If you are interested in geography, you will be interested to know where the Sunda Trench is located. It is also called the Javanese Depression and is considered one of the deepest on the planet. The mass death of more than 200 thousand people is associated with the trench.
What ocean is the Sunda Trench in?
This depression is located in the northeast 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 largest indicator in the Indian Ocean. The depression extends from a group of Nicobar islands located in the Bay of Bengal to the volcanic island of Barren, which is located near the Andaman archipelago. The width of the gutter is 28 km. The bottom structure is a flat plain covered with fragments of stones formed due to erosion of rocks.
Tectonic plates
The Javanese Depression is located at the junction of two lithospheric plates: Indo-Australian and Eurasian. They are also called Sunda. Plates belong to the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where the bulk of the volcanoes are concentrated. This region is considered a seismically active zone. In the Sunda Trench, one lithospheric plate dives beneath another, thus creating a subduction zone.
Gutter bottom
The Sunda Trench is located on the eastern side of Java. Its bottom in the southern zone consists of numerous depressions that are separated by separate rapids. 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 researcher of the Sunda Trench is considered to be an employee of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute, Robert Fisher. With the help of echolocation, accurate data of the depth of the gutter were established. During 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 of the region
An increased interest in the Sunda Trench arose in 2004, after an earthquake occurred in the waters of the Indian Ocean (in the basin area). This natural disaster had terrifying consequences. The resulting tsunami hit the coast of Southeast Asia, which led to the deaths of more than two hundred thousand people. The strength of tremors was over 9 points. By its strength, this earthquake entered the top three most powerful that have ever been recorded on our planet.
After what happened in the Sunda Trench, studies were again conducted. During the analysis of the bottom surface, it was found that the walls of the cavity underwent serious damage. Scientists have brought a lot of evidence-based evidence that within 10-15 years in the area of โโthe Sunda Trench, lithospheric plates will shift and the whole region will face the threat of a much more serious disaster.
The information received alerted the world community, in order to prevent mass deaths, it was decided to establish 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 โโthe Sunda Trench caused the formation of a giant wave - the tsunami. The epicenter of the earthquake lies 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 world's nuclear weapons stockpiles blown up simultaneously. 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 ฮผs.
After seismic shocks, a wave arose in the ocean, the height of which did not exceed 80 cm in the open water surface. Having reached the coastal regions, it significantly increased in size - up to 15 m. And in places of splash, the size of the tsunami was 30 m.
From the point of the epicenter, the wave moved at a speed of 720 km / h, but the closer it approached the coastline, the more it slowed down until it reached 36 km / h.
Most of all from the disaster affected countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. Waves hit the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, reaching the coast of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Malaysia. The element was observed in Oman and Yemen. The tsunami killed people in the eastern part of the African continent. Even in Mexico, from the side of the Pacific Ocean, the height of the waves was about 2.5 m. In the entire history of observations, a case was first recorded when a tsunami passed through the entire World Ocean.