If you are interested in geography, you will be interested to know where the Sunda Trench is located. It is also called the Java Trench and is considered one of the deepest on the planet. More than 200,000 people died in the gutter.
Which ocean is the Sunda Trench in?
This depression is located in the northeastern region of the Indian Ocean. Its length is about 5 thousand km, so it is not only one of the deepest, but also one of the longest. The maximum depth of the Sunda Trench reaches 7729 meters, which is also the highest in the Indian Ocean. The depression extends from the group of Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal, and to the volcanic island of Barren, which is located near the Andaman archipelago. The trench is 28 km wide. The bottom structure is a flat plain covered with fragments of stones formed as a result of rock erosion.
Tectonic Plates
The Yavan depression is located at the junction of two lithospheric plates: the Indo-Australian and Eurasian. They are also called Sunda. The plates belong to the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where the bulk of volcanoes are concentrated. This region is considered a seismically active zone. In the Sunda Trench, one lithospheric plate dives under another, thus creating a subduction zone.
Gutter bottom
The Sunda Trench stretches from the east side of the island of Java. Its bottom in the southern zone consists of numerous depressions, which are separated by separate thresholds. The walls of the gutter have steep slopes. The canyon is very fragmented, which is complicated by numerous steps and ledges.
The northern part and the center of the basin have a flat bottom, which is covered with a large layer of terrigenous silt and impurities of volcanic rocks.
Research
The first explorer of the Sunda Trench is Robert Fisher, an employee of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute. With the help of echolocation, accurate data on the depth of the trough were established. During the research, the scientist was able to determine the characteristic features of subduction in this part of the ocean. Scientific work was carried out in the middle of the 20th century.
Seismic activity in the region
Increased interest in the Sunda Trench arose in 2004 after an earthquake occurred in the waters of the Indian Ocean (near the depression). This natural disaster had terrible consequences. The resulting tsunami hit the coast of Southeast Asia, killing more than 200,000 people. The force of the earth tremorswas over 9 points. In terms of its strength, this earthquake was one of the three strongest that have ever been recorded on our planet.
After what happened in the Sunda Trench, research was carried out again. During the analysis of the bottom surface, it was found that the walls of the depression were seriously damaged. Scientists have provided a lot of scientifically based evidence that within 10-15 years in the area of the Sunda Trench there will be a displacement of lithospheric plates and the entire region will face the threat of a much more serious catastrophe.
The information received alerted the world community, in order to prevent mass loss of life, it was decided to install a special tsunami warning system in the coastal zones of the Indian Ocean.
2004 Tsunami
The tragedy occurred at the end of December 2004. Seismic activity in the area of the Sunda Trench caused the formation of a giant wave - a tsunami. The epicenter of the earthquake lay at a depth of 20 km. It was recorded in the Indian Ocean at a distance of 200 km from Sumatra (Indonesia).
The energy force caused by the earthquake was commensurate with all the stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the world detonated at the same time. This was enough to shift the earth's axis by 3 cm, and this, in turn, led to a decrease in the day by 3 microseconds.
After seismic shocks, a wave arose in the ocean, the height of which did not exceed 80 cm on the open water surface. Having reached the coastal regions, it increased significantly insizes - up to 15 m. And in places of splash, the size of the tsunami was 30 m.
From the epicenter, the wave moved at a speed of 720 km/h, but the closer it came to the coastline, the more it slowed down until it reached 36 km/h.
The countries most affected by the disaster are Indonesia and Thailand. The waves hit the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, reached the coast of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Malaysia. The element was observed in Oman and Yemen. The tsunami led to the death of people in the eastern part of the African continent. Even in Mexico, from the side of the Pacific Ocean, the wave height was about 2.5 m. In the entire history of observations, for the first time, a case was recorded when a tsunami passed through the entire World Ocean.
