Marginal seas—Terminological crisis

The terms marginal sea, peripheral sea, and backarc sea are widely used in the contemporary Russian geological literature as synonyms but do not have, in my opinion, unequivocal treatment. The application of the term marginal sea is briefly discussed. The seas of the Pacific transitional zone are reviewed. It is proposed to define a marginal sea as a marine basin a few thousand kilometers in extent and connected with the open ocean. Domains underlain by crust of the continental and oceanic types must coexist therein. The domains with oceanic crust are expressed in the topography as deepwater basins (one or several), where fragments of continental crust may also occur. A marginal sea must be bounded by at least one island arc.