How Was the Indian Ocean a Continuity

The world's earliest, historical, and most iconic civilizations emerged in the areas surrounding the Indian Ocean (Mesopotamia and Indus Valley, anyone?). But this is not the only thing that is interesting about this great body of water. Its vastness hides a lot of mysteries, which scientists have been constantly working on to decipher and discover up to this very day.

Interesting Facts About the Indian Ocean

• The Indian Ocean has a total area of 73,440,000 square kilometers or 28,360,000 square miles.
• Its size makes the Indian Ocean the third largest body of water in the world. It covers approximately a fifth of the Earth's surface.
• Recently, scientists have found a "lost continent" whose remains are thought to exist in the depths of the Indian Ocean. Scientists are now calling this undiscovered land mass "Mauritia."
• The Indian Ocean's deepest point is the Sunda Deep, which is located in the Java Trench near the southern part of Java, Indonesia. It has a maximum depth of 25,344 ft.
• Due to the melting of polar caps, the Indian Ocean actually grows wider by about 20cm every year.
• About forty percent of world's oil supply is sourced from the depths of the Indian Ocean.
• Because of its vastness, the Indian Ocean contributes a lot to the world's water load. It has an estimated volume of 292,131,000 cubic kilometers.
• Some of the world's most important and historical trading ports are in the Indian Ocean. These include the ports in Durban and Richards Bay in South Africa; Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai in India; Melbourne in Australia; Jakarta in Indonesia; and Colombo in Sri Lanka.
• The Indian Ocean receives 6,000 kilometers of river runoff from large rivers like the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.
• Due to its depth, the highest point in the Indian Ocean is the sea level itself.
• The Indian Ocean is known as the warmest ocean in the world. Its rate of warming is also the fastest among the tropical oceans, further exacerbated by greenhouse warming and climate change.
• Its warmth makes the Indian Ocean not conducive to marine life compared to the other world oceans.
• Despite the limited marine life, a huge concentration of phytoplankton can be found in the western part of the Indian Ocean, due to the yearly monsoon winds (especially around summer).
• The water from the Indian Ocean has unique chemical properties of its own. Its water has a high concentration of hydrocarbons (both dissolved and floating) and a negative water balance at maximum levels.
• Indian Ocean water has the lowest oxygen content in the world. This can be attributed to the fast evaporation rate in the area.
• While the rest of world refer to it as the "Indian Ocean," ancient Sanskrit texts have named this body of water as Ratnakara ("mine of gems") while Hindi tradition refers to it as Hind Mahasagar.
• The Indian Ocean reaches and connects four continents (Asia, Australia, Africa, and Antarctica), 18 countries in Asia, 16 countries in Africa, and at least 57 island groups.
• Aside from its high temperature, the low oxygen content in the Indian Ocean is also responsible for it having limited sea life.
• There is a large igneous province (LIP) in the southern Indian Ocean called the Kerguelen Plateau. This Plateau is thought to be volcanic in origin and is the largest of its kind in the world.
• Every year, the Indian Ocean is subjected to a whole lot pollution from oil spills and ships. The Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and the Red Sea are the most pollution-prone areas in the Indian Ocean.
• An underwater mountain ridge called the Ninety East Ridge acts as a divider between the eastern and western regions of the Indian Ocean.
• The Ninety East Ridge underwater mountain range (which separates the east and west regions of the Indian Ocean) is named as such because it is located at the center of the Eastern Hemisphere, along with the 90th meridian.
• The world's lowest and highest water salinity levels were both recorded in the Indian Ocean.
• When compared to other world oceans, the Indian Ocean is relatively closed. It is primarily landlocked by Asia to its north.
• The Indian Ocean has the fewest trenches among the world oceans. Its most prominent one and the world's second longest, the Java Trench, stretches past Sumatra and extends up to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• The widest points of the continental shelf in the Indian Ocean is located off Bombay on the western coast of India and off northwestern Australia.
• Because of its highly complex ridge topography, the Indian Ocean became the site of many basins that range from a smallish-size of 200 miles up to large ones that measure 5600 miles.
• The Indian Ocean has an abundant amount of seamounts (i.e. extinct submarine volcanoes). Most of them can be found in the Central Indian Basin near Seychelles and Reunion.
• Scientists and researchers are in consensus that the Indian Ocean has the most complicated origin among the three largest world oceans.
• It is believed that the Indian was formed during the breakup and subsequent collision of the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana and Eurasia.
• Scientists believe that the Indian Ocean took on its present configuration and formed around 36 million years ago.
• Though it is dated to have formed nearly 140 million years ago, the majority of the Indian Ocean basin dates back only less than 80 million years.
• Among geographers and scientists, there is no consensus regarding the southern boundary of the Indian Ocean. Some say that the Indian Ocean extends south to the coast of Antarctica, while people in Australia consider most of the waters near Antarctica (which includes parts of the Pacific and Atlantic) to be part of the Antarctic Ocean itself.
• Among the world's oceans, the Indian Ocean has the fewest marginal seas. These include the Great Australian Bight (near the south coast of Australia), the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Andaman Sea.
• While the borders of the Indian Ocean remain unsettled among geographers, the border that it shares with the Atlantic Ocean near the southern tip of Africa up to the shores is universally accepted to be a clear delineation.
• The Indian Ocean's waters touch those of the Pacific's near its east and southwest regions.
• One of the world's most disastrous natural event happened in the Indian Ocean. This was the tsunami of 2004 which claimed about 200,000 lives.

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Source: https://www.whatarethe7continents.com/40-facts-indian-ocean/

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