VISAKHAPATNAM: The discovery of the new canyon system in the Bay of Bengal by the scientists of CSIR-National Institute Oceanography came five decades after another group of underwater canyons was found in the sixties.
Way back in 1963, Prof EC LaFond of the US Navy Electronics Laboratory, while doing marine studies at Andhra University, noted the presence of three canyons with the help of an echogram (an instrument that records seafloor depth profile along a cruise track, collected onboard American vessel Anton Bruun.
They canyons were named as Andhra Canyon, after the Andhra University; Mahadevan Canyon in the name of the Late Prof C Mahadevan, former principal and founder of Geology Department at Andhra University and Krishna Canyon, after the Late Vice-Chancellor of AU, who had played a pivotal role for in starting of marine science studies at AU.
“Since then, no serious attempts were made to map these canyons. During the recent study by RV Sankalp, we could map the canyons in great detail and found that these three canyons join at about 1000 m to form a major canyon system, which we may tentatively call AMK (Andhra-Mahadevan-Krishna) Canyon
System,” says PS Rao, Head of Research Vessels Management, CSIR-NIO and Leader of the 100th cruise of RV Sankalp.
Further, Prof. LaFond also noted the presence of three small ‘V’ shaped canyons (unnamed) south of Andhra Canyon.
“Our efforts revealed that these canyons also join in deeper waters to form another major canyon system, as large as the ABK Canyon System. We intend to call it Visakha Canyon,” he says.
