Oceanography

The Indian Ocean

          Historically the Indian Ocean was a well-known commercial route that linked the trade centres of Ujjan, India, Baghdad, and Alexandria. One contributing factor to the proliferation of sea trade among these cities was the monsoon currents that helped the sailors to undertake long voyages in the Indian Ocean.

          The Indian Ocean is roughly triangular in shape and is enclosed by the Indian subcontinent, the east coast of Africa, and the northern and western coasts of Australia. India’s three largest rivers, in terms of volume of water and length , the Ganges, the Indus, and the Brahmaputra, discharge the world’s largest amount of terrestrial sediment into the Indian Ocean. The periphery of the Indian Ocean includes the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal. Madagascar and Sri Lanka are the largest-sized islands in the Indian Ocean. 

Monsoon: Winds of the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean that flow from the ocean to the land (i.e., from southwest) during summer and from land to the ocean (i.e.north east) in winter time.