THE GEOCHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY OF MARINE-SEDIMENTS FROM THE EASTERN INDIAN-OCEAN

Chemical, mineralogical and smear slide analyses of marine sediments f rom the eastern Indian Ocean have revealed at least eight sediment gro ups in the region. The Bay of Bengal contains sediments derived from t he Himalayan Range, Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and West Burma. Sed iments from the Indian subcontinent are carried south, passing the eas tern abyssal plain of Sri Lanka and then turn west. This sediment path can be identified by Al, Fe and smectite distributions. The principal sediment source to the Andaman Sea is the Irrawaddy River. In the Cen tral Indian and Wharton Basins, hydrogenous sediments contain addition al material slumped from Java and Sumatra and wind blown from western Australia.