Bengal, Bay of

Part of the Indian Ocean.

Occupying about 839,000 sq mi (2,172,000 sq km), it is bordered by Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and the northern Malay Peninsula. It is about 1,000 mi (1,600 km) wide, with an average depth of more than 8,500 ft (2,600 m). Many large rivers, including the Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Ganges, and Brahmaputra, flow into it. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the bay's only islands, separate it from the Andaman Sea. It has long been crossed by Indian and Malaysian traders; Chinese maritime trading dates from the 12th century. Vasco da Gama led the first European voyage into the bay in 1498.

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▪ bay, Indian Ocean

Introduction

  large but relatively shallow embayment of the northeastern Indian Ocean, occupying an area of about 839,000 square miles (2,173,000 square km). It lies roughly between latitudes 5° and 22° N and longitudes 80° and 90° E. It is bordered by Sri Lanka and India to the west, Bangladesh to the north, and Myanmar (Burma) and the northern part of the Malay Peninsula to the east. According to the definition of the International Hydrographic Bureau, the southern boundary extends from Dondra Head at the southern end of Sri Lanka in the west to the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the east. The bay is about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) wide, with an average depth of more than 8,500 feet (2,600 metres). The maximum depth is 15,400 feet (4,694 metres). A number of large rivers—the Mahanadi (Mahanadi River), Godavari (Godavari River), Krishna (Krishna River), and Kaveri (Kaveri River) (Cauvery) on the west and the Ganges (Ganges River) (Ganga) and Brahmaputra (Brahmaputra River) on the north—flow into the Bay of Bengal. The Andaman (Andaman Islands) and Nicobar (Nicobar Islands) groups, which are the only islands, separate the bay from the Andaman Sea.

Physical features

Physiography

 The Bay of Bengal is bordered to the north by a wide continental shelf that narrows to the south and by slopes of varying gradient on the northwest, north, and northeast, all cut by canyons from the rivers. Most important are the Ganges-Brahmaputra, Andhra, Mahadevan, Krishna, and Godavari canyons. These were former estuaries when the shoreline was at the margin of the continental shelf during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 1,800,000 to 11,500 years ago). The deep floor of the bay is occupied by a vast abyssal (deep-sea) plain that slopes to the south. The main submarine features include the beginning of the long, seismically active Java Trench near the Nicobar-Sumatra mainland and of the aseismic Ninetyeast Ridge. The fan of sediments of the Ganges River is the widest—5 to 7 miles (8 to 11 km)—and thickest in the world. The bay itself was formed as the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia within roughly the past 50 million years.

Climate

      The climate of the Bay of Bengal is dominated by the monsoons. From November through April a continental high-pressure system north of the bay produces northeast winds (the northeast monsoon) characteristic of the winter season. During the northern summer (June–September) the rain-bearing southwest monsoon prevails, as intense heat produces a low-pressure system over the continent and a subsequent air flow from the ocean.

      Cyclones—intense tropical storms of high winds and torrential rains—occur in spring (April–May) and fall (October–November); these are the weeks preceeding the onset of monsoon rains and the weeks following their retreat. A cyclone in November 1970 in the Ganges River delta resulted in the deaths of an enormous number of people and livestock. A storm of comparable magnitude in April 1991 devastated the eastern shore of Bangladesh, and another powerful cyclone devastated the coastal Indian state of Orissa in October 1999. Water spouts occur frequently in the bay during the summer months.

Hydrology

      A unique feature of the bay is the extreme variability of its physical properties. Temperature in the offshore areas, however, is warm and markedly uniform at all seasons, decreasing somewhat toward the north. Surface densities are considerably greater in spring than in fall, when river discharge is highest. Surface salinity, normally measuring 33 to 34 parts per thousand, can fall to nearly half that level and can extend well south of the bay during the fall. Below the surface layer is an oxygen-poor intermediate layer that has high salinity and undergoes only weak circulation. Weak upwelling occurs in the northeast during the northeast monsoon. The sea presents alternately slick and ruffled surfaces over shallow internal waves all along the east-coast shelf. Surface movements of the waters change direction with the season, the northeast monsoon giving them a clockwise circulation, the southeast monsoon a counterclockwise circulation. Severe storms occur at the change of monsoon, particularly to the south in October.

      In addition to water-level changes resulting from waves and tide, the average sea level varies throughout the year. Because rainfall and riverine input exceed evaporation, the bay exhibits a net water gain annually. The bay is also subject to occasional tsunamis (Indian Ocean tsunami); one such event, caused by an undersea earthquake near the Indonesian island of Sumatra in December 2004, devastated extensive coastal areas of the bay, particularly in Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Bottom deposits

      Sediments in the Bay of Bengal are dominated by terrigenous deposits from the rivers, derived mainly from the Indian subcontinent and from the Himalayas. Calcareous clays and oozes are found near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and atop the Ninetyeast Ridge. The amount of organic matter present in the continental-shelf sediment of the northern part of the east coast is poor compared with the world's average for nearshore sediments.

Economic aspects

Resource exploitation

      The Bay of Bengal has a distinct tropical marine ecosystem, and copious river drainage into the northern part of the bay and the profusion of wetlands, marshes, and mangroves increase productivity of nearshore fish species. The exploitation of these resources is carried out by small-scale fisheries; commercial fishing in deeper waters is done largely by countries bordering the bay and by Japan. The annual catch of prawns, the major export crop, has remained stable despite intensified harvesting. Several species of tuna found in the bay also are important. The tuna fishery is confined to the true oceanic sector of the bay, south of latitude 15°N, since fresh water runoff from the large rivers greatly influences the nearshore waters.

      Petroleum and natural-gas discoveries have been made in the Bay of Bengal, notably offshore of the Godavari and Manandi deltas. The bay has a geologic setting similar to that of the Indus River basin and the western margin of the Indian Peninsula. Hydrocarbon resources in the Bay of Bengal generally are located in deep areas, as compared to those in the Arabian Sea. There are placer deposits of titanium off northeastern Sri Lanka and rare earths off northeastern India. Heavy mineral sands occur around Nagapatnam (in Tamil Nadu state) on the southeastern Indian coast, near Chennai (Madras), and in coastal areas around Vishakhapatnam (Vishākhapatnam). They consist of ilmenite, garnet, sillimanite, zircon, rutile, and manganite.

Transportation

      The principal trade routes for large tankers en route from the Persian Gulf to the Strait of Malacca pass south of the Bay of Bengal. Hence, oceanic transportation is limited to carriage of cargoes to and from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the east coast of India. Principal ports in India are Kolkata (Calcutta) (Calcutta), Haldia, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Cuddalore, and Paradeep. Sri Lankan ports of importance are Colombo and Trincomalee. Dhaka and Chittagong are noteworthy in Bangladesh, and Akyab (Sittwe) (Sittwe) is Myanmar's chief port on the Bay of Bengal. Haldia, Vishakhapatnam, and Paradeep are well developed as iron ore terminals, reflecting India's profitable exportation of raw materials.

Study and exploration

      The Periplus Maris Erythraei, an early Greek manual of sailing directions written in the 1st century AD, described sailing routes from the Red Sea (Maris Erythraei) to coastal areas along the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal to eastern India north of the Ganges delta. During the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy described voyages from the Ganges across the Bay of Bengal to the Strait of Malacca. Based on these descriptions, it is presumed that Indian and Malayan navigators had been crossing the Bay of Bengal on trading voyages for some time. Colonizing voyages began in the 1st century AD and can be divided into two periods: gradual colonization between the 1st and 6th centuries and development journeys between the 7th and 10th centuries.

      Chinese maritime dominance of the Bay of Bengal dates from the Nan (Southern) Song dynasty (1127–1279). In 1405–33 the renowned admiral Zheng He led voyages for the purpose of exacting tribute and extending Chinese political influence in the Indian Ocean. He crossed the bay and visited ports in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (Gama, Vasco da) led the first European voyage into the bay, which—after circumnavigating Africa—reached Calicut (now Kozhikode, India) in 1498. By 1511 the Portuguese had reached and occupied Malacca (now Melaka, Malaysia). The other major European voyages of the 16th to 19th century passed well to the south of the bay.

      Interest in the scientific study of the bay grew in the 20th century, especially after World War II. The postwar voyages of the research vessels Galathea of Denmark, Vityaz of the U.S.S.R., and Pioneer and Anton Bruun of the United States undertook significant work in the region; and a notable effort was the International Indian Ocean Expedition (1960–65), during which a considerable amount of information was gathered. The National Institute of Oceanography, established in India in 1966, furthered this research, utilizing the vessels Sagar Kanya and Gaveshani. Indian Ocean fishery research and development programs have been carried out on a coordinated basis by Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and several countries on the periphery of the Bay of Bengal, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Maldives.

Suri Balakrishna Joseph R. Morgan Philomene A. Verlaan

Additional Reading

A wealth of oceanographic and meteorological information on the Bay of Bengal is available in United States Defense Mapping Agency Hydrographic Center, Sailing Directions (Enroute) for India and the Bay of Bengal, 5th ed. (1994); and Great Britain Hydrographic Dept., Bay of Bengal Pilot, 10th ed. (1978), and its 12th supplement (2004). Geology and hydrology are dealt with in N.K. Panikkar and R. Jayaraman, “Biological and Oceanographic Differences Between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal as Observed from the Indian Region,” Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, 64:231–240 (1966). More recent studies include O.P. Singh, Changes in the Frequencies of Cyclonic Storms and Depressions Over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea (1999), on climatic conditions; and V. Ittekkot et al. (eds.), The Bay of Bengal, on deep-sea research. Historical discussions are found in Om Prakash and Denys Lombard (eds.), Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal:1500–1800 (1999), a collection of essays.Joseph R. Morgan Philomene A. Verlaan Ed.

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