Configuration of the Indian Ocean and location of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The Indian Ocean is bounded by Iran, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh to the north; the Malay Peninsula, the Sunda Islands of Indonesia, and Australia to the east; Antarctica to the south; and Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to the west. Island nations are located in the Indian Ocean, such as Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka. Likewise, it is home to hundreds of islands. It has an area of about 73,440,000 square km. The Indian Ocean’s average depth is 3,960 metres, and its deepest point, in the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench off the southern coast of the island of Java (Indonesia), is 7,450 metres. During the long span of time, since the Late Jurassic period (152myr) to present., the formation, evolution and present configuration of the Indian ocean obtained its inheritable characteristics, such as oceanic ridges and fracture zones, seamounts, ocean basins, trenches and continental rise, slope, and shelf. Besides, several well-defined coastal morphological features are found in the Indian Ocean: estuaries, deltas, salt marshes, mangrove swamps, cliffs, coral reefs, and complexes of barrier islands, lagoons, beaches, and coastal dunes which are highly significance for ecoand geo-tourism. With the development and evolution of these phenomena in the Indian Ocean, the island of Sri Lanka moves from Late Jurassic period to its present position. During the Upper Jurassic Period Sri Lanka was positioned within 65o S-67o S and 32oE-36oE in the Indian Ocean, and with the Sri Lanka detached from the southern supercontinent Gondwanaland, the Indian Ocean began to open up.