It is located in the Bay of Bengal, being about 3,000 km (1,900 mi) long, 1,430 km (890 mi) wide with a maximum thickness of 16.5 km (10.3 mi).[1] The fan resulted from the uplift and erosion of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau produced by the collision between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Most of the sediment is supplied by the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers which supply the Lower MeghnadeltainBangladesh and the Hoogly delta in West Bengal (India). Several other large rivers in Bangladesh and India provide smaller contributions.[2]Turbidity currents have transported the sediment through a series of submarine canyons, some of which are more than 1,500 miles (2,414 km) in length, to be deposited in the Bay of Bengal up to 30 degrees latitude from where it began. To date, the oldest sediments recovered from the Bengal fan are from Early Miocene age.[3] Their mineralogical and geochemical characteristics confirm their Himalayan origin and demonstrate that the Himalaya was already a major mountain range 20 million years ago.[4]
The fan completely covers the floor of the Bay of Bengal.[5] It is bordered to the west by the continental slope of eastern India, to the north by the continental slope of Bangladesh and to east by the northern part of Sunda Trench off Myanmar and the Andaman Islands, the accretionary wedge associated with subduction of the Indo-Australian Plate beneath the Sunda Plate and continues along the west side of the Ninety East Ridge.[5][6] The Nicobar Fan, another lobe of the fan, lies east of the Ninety East Ridge.[6]
The fan was first identified by bathymetric survey in the sixties by Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp which identified the abyssal cone and canyon structures. It was delineated and named by Joseph Curray and David Moore following a geological and geophysical survey in 1968.[6][7]
^Curray, Joseph R.; Frans J. Emmel; David G. Moore (December 2002). "The Bengal Fan: morphology, geometry, stratigraphy, history and processes". Marine and Petroleum Geology. 19 (10). Elsevier Science Ltd: 1191–1223. doi:10.1016/S0264-8172(03)00035-7.
^Cochran, J.R.; Stow, D.A.V.; et al. (1989). Cochran, J.R; Stow, D.A.V (eds.). "116 Initial Reports Table of Contents". Proc. ODP, Init. Repts. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program. 116. Ocean Drilling Program College Station, TX. doi:10.2973/odp.proc.ir.116.1989.
^ abTilmann Schwenk; Volkhard Spiess (2009). "Architecture and Stratigraphy of the Bengal Fan as Response to Tectonic and Climate Revealed from High-Resolution Seismic Data". SEPM Special Publication, No. 92. External Controls on Deep-Water Depositional Systems. SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology). pp. 107–131. ISBN978-1-56576-136-0.
Bastia, Rabi; Suman Das; M. Radhakrishna (October 2010). "Pre- and post-collisional depositional history in the upper and middle Bengal fan and evaluation of deepwater reservoir potential along the northeast Continental Margin of India". Marine and Petroleum Geology. 27 (10): 2051–2061. doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2010.04.007.
