Record Details

The Myanmar continental shelf

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title The Myanmar continental shelf
 
Creator Ramaswamy, V.
Rao, P.S.
 
Subject continental shelf
sediment
 
Description The Myanmar (Burma) coastline is about 2280 km long, with the continental shelf covering an area of approximately 230 000 km2. The Myanmar coastline may be divided into the northern Rakhine (Arakan) coast, the central Ayeyarwady coast and the southern Tanintharyi (Tenasserim) coast. The Rakhine coast lies adjacent to the Bay of Bengal, while the Ayeyarwady and Tanintharyi coast faces the Andaman Sea. The continental shelf of Myanmar receives sediments from some of the largest rivers in the world like the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy), the Salween (Thanlwin) and the Ganges–Brahmaputra rivers. The Myanmar shelf is characterized by a seasonal reversal of monsoon winds and coastal currents, periodic tropical cyclones and storm surges, meso- to macrotidal conditions, and neotectonic activity. The most prominent bathymetric feature on the Ayeyarwady continental shelf is the 120 km-wide Martaban Depression, at the centre of which is located the Martaban Canyon. Most of the suspended sediment discharge of the Ayeyarwady is transported eastwards by coastal and tidal currents, and trapped in the Gulf of Martaban, resulting in the formation of an extensive mud belt covering an area of more than 45 000 km2. Because of these features, the Myanmar shelf ranks amongst the most globally important continental shelves in the world but remains inadequately studied owing to its inaccessibility.
 
Date 2014-10-09T12:42:24Z
2014-10-09T12:42:24Z
2014
 
Type Book Chapter
 
Identifier Continental shelves of the world: Their evolution during the last glacio-eustatic eycle. eds by: Chiocci, F.L.; Chivas, A.R.(Geological Society Memoirs, 41). Geological Society; London; 2014; 231-240.
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/4632
 
Language en
 
Rights © 2012 The Geological Society of London. All efforts have been made to respect the copyright to the best of our knowledge. Inadvertent omissions, if brought to our notice, stand for correction and withdrawal of document from this repository.
 
Publisher The Geological Society of London