The Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is often thought of incorrectly as a tropical ocean. Check your map! It stretches southward to Antarctica. It is triangular and bordered by Africa, Asia, Antarctica, and, Australia. Although it covers about 28.5 million square miles, it is smaller than the Atlantic and less than half the size of the Pacific Ocean. The maximum width is 6,200 miles between the southernmost portions of Africa and Australia. The Indian Ocean contains about 20 percent of the earth's water surface. Many island nations are found within the boundaries of this ocean - Madagascar, which is the world's fourth largest island, the Seychelles, Maldives, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka.
The average depth of the Indian Ocean is about 12,750 feet. The deepest is 24,440 feet in the Java Trench in the extreme northeast corner of the basin. The Indian Ocean, like the Atlantic Ocean is divided by a mid-ocean ridge that separates the basin into nearly equal portions. The ocean's continental shelves are narrow, averaging 125 miles in width except off Australia's western coast where it broadens to 600 miles.
 Photo :: Indian Ocean © 2004 Diane Buccheri, OCEAN Magazine. See below
Natural resources: oil and gas fields, fish, shrimp, sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules
Environment - current issues: endangered marine species include the dugong, seals, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea
Ports and harbors: Calcutta (India), Chennai (Madras; India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban (South Africa), Jakarta (Indonesia), Melbourne (Australia), Mumbai (Bombay; India), Richards Bay (South Africa)
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Area:
total: 68.556 million sq km includes Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Great Australian Bight, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Mozambique Channel, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Strait of Malacca, and other tributary water bodies
Area - comparative: about 5.5 times the size of the US
Coastline: 66,526 km
Climate: northeast monsoon (December to April), southwest monsoon (June to October); tropical cyclones occur during May/June and October/November in the northern Indian Ocean and January/February in the southern Indian Ocean
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Java Trench -7,258 m
highest point: sea level 0 m
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More..
  In its second year of creation, OCEAN continues its
celebration.
OCEAN Magazine publishes articles, stories, and poems about the ocean –– observations, experiences, scientific and environmental discussions –– written with fact and feeling, illustrated with images from nature.
OCEAN serves to celebrate and protect the greatest, most comprehensive resource for life on earth, our world’s ocean. OCEAN is an adventure. It’s informative and inspiring, invigorating and soothing.
Each issue asks its readers, What does the Ocean mean to you? A waves section shares quoted sentiments and readers’ statements. The photo contest winner is displayed on a two-page spread.
This quarterly publication produces an issue every January 1, April 1, June 1, and October 1 and is sold by individual copy and subscription.
Be a part of this exciting literary and photojournalistic endeavor.
Come, share. Enjoy!
 OceanMag.org
Tsunami Photos and News
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 Tsunami (pronounced tsoo-NAH-mee) is a Japanese word meaning "harbor wave." A tsunami is a wave or series of waves that are generated in a body of water by a sudden disturbance that displaces water. They are typically caused by earthquakes and landslides in coastal regions. Volcanic eruptions, nuclear explosions, and even impact of meteorites, asteroids, and comets from outer space can generate a tsunami.
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The latest Tsunami (2004 December 26 00:58:49 UTC [07:58:49 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok]) came just three days after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in a completely uninhabited region west of New Zealand's Auckland Islands, and north of Australia's Macquarie Island. Also the earthquake struck almost exactly one year (within an hour) after a magnitude 6.6 earthquake killed an estimated 30,000 people in the city of Bam in Iran (2003 December 26 01:56:52 UTC) . For more information try Wikipedia
Death toll :
Indonesia: 237,071
Sri Lanka: 30,957
India: 16,389
Thailand: 5,393
Maldives: 82
Malaysia: 68
Myanmar: 61
Bangladesh: 2
Somalia: 298
Tanzania: 10
Kenya: 1
Total: 290,332
* The figures include 127,774 listed as missing in Indonesia and 5,640 in India
In addition, 3,071 people are listed as missing in Thailand and 5,637 in Sri Lanka but not included in the toll because of possible double counting.
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Biggest / Worst Natural Disasters
HIGHEST DEATH TOLL FROM A FLOOD
An estimated 900,000 people were killed when the Huang He (Yellow River), Huayan Kou, China, burst its banks in October 1887.
HIGHEST DEATH TOLL FROM A TSUNAMI
Following an earthquake off the coast of Sanriku, Japan, in 1896, approximately 27,000 people were drowned when a tsunami hit the coast.
HIGHEST DEATH TOLL FROM A VOLCANIC ERUPTION
When the Tambora volcano in Sumbawa, Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies) erupted from April 5-10, 1815, 92,000 people were killed.
HIGHEST DEATH TOLL FROM AN EARTHQUAKE
An earthquake that struck the Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan Provinces of China on February 2, 1556, is believed to have killed approximately 830,000.
HIGHEST EARTHQUAKE DEATH TOLL OF MODERN TIMES
The highest earthquake death toll in modern times was caused by one that hit Tangshan, China, on July 28, 1976. The official figure of 655,237 deaths
LATEST TSUNAMI TRAGEDY
300,000 and counting.. (Feb 01, 2005)
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