A Possible Impact Crater from Outer Continental Shelf off Cochin, Arabian Sea, India

During the Cruise SR-004, taken up in August 2014 by RV Samudra Ratnakar of the Geological Survey of India, high resolution sea bed survey by swath bathymetry and sub-bottom profiling were carried out in the outer continental shelf off the Cochin coast, 65 km SW of Cochin, an isolated large circular depression was observed in an otherwise gently sloping (0.8) sea floor (Figure 1). Depth of the outer shelf in the eastern part of the depression is 155 m and 160 m on the western side. Part of a submarine channel has also been identified in the outer shelf and slope and indications of a few faults are seen in the vicinity of the shelf margin.