Page 201 - NS-2 Textbook

196 NAUTICAL SCIENCES

Strategic Geography. WIllie oil is the big strategic re- keeping the region in h.rmoil and causing thousands of
source, the political and strategic geography of the gulf is casualties to U.S. and coalition troops, government offi-
also important. Acquiring a warm-water port on the Per- cials and police, and civilians throughout the country.
sian Gulf has been a major goal of Russia and the states
of the former Soviet Union for the past hundred years. A INDIAN OCEAN
major political goal of Western nations over the same pe-
riod has been to prevent this from occurring. Before the TIle Indian Ocean is the third largest in the world. It has
faU of the shah of Iran in 1979, that country was an aUy an area of 28,400,000 square nUles with an average depth
of the United States and the West. The United States had of 12,760 feet. Maximum depth is 24,442 feet in the Java
sold much military equipment to the shah's army and Trench southwest of the Indonesian islands of Sumah'a
navy and had trained thousands of Iranian military per- and Java on the eastern edge of the ocean.
sonnel. Aside from seUing oil to the West and even help- The main feahlre of the Indian Ocean floor is a great
ing to "keep a lid" on the price, the shah also kept peace mid-ocean ridge system, which is shaped like an upside-
and security in the Persian Gulf and Gull of Oman, and down Y. The Southwest Indian Ridge goes around south-
he blocked the Soviet Union's attempt to gain a foothold ern Africa and joins the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Mid-
in this area. The United States had helped to build two Indian Ridge continues south of Australia to join with
new Iranian naval bases, one at Bandar Abbas on the the Mid-Pacific Rise. Many volcanoes lie along the sub-
Strait of Hormuz and the other at Chah Bahar (Cha marine ridges of the hldian Ocean. Many of the islands in
Ba-har') on the Gull of Oman. the ocean ,vere formed by active and inactive volcanoes.
After the faU of the shah, however, armed uprisings Two of the world's greatest river systems, the Indus
of various Islamic fundamentalist factions in Iran put the River of Pakistan and Ganges-Brahmaputra (Gan-ji'Z'
counh'y in chaos, as exemplified by the u.s. hostage sit- Bra-ma-poo' -tra) of India, have built huge submarille
uation in 1979-81, foUowed by a very destructive war of failS into the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. These fans
attrition with Iraq that did not end until 1988. are made up of sediments carried from the Himalaya
Peace in the area ,vas short-lived, howevel~ because (Him-a-Ia' -a) Mountains in those two cowltries.
with his forces no longer engaged in the war with Iran, Millerals. Mining in the Indian Ocean floor is becom-
Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein was then free to pursue far ing more important. Tin are is mined off the shores of
lnore serious military actions two years later, -when he Thailand, Malaysia, and Stunatra in the Strait of Malacca.
invaded neighboring Kuwait. In response the United Deposits of sands rich in rare heavy minerals such as
States and other United Nations (UN) coalition forces nl0nazite, zircon, and nlagnetite are mmed off Sri Lanka
conducted Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm (Sri' Lan'-ka), the Indian state of Kerala (Ker'-a-Ia), the
that ultimately forced Hussein's troops out of Kuwait in east coast of South Africa, and near Perth in western Aus-
late February 1991. For the next dozen years Hussein tralia. A major oil field also lies off western Australia.
played a delicate game of engaging in periodic provoca- Rich beds of manganese chwlks have been found on the
tive activities such as violating UN-imposed no-fly zones Indian Ocean floor. Methods are being developed to
and interfering with UN inspection teams searching for mine these valuable clusters of manganese,. nickel, cop-
evidence of weapons of mass destruction and then back- pel~ titanirun, and lead.
ing down just enough to prevent retaliation by the West. Fishing. The fishing industry in the Inclian Ocean is
Finally in March 2003 after Hussein disregarded re- small, but growing rapidly. It now exceeds four million
peated demands by the United States and others to dis- tons armually. Tuna and sIn-imp are the main calehes at
arm and leave the country, the United States along with this time, off the coast of India. Japanese, Korean, and
several other European coalition partners lawlched Op- Tahvanese vessels are nmv cOlnbing the ocean for these
eration Iraqi Freedom to rid the cOlilltry of Hussein and species. Most of the shrimp are carmed and sold on the
his abusive regime. Within a short time coalition forces U.S. market. Lobsters are caught off South Africa and
advanced to Baghdad in a blitzkrieg-like invasion, forc- western Australia for the U.S. market too. The Indian
ing Hussein to flee and relinquish control of the country Ocean catch will continue to grow in value, as fishing
to the U.s.-led coalition by early May. and canning teclmiques improve and the demand for
Unfortunately hostilities in Iraq did not end with the fish protein increases.
coalition victory. Even after Hussein himself ,vas captured Ports and Naval Bases. The United States has built a
in December 2003, insurgents, terrorists, and religious ex- small comlnunications station and air base on Diego Gar-
tremists continued to launch attacks against both coalition cia in the mid-hldian Ocean to support naval communi-
and Iraqi peacekeeping forces, as weU as the civilian pop- cations and deployed Indian Ocean forces.
ulation, using a variety of tactics such as kidnapping, sui- Strategic Geography. We have already discussed two
cide bombers, and remotely detonated improvised explo- of the main sea routes in the Indian Ocean. They are the
sive devices. These attacks have continued to the present, oil routes from the Persian Gulf t1n-ough the Red Sea to