Bengal Fan
The Bengal Fan, also known as the Ganges Fan, is the largest
Geography
It is located in the
The fan completely covers the floor of the Bay of Bengal.[5] It is bordered to the west by the continental slope of eastern India, to the north by the continental slope of Bangladesh and to east by the northern part of Sunda Trench off Myanmar and the Andaman Islands, the accretionary wedge associated with subduction of the Indo-Australian Plate beneath the Sunda Plate and continues along the west side of the Ninety East Ridge.[5][6] The Nicobar Fan, another lobe of the fan, lies east of the Ninety East Ridge.[6]
History
The fan was first identified by bathymetric survey in the sixties by Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp which identified the abyssal cone and canyon structures. It was delineated and named by Joseph Curray and David Moore following a geological and geophysical survey in 1968.[6][7]
Biodiversity
A deep sea canyon called Swatch of No Ground (SoNG) is located south of Sundarbans National Park and the island of Dublar Char. This area hosts important habitats for cetaceans including endangered species such as various species of dolphins and Bryde's whales (see Swatch of No Ground Marine Protected Area).
References
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- ^ ISBN 978-1-56576-136-0.
- ^ a b c France-Lanord, Christian; Volkhard Spiess; Peter Molnar; Joseph R. Curray (March 2000). "Summary on the Bengal Fan: An introduction to a drilling proposal" (PDF). Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-09-16.
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Further reading
- Bastia, Rabi; Suman Das; M. Radhakrishna (October 2010). "Pre- and post-collisional depositional history in the upper and middle Bengal fan and evaluation of deepwater reservoir potential along the northeast Continental Margin of India". Marine and Petroleum Geology. 27 (10): 2051–2061. .
- Subrahmanyam, V.; K. S. Krishna; M. V. Ramana; K. S. R. Murthy (2008). "Marine geophysical investigations across the submarine canyon (Swatch-of-No-Ground), northern Bay of Bengal". Current Science. 94 (4). Indian Academy of Sciences: 507–513.