BENGAL, BAY OF

large but relatively shallow embayment of the northeastern Indian Ocean, occupying an area of 839,000 square miles (2,172,000 square km). The Bay of Bengal is bordered by India and Sri Lanka to the west, Bangladesh to the north, and Myanmar (Burma) and the northern part of the Malay Peninsula to the east. Its southern boundary extends as an imaginary line from Dondra Head at the southern end of Sri Lanka (west) to the northern tip of Sumatra (east). The Andaman and Nicobar islands are the only major island groups in the bay. A number of South Asia's largest rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra on the north and the Irrawaddy on the east, flow into the Bay of Bengal. Among its principal seaports are Calcutta and Madras. The continental shelf in the northern bay is about 100 miles (160 km) wide but becomes narrower along the eastern and western coastlines. The bay has an average depth of more than 2,600 feet (800 m); a maximum depth of 14,764 feet (4,500 m) is reached in the extreme south near the Nicobar-Sumatra mainlands. The Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. large but relatively shallow embayment of the northeastern Indian Ocean, occupying an area of 839,000 square miles (2,173,000 square kilometres). It lies roughly between latitudes 5 and 22 N and longitudes 80 and 90 E. It is bordered by Sri Lanka and India to the west, Bangladesh to the north, and Myanmar (Burma) and the northern part of the Malay Peninsula to the east. According to the definition of the International Hydrographic Bureau, the southern boundary extends from Dondra Head at the southern end of Sri Lanka in the west to the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the east. The bay is about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) wide, with an average depth of more than 8,500 feet (2,600 metres). The maximum depth is 15,400 feet (4,694 metres). A number of large rivers-the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri (Cauvery) on the west and the Ganges and Brahmaputra on the north-flow into the Bay of Bengal. The Andaman and Nicobar groups, which are the only islands, separate the bay from the Andaman Sea. Additional reading A wealth of oceanographic and meteorological information on the Bay of Bengal is available in United States Defense Mapping Agency Hydrographic Center, Sailing Directions (Enroute) for India and the Bay of Bengal (1978); and Great Britain Hydrographic Dept., Bay of Bengal Pilot, 10th ed. (1978). Geology and hydrology are dealt with in N.K. Panikkar and R. Jayaraman, "Biological and Oceanographic Differences Between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal as Observed from the Indian Region," Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, 64:231-240 (1966). Joseph R. Morgan Philomene A. Verlaan