Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal is a body of water located on the northeast side of the Indian Ocean. The nations of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma and the southern part of Thailand have shores on the Bay. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are the peaks of a submerged mountain range, separate the Bay of Bengal from the Andaman Sea.

The Bay of Bengal was formed approximately 10 million years ago by the northward movement of the tectonic plate carrying the Indian subcontinent towards Asia. Winter and summer bring monsoons in the Bay, while spring and fall bring cyclones. In the north, the Ganges river empties into the Bay after flowing through Bangladesh. Some of the most important ports on the Bay include Rangoon (or Yangon), the capital of Burma (Myanmar), Calcutta (or Kolkata), and Chittagong. Areas surrounding the Bay experienced some of the most catastrophic damage from the massive tsunami spawned by the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake. The wave reverberated around the Bay, doing great damage to coastal communities in Sri Lanka and on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.