Indian Ocean Seas

List of the Marginal Seas of the Indian Ocean

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The Indian Ocean is a relatively large ocean with an area of 26,469,900 square miles (68,566,000 sq km). It is the world's third largest ocean behind the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The Indian Ocean is located between Africa, the Southern Ocean, Asia and Australia and has an average depth of 13,002 feet (3,963 m). The Java Trench is its deepest point at -23,812 feet (-7,258 m). The Indian Ocean is most known for causing the monsoonal weather patterns that dominate much of Southeast Asia and for being an important chokepoint throughout history.
The Ocean also borders several marginal seas. A marginal sea is an area of water that is a "partially enclosed sea adjacent to or widely open to the open ocean" (Wikipedia.org). The Indian Ocean shares its borders with seven marginal seas. The following is a list of those seas arranged by area. All figures were obtained from Wikipedia.org's pages on each sea.
1) Arabian Sea
Area: 1,491,126 square miles (3,862,000 sq km)
2) Bay of Bengal
Area: 838,614 square miles (2,172,000 sq km)
3) Andaman Sea
Area: 231,661 square miles (600,000 sq km)
4) Red Sea
Area: 169,113 square miles (438,000 sq km)
5) Java Sea
Area: 123,552 square miles (320,000 sq km)
6) Persian Gulf
Area: 96,911 square miles (251,000 sq km)
7) Sea of Zanj (located off the east coast of Africa)
Area: Undefined
Reference
Infoplease.com. (n.d.). Oceans and Seas - Infoplease.com. Retrieved from: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001773.html#axzz0xMBpBmBw
Wikipedia.org. (28 August 2011). Indian Ocean - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_ocean
Wikipedia.org. (26 August June 2011). Marginal Sea - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_seas

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Briney, Amanda. "Indian Ocean Seas." ThoughtCo, Nov. 22, 2020, thoughtco.com/indian-ocean-seas-1435186. Briney, Amanda. (2020, November 22). Indian Ocean Seas. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/indian-ocean-seas-1435186 Briney, Amanda. "Indian Ocean Seas." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/indian-ocean-seas-1435186 (accessed March 19, 2024).