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.

1.The Indian Ocean has a total area of 73,440,000 square kilometres 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.

2.This ocean receives about 6000 km of river run off from various parts including rivers like Ganges and Brahmaputra- two of the largest rivers.

3.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.”

4.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.

5.Due to the melting of polar caps, the Indian Ocean actually grows wider by about 20 cm every year.

6.Indian Ocean has its own contribution in the world trade. Besides the navigation routes and mineral deposits, this ocean also has many oil deposits which make about 40 percent of total world production.

7.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.

8.Indian Ocean is its limited marine animal life which is due to higher water temperature of this ocean. This ocean is the warmest ocean of the world and offers little scope to plankton and other species for growth.Its rate 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.

9.An interesting trivia from Indian Ocean facts is the discovery of a submerged continent in this ocean named- the Kerguelen Plateau’ which is believed to be of volcanic origins.

10.Indian Ocean is bound by a number of continents on each side with Indian subcontinent towards the north, Africa towards west, The Sunda islands and Australian lands towards east and Antarctica towards south. The geographical facts about Indian Ocean depict the diversity of this Ocean through 57 islands groups, 16 African countries and 18 Asian countries being connected directly through its waters. Many other smaller ports or larger cities are connected indirectly through navigational options of this ocean.

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