Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean
Extent of the Indian Ocean according to International Hydrographic Organization
Indian Ocean
Topographic/bathymetric map of the Indian Ocean region
Coordinates	20°S 80°E / 20°S 80°E / -20; 80
Type	Ocean
Primary inflows	Zambezi, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Indus, Jubba, and Murray (largest 5)
Catchment area	21,100,000 km2 (8,100,000 sq mi)
Basin countries	South and Southeast Asia, Western Asia, Northeast, East and Southern Africa and Australia
Max. length	9,600 km (6,000 mi) (Antarctica to Bay of Bengal)[1]
Max. width	7,600 km (4,700 mi) (Africa to Australia)[1]
Surface area	70,560,000 km2 (27,240,000 sq mi)
Average depth	3,741 m (12,274 ft)
Max. depth	7,258 m (23,812 ft) (Java Trench)
Shore length1	66,526 km (41,337 mi)[2]
Islands	Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Reunion, Seychelles, Mauritius
Settlements	Cities, ports and harbours list
References	[3]
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km² (27,240,000 sq mi) or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface.^[4] It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by the Southern Ocean or Antarctica depending on the definition in use.^[5] Along its core, the Indian Ocean has some large marginal or regional seas such as the Arabian Sea, Laccadive Sea, Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.