Sri Vijaya Puram | August 17, 2026
Tarun Karthick
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the CSIR-Nationwide Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO), Goa, to undertake a joint remotely operated automobile (ROV) expedition for seabed investigation of cratered seamounts within the Andaman Volcanic Arc.
The MoU was signed on August 10, 2026, by Dr. N. M. Shareef, Deputy Director Normal and Head of the Marine & Coastal Survey Division, GSI, and Prof. Sunil Kumar Singh, Director, CSIR-NIO, Goa, within the presence of senior officers.
The collaboration marks an essential step in direction of strengthening seabed investigations and research of marine hydrothermal mineralisation within the Andaman Sea. It is usually geared toward enhancing scientific understanding of the area’s submarine volcanic exercise and mineralisation processes.
The Andaman volcanic area kinds a part of the broader Burmese–Andaman–Western Sunda tectonic system, generated primarily by the indirect subduction of the Indian–Australian plate beneath the Burma microplate and Sunda Plate. This regional system extends from the Myanmar area via the Andaman Sea and the Andaman–Nicobar space towards northern Sumatra and the Indonesian volcanic arc.
The Andaman Sea is an actively growing back-arc basin related to this subduction zone, and its tectonic evolution contains back-arc spreading, strike-slip faulting, earthquakes and submarine volcanism. Marine geophysical research have mapped quite a few submarine volcanic edifices within the Andaman Sea and traced a submarine volcanic pattern from the area south of Sumatra northward towards the Barren Island and Narcondam sector. The variety of mapped submarine volcanoes is dependent upon the survey space and methodology; one examine reported 23, whereas a later regional evaluation recognized 33.
Barren Island is an lively volcano and has skilled historic and up to date eruptions. Narcondam can also be a volcanic island, however it’s usually considered dormant or inactive.
The joint GSI-CSIR-NIO expedition will give attention to cratered seamounts, that are historical underwater volcanic mountains that includes round or elliptical depressions, craters or calderas at their summits.
These constructions are related to volcanic exercise, together with collapse or explosive processes, and might present scientists with beneficial details about the geological evolution and volcanic historical past of the seabed.
Greater than half of all seamounts are understood to show such collapse or explosive volcanic constructions. Their craters can vary from tens of metres to greater than 5 kilometres in width.
Seamounts can even assist distinctive deep-sea ecosystems and function essential biodiversity hotspots.
As a part of the collaboration, scientists will use a remotely operated automobile (ROV) to research the seabed and underwater volcanic constructions. An ROV is an unmanned, remotely managed underwater automobile that enables researchers to look at and examine areas which might be tough to entry immediately.
The expedition will notably contribute to research of marine hydrothermal mineralisation—the method via which scorching, mineral-rich fluids related to geological exercise flow into beneath or across the seabed and might deposit minerals.
In easy phrases, the joint expedition will enable scientists to make use of underwater know-how to get a better have a look at historical volcanic mountains beneath the Andaman Sea, examine their craters and surrounding seabed, and perceive the geological and mineralisation processes which have formed the area.
The collaboration between GSI and CSIR-NIO is due to this fact anticipated to strengthen scientific investigation of the largely unexplored submarine geological options of the Andaman Sea and contribute to a greater understanding of the area’s volcanic and mineral assets.
