The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m (12,762 ft). An exception is found off Australia's western coast, where the shelf width exceeds 1,000 kilometres (600 mi). The ocean's continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres (125 mi) in width. The eastern, western, and southern basins thus formed are subdivided into smaller basins by ridges. Their junctures are marked by branches of the mid-oceanic ridge forming an inverted Y, with the stem running south from the edge of the continental shelf near Mumbai, India. The African, Indian, and Antarctic crustal plates converge in the Indian Ocean at the Rodrigues Triple Point. Other major ports in the Indian Ocean include Muscat (Oman), Yangon (Burma), Jakarta, Medan (Indonesia) and Perth (Australia), Dubai Zanzibar is especially famous for its spice export. Major African ports on the shores of the Indian Ocean include: Mombasa (Kenya), Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar (Tanzania), Durban, East London, Richard's Bay (South Africa), Beira (Mozambique), and Port Louis (Mauritius). Aden is a major port in Yemen and controls ships entering the Red Sea. Other major South Asian ports include Chittagong in Bangladesh, Colombo, Hambantota and Galle in Sri Lanka, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Paradip Port, Chennai, Ennore, Tuticorin, and Nagapattinam in India, and Karachi in Pakistan.

It is a deep natural harbour and is known as 'The Queen of the Arabian Kochi is another major Indian port on the Arabian Sea. Mormugao Port and Panambur (New Mangalore Port) handle most of the Iron Ore export from India especially to Japan. It is amongst world's top 10 fastest growing A new port has been developed near Mumbai known as the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) or more popularly known as Nhava Sheva to reduce the burden on Mumbai. Mumbai Port is the chief trading port in India on the coast of the Indian Ocean, often known as 'The Gateway of India'. Singapore is the busiest port in the Indian Ocean, located in Strait of Malacca where it meets the Pacific.

The archipelago of Indonesia borders the ocean on the east. Island nations within the ocean are Madagascar (the world's fourth largest island), Comoros, Seychelles, Maldives, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka.

The ocean is nearly 10,000 km (6,200 mi) wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia, and its area is 73,556,000 kmВІ (28,350,000 miВІ), including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30В° north in the Persian Gulf. including India, after which the ocean is named - on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east byДЄustralia, and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, by Antarctica.)ДЄs one component of the World Ocean, the Indian Ocean is delineated from the Atlantic Ocean by the 20В° east meridian running south from Cape Agulhas, and from the Pacific Ocean by the meridian of 146в…5' east. The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface.

Indian ocean