The Swatch of No Ground (SoNG) is a massive underwater canyon located in the Bay of Bengal, roughly 30 km south of the Sundarbans (specifically south of Dublar Char Island) in Bangladesh.
Key Details
- Geographic Context: It is a 14 km wide, trough-shaped submarine canyon that indents the continental shelf diagonally.
- Depth: It has an average depth of approximately 1,200 meters, with some areas reaching over 1,340 meters—making it significantly deeper than the surrounding sea floor.
- Conservation: A 1,738 sq km area within the canyon was declared Bangladesh's first Marine Protected Area (MPA) in October 2014.
- Wildlife Hotspot: The area is a critical habitat for endangered marine life, including Ganges River dolphins, Irrawaddy dolphins, fin whales, and various species of sharks and sea turtles.
- Geological Significance: It is part of the Bengal Fan, the world's largest underwater sediment fan, and serves as a major conduit for sediment transport from the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta to the deep sea