Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering 70560000 square kilometres or about 20% of Earth's water surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west, Australia to the east, and the Southern Ocean or Antarctica to the south.
The Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean because Asia blocks heat from escaping and prevents the ventilation of its thermocline, forming the core of a large-scale Tropical Warm Pool. It warmed about 1.2 degrees Celsius between 1901 and 2012, with models predicting 1.7 to 3.8 degrees Celsius of further warming per century from 2020 to 2100.
The Indian Ocean is the youngest of the major oceans. It was directly preceded by the Tethys Ocean, which fragmented into the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean only 20 million years ago, and its opening began around 156 million years ago when Africa separated from East Gondwana.
The Indian Ocean monsoon is the strongest on Earth, driven by Asia, with north-east winds from October to April and south and west winds from May to October. Some 80% of India's annual rainfall arrives during summer, and many civilisations perished in the past when the monsoon failed.
The Indian Ocean carries more than 80 percent of the world's seaborne oil trade through chokepoints including the Strait of Hormuz at 40 percent, the Strait of Malacca at 35 percent, and the Bab el-Mandab Strait at 8 percent. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean.
On the 26th of December 2004, tsunamis from the Indian Ocean earthquake hit fourteen countries, reaching up to 20 metres in height and causing an estimated 236,000 deaths. On the 8th of March 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying 239 occupants, disappeared and is thought to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, with the wreckage never found.