Sunda Trench an underwater ridge, and much of the trench is at least partially filled with sediments. Mappings after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake of the plate boundary showed resemblance to suspension bridge cables, with peaks and sags, indicative of asperity and locked faults, instead of the traditional wedge shape expected. Some of the earliest exploration of the Trench occurred in the late 1950s when Robert Fisher, Research Geologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, investigated the trench as part of a worldwide scientific field exploration of the world's ocean floor and sub-oceanic crustal-structure. Bomb-sounding, echo-train analysis and manometer were some of
Second Battle of the Java Sea discovered that the wrecks of HMS "Exeter" and HMS "Encounter" were missing from the ocean floor. The Guardian newspaper subsequently reported that the wrecks of HMS "Exeter", HMS "Encounter", and part of HMS "Electra", as well as the submarine USS "Perch" were missing and presumed illegally scavenged. Commenting on their removal, one of the men involved in their original discovery is stunned at the magnitude of the salvaging that appears to have taken place. Second Battle of the Java Sea The Second Battle of the Java Sea was the last naval action of the Netherlands East Indies campaign, of 1941–42.