What continents are washed by the Indian Ocean?

studying geography, people better acquainted with the planet on which he lives, gets an idea of ​​the scale of the world and learn to care of nature, admiring its unique corners.Oceans - one of the most impressive fact of the possible.Each of these great bodies of water worthy of attention.Consider now more Indian Ocean.

features and history

Before you learn what some continents washes the Indian Ocean, is to learn more about him.Size it is slightly inferior to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.So, its area is 76 million square kilometers.The most widely ocean stretches in the southern hemisphere, and in the North, rather reminiscent of the sea.The ancients regarded him in that capacity, and only the era of great geographical discoveries change the perception of the territory.The first European who collected information about him, began to Vasco da Gama, and after it went here James Cook.Today, people know a lot more than before.The average depth of the ocean is nearly four kilometers.The deepest point of it - Java Trench.Here, the depth of the ocean is 7729 meters.Pacific Ocean is famous blue and the water of his Indian counterpart transparent and famous azure hue.This is due to the fact that it falls a little freshwater rivers.Therefore, the associated sea distinguished record salinity - Red Sea is well known that the whole world.However, the Indian Ocean is full of life.There has long been developed fisheries, finding pearls, extraction from the bottom of oil and gas, and even precious stones like emeralds and diamonds.


Washed continents

So basic information studied.Now you can find out which continents are washed by the Indian Ocean.Despite its relatively modest compared to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans size, it is located right next to the four continents.It Eurasia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica.By virtue of this arrangement ocean change its temperature by 30 degrees to the equator to +1 oC closer to the pole.The maximum length is 10 000 kilometers.The entire length of the ocean from west to east are a variety of climatic zones in the Indian Ocean has all the options.In the north - the warmest area.Here are the current hot, separating the region from the cold masses.A hot site is different, not only the maximum temperature for the particular ocean, but for the entire planet as a whole.Every ten kilometers poleward degree decreases.And salinity changes, but in reverse order.The region off the coast of Eurasia on the water strongly influenced by the monsoons, changing direction of currents.Now you can easily list the continents, which are washed by the Indian Ocean, and can even explain what are its characteristics in different parts of the world.

Coastal States

learn what continents are washed by the Indian Ocean, you can move on to more specific information.Countries located on the beach of this huge water basin, pretty much.It and the mainland, and island states, the latest is considered separately.So, what the country is washed by the Indian Ocean?These countries include India, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Madagascar, Somalia, Oman, Seychelles, Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Maldives, SriLanka, Mozambique, Mauritius and South Africa.Many of them have become popular tourist destinations because of its excellent location, and some connected with it, and most of the production.

Island states

make sense of what the country is washed by the Indian Ocean, some of them prefer to stay more.Island nations are few, but each has unique natural conditions and a popular tourist destination.The most famous, perhaps, is Madagascar, who was once a French colony.No less popular Sri Lanka - a beautiful resort, a place of tea plantations and legendary elephants.There is in the Indian Ocean and volcanic islands (Prince Edward, Mascarene, Crozet).The largest island, which is washed by the Indian Ocean, in addition to Madagascar, are part of groups such as the Maldives, Andaman and Cocos.

Sea

educated man is not only easy to answer the question about what the Indian Ocean washes continents.You need to know and the sea, which belong to its basin.Indian Ocean behind the other by their number, as well as in size.The largest is located in the north of the Red Sea.Great also the Arabian and Andaman Sea.In the eastern part of Timor are located, and the Arafura Sea Laccadive.Due to its physical and geographic characteristics, to the seas of the Indian Ocean can be attributed to two bays - Bengali and Persian.On the south are areas that are sometimes referred to as the unofficial South Sea basin (Cosmonauts, Davis, Commonwealth, and D'Urville Riser-Larsen, which differ from the above significantly lower the water temperature, due to the location not far from Antarctica).

Currents

is worth paying attention to such a component pool.So what part of the world is washed by the Indian Ocean directly affects the temperature of the incoming flows into it.Warm, paves its routes to the north and west, called the South Equatorial, Madagascar and the needle.Cold currents in the Indian Ocean two.It is for westerly winds carrying their water in the southern part, and the West Australian, which has a "registration" in the east of the basin.A distinctive feature of most of these flows is highly pronounced seasonal fluctuation trends of surface water.In the north-east of the ocean it is directly related to the presence in the region, a large number of regular tropical monsoon.