Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the World's third largest Ocean and covers 20% of the Earth's surface, after the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The Indian Ocean is located between Africa and Austral-Asia and the Southern Ocean.




     It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by Southern Ocean or Antarctica.




The Indian Ocean has some large regional seas such as The Arabian Sea, the Laccadive Sea, the Somali Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
  
     80% of the Indian Ocean is open ocean and includes nine large marine ecosystems: the Agulhas Current, Somali Coastal Current, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Gulf of Thailand,
 West Central Australian Shelf,  Northwest Australian Shelf, and Southwest Australian Shelf.

There are many islands in the Indian Ocean, among the most well-known are:

Mauritius
Seychelles
Reunion(France)
Madagascar
The Comores(Spain)
Maldives(Portugal)
Sri Lanka,formerly known as Ceylon