99.9%
  • 200 to 1,000 m: 0.1%
  • 1,000 to 4,000 m: 0%
  • 4,000 to 6,000 m: 0%
  • below 6,000 m: 0%

Named features near the deepest point: Beaufort's Dyke (14 km), Hebrides Terrace Seamount (372 km), The Well (416 km), Devil's Hole (426 km).

The Irish Sea if sea level dropped

The slider on the map lowers the sea in steps. This table shows how much of the Irish Sea's water would be land at each step.

Sea level lowered byBecomes landShare of its water
10 m3,857 km²7.9%
20 m9,191 km²18.8%
50 m26,266 km²53.7%
80 m37,950 km²77.6%
120 m47,531 km²97.2%
200 m48,833 km²99.9%
500 m48,890 km²100%
1,000 m48,890 km²100%
2,000 m48,890 km²100%
3,000 m48,890 km²100%
4,000 m48,890 km²100%
6,000 m48,890 km²100%

A simple bathtub model: it lowers the sea everywhere by the same amount and does not simulate how water would really drain.

Nearby seas

Nearest by the centre of each outline. All oceans and seas

Frequently asked questions

How deep is the Irish Sea?

On average about 52 m in the GEBCO grid (the middle value is 46 m). The deepest cell inside its outline is 307 m, at 54.73° N, 5.23° W.

How big is the Irish Sea?

About 48,890 km² of water inside its Natural Earth outline, counted from the grid cells that are below sea level.

How much of the Irish Sea would be land if sea level dropped?

With the sea 10 m lower, about 3,857 km² (7.9%) of its water would be land. At 6,000 m lower, 100% would be. This is a simple bathtub model that lowers the sea evenly everywhere.

Data: depths from the GEBCO_2026 grid, statistics worked out inside the Natural Earth outline of the sea. See data sources and licences. The GEBCO Grid should NOT be used for navigation or for any other purpose involving safety at sea.

All oceans and seas · Undersea features · Drain the oceans

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