The Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean in International Politics.

1977 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 729
Author(s):  
R. V. R. Chandrasekhara Rao ◽  
Abbas Amirie

The Persian Gulf, which is a shallow marginal sea of the Indian Ocean, is an excellent model for the study of some ancient troughs. It is bordered on the west by the Arabian Precambrian shield and on the east by the Persian Tertiary fold mountains. Persia is an area of extensive continental deposition. It is bordered by a narrow submarine shelf. The deeper trough of the Persian Gulf lying along the Persian Coast seaward of the shelf is floored by marly sediments. East of this, the Arabian shelf is covered with skeletal calcarenites and calcilutites. To the northwest is the Mesopotamian alluvial plain and deltaic lobe. Arabia is bordered on the Persian Gulf littoral by a coastal complex of carbonate environments. Barrier islands, tidal deltas (the site of oolitic calcarenite formation) and reefs protect lagoons where calcilutites, pelletal-calcarenites and calcilutites and skeletal calcarenites and calcilutites are forming. There are Mangrove swamps, extensive algal flats and broad intertidal flats bordering the lagoons and landward sides of the islands. A wide coastal plain, the sabkha, borders the mainland. Here evaporation and reactions between the saline waters percolating from the lagoons, and calcium carbonate deposited during a seaward regression, leads to the production of evaporitic minerals including anhydrite, celestite, dolomite, gypsum and halite. Inland, wide dune sand areas pass into the outwash plains skirting the mountain rim of Arabia.


Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3327 (1) ◽  
pp. 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER R. LAST ◽  
B. MABEL MANJAJI-MATSUMOTO ◽  
ALEC B. M. MOORE

A new whipray, Himantura randalli sp. nov., described from material collected off Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, appearsto be endemic to the Persian Gulf. It has been frequently confused with forms of the more widely distributed whiprayHimantura gerrardi Gray and other presently unidentified species from the Indian Ocean. Himantura randalli sp. nov. isdistinguished from these species by a combination of characters, i.e. disc shape, morphometrics, squamation (includingits rapid denticle development and denticle band shape), plain dorsal disc coloration, and whitish saddles on a dark tail inyoung. It is a medium-sized whipray with a maximum confirmed size of 620 mm disc width (DW) and a birth size ofaround 150–170 mm DW. Males mature at approximately 400 mm DW. Himantura randalli sp. nov. is relatively abundantin the shallow, soft-sedimentary habitats of the Persian Gulf from where it is commonly taken as low-value or discarded bycatch of gillnet and trawl fisheries.


Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3374 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
REZA NADERLOO ◽  
MICHAEL TÜRKAY

A total of 150 species belonging to five infraorders (Caridea, Stenopodidea, Thalassinidea, Anomura and Brachyura) are recorded from the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf. About 17% (26 species) are new records for the area. The infraorder Brachyura shows the highest species richness with 83 species. The Anomura and Caridea, with 29 and 27 species, respectively, follow. The Thalassinidea is represented by 10 species, whereas Stenopodidea only by one. The species with the highest occurence are ranked as follows: Nanosesarma sarii Naderloo & Türkay, 2009 (Brachyura), Alpheus lobidens De Haan, 1850 (Caridea), Metopograpsus messor (Forskål, 1775) (Brachyura), Coenobita scaevola (Forskål, 1775) (Anomura), Diogenes avarus Heller, 1865 (Anomura), Pilumnopeus convexus Maccagno, 1936 (Brachyura) and Portunus segnis (Forskål, 1775) (Brachyura). Among the surveyed habitats, mixed rocky/cobble show the highest diversity with 99 (66%) recorded species, followed by sedimentary muddy-sandy substrates and mangroves with 40 (26%) and 24 species (16%), respectively. The least diverse habitat is sandy beaches with 6 species. The decapod fauna shows a predominance of wide ranging Indo-West Pacific species (43%) and a small degree of endemism (5%). A considerable number of species is restricted to the northwestern Indian Ocean (27%), supporting the presence of a zoogeographical subregion within the western Indian Ocean Province.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4852 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-349
Author(s):  
FARZANEH MOMTAZI

The representatives of the genus Ampelisca Krøyer, 1842 collected during the PGGOOS expedition (the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman Oceanographic Study) were studied. The species Ampelisca persicus sp. nov., Ampelisca lowryi sp. nov. and Ampelisca linearis sp. nov. were described. A redescription of Ampelisca cyclops Walker, 1904 was prepared based on material of the western part of the Indian Ocean. The differences between this and other records of A. cyclops were studied. 


Antiquity ◽  
1941 ◽  
Vol 15 (59) ◽  
pp. 233-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Hornell

The few indications that have come down to us of ancient sea-traffic between the countries lying around the shores of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean are so fragmentary and obscure that it is extremely difficult to reconstruct any definite picture of their character and extent. In spite of this handicap study of the meagre evidence available compels the belief that movement by sea, although of a fluctuating character and confined for the most part to coastwise voyaging, was far more active and advanced in parts of this area in very early times than is generally realized. Had it been otherwise how could we interpret the signs graven on the rocks of the ravines of the Egyptian desert, and the transport by sea of great blocks of stone to Sumer in the time of Gudea of Lagash?The earliest evidence at present available comes from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, though it does not follow that either area is the cradle of sea-faring. It consists of :—(A) innumerable prehistoric and predynastic petroglyphs of ships engraved upon the rocks of the eastern desert of Egypt, particularly those in the Wadi Hammamat region;(B) the discovery on Sumerian sites of diorite statues, stated specifically to have been brought by sea from foreign lands early in the third millennium B.C.;(c) the presence in the ruins of Ur, Kish, and Lagash of artifacts cut from the shell of the sacred Indian chank (Xancus pyrum);(D) historical records of trading expeditions sent by sea from Egypt to Somaliland extending from the Vth to the XIIth Dynasties, and repeated in the XVIIIth Dynasty.


1978 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Cohen

Britain's strategic interest in Mesopotamia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a consequence of her control over India. The valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates constitute a natural highway from Syria to the Persian Gulf, and thence to the Indian Ocean. Not until a relatively late stage in Imperial history, however, did Britain extend her formal protection to this region. In the nineteenth century successive British governments had refused to finance the establishment of either a Mesopotamian steamer service or railway line. Subsequently, they had first (1903) rejected participation in an international Baghdad railway scheme, and then (1914) sanctioned complete German control over the project as far as Basra. A small Indian force was despatched to the head of the Persian Gulf in October 1914, but the subsequent Mesopotamian campaign was ‘a haphazard affair from start to finish’ lacking political or military direction. Thus, the De Bunsen committee, which reported on Britain's desiderata in Asiatic Turkey in June 1915, had concluded that Ottoman “devolutionary control” over Mesopotamia was preferable to Indian annexation of any part of the region other than the Basra vilayet; that October, the War Cabinet experienced difficulty in deciding whether to sanction an advance on Baghdad. No proclamation of political interest in Mesopotamia was in fact made by a British government until the capture of the city in 1917. The immediate and local arguments impelling that operation have been fully investigated. By contrast, the strategic tradition that deprecated it has been relatively neglected. This paper proposes to survey the latter and to indicate the degree to which the extension of the Mesopotamian campaign contradicted previous British strategy toward the region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-32

Purpose: This study evaluates competitiveness of emerging ports located in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. Traditionally, ports operational efficacy is evaluated only on basis of throughput, a case in point being the Lloyds International Port ranking. However, we do not concur with this approach and adopt a multicriteria methodology. Methodology: Three criteria - throughput, physical infrastructure, and performance are used to assess the operational efficacy of the ports. TOPSIS augmented with the “entropy weight” is used to devise weights for the chosen criteria and overall operational efficacy for each port is calculated. Results: The study revealed that infrastructure plays a critical role in the overall operational efficacy of the port. Karachi port is behind the contemporary ports in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf because of its inadequate infrastructure. The results also highlighted that Jawaharlal Nehru Port ranked highest in considered ports while Port of Mundra ranked the worst. Practical Implications: The study can provide an insight to the port users about the competitive advantage amongst ports. Moreover, it also identifies the areas that can be improved for better efficiency. Originality: The research article is novel because no similar study has been conducted specifically on the ports in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.


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