Turbidite Channels in the Distal Bengal Fan, the Central Indian Ocean Basin

The structure of the upper, middle, and lower deep-sea sedimentary Bengal Fan and the architecture of turbidite channels in the Bay of Bengal have been well studied now. The extent of turbidites within the active channel of the western Bengal Fan was limited approximatly to the equator. New multibeam and high-resolution seismic reflection data have made it possible to characterize in detail the turbidite channel far to the south in the Central Indian Basin in the distal Bengal Fan near ~4° south. Different morphology and structure of the channel are probably explained by fluctuations in turbidite flow, changes in its velocity, energy, and possibly direction, size and concentration of suspended sedimentary particles, and changes in a slope gradient of a channel- levee as well as tectonic factors.