The Indian Ocean

# Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world’s oceanic divisions.
# Smaller and less deep than the Atlantic Ocean.

Submarine ridges

# Submarine ridges in this ocean include the Lakshadweep-Chagos Ridge [Reunion Hotspot], the Socotra-Chagos Ridge, the Seychelles Ridge, the South Madagascar Ridge, Carlsberg Ridge etc..

# These ridges divide the ocean bottom into many basins. Chief among these are the Central Basin, Arabian Basin, South Indian Basin, Mascarene Basin, West Australian and South Australian Basins.

Islands

# Most of the islands in the Indian Ocean are continental islands and are present in the north and west.

# These include the Andaman and Nicobar, Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Zanzibar. The Lakshadweep and Maldives are coral islands and Mauritius and the Reunion Islands are of volcanic origin. The eastern section of the Indian Ocean is almost free from islands

Continental Shelf

# The ocean’s continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres (120 mi) in width.

# An exception is found off Australia’s northern coast, where the shelf width exceeds 1,000 kilometres (620 mi).

# The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m (12,762 ft).

Trenches

# Linear deeps are almost absent. Few exceptions are Sunda Trench, which lies to the south of the island of Java and Diamantina Trench, west of Australia.

# Its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m. Sunda Trench off the coast of Java is also considerably deep.

Straits

# Most of the straits in Indian Ocean are important trade roots.

# The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca and the Palk Strait.

Marginal seas
Arabian Sea
Persian Gulf
Red Sea
Gulf of Oman
Gulf of Aden
Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb connecting Arabian Sea
Gulf of Kutch
Gulf of Khambat
Palk Strait connecting Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
Andaman Sea
Malacca Strait
Mozambique Channel
Great Australian Bight
Gulf of Mannar
Laccadive Sea