UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission

About UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission:

• It promotes international cooperation in marine sciences to improve management of the ocean, coasts and marine resources.
• The IOC enables its 150 Member States, and India has been a member of this commission since 1946.
• It works together by coordinating programmes in capacity development, ocean observations and services, ocean science, tsunami warning and ocean literacy.
• The IOC is in charge of coordinating the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030, the “Ocean Decade”.

Key facts about the underwater structures

• There are now seven structures in the Indian Ocean named mainly after Indian scientists or bear names proposed by India in this region of the Indian Ocean.
• All the three recently named structures were discovered by oceanographers from the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa.
• These are located along the Southwest Indian Ridge area of the Indian Ocean and were discovered during an international survey exploration programme.
• Since 2004, India has been undertaking the Indian Southern Ocean Research Programme with NCPOR being the nodal agency. 
• Previously named structures are
  • Raman ridge (accepted in 1992): It was discovered in 1951 by a US oil vessel. It was named after Physicist and Nobel Laureate Sir CV Raman.
  • Panikkar Seamount (accepted in 1993): It was discovered by India research vessel Sagar Kanya. It is named after NK Panikkar, a renowned oceanographer.
  • Sagar Kanya ridge (accepted in 1991): A seamount was named after the research vessel itself.
  • DN Wadia Guyot: It was named after a geologist DN Wadia when an underwater volcanic mountain, known as guyot, was discovered in 1992 by Sagar Kanya.
• Recently two structures were named after the rulers of the Mauryan dynasty namely Ashoka seamount and the Chandragupt ridge and one more was named as Kalpataru ridge in the Indian Ocean.

Q1: What is the International Hydrographic Organisation?

International Hydrographic Organisation is an intergovernmental organization that works to ensure all the world's seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted. It was established in 1921, it coordinates the activities of national hydrographic offices and promotes uniformity in nautical charts and documents.

Source: Three Indian Ocean structures named Ashoka, Chandragupt and Kalpataru