What was the Sunda Trench earlier known as?

The Sunda Trench was earlier known as the Java Trench. The older name reflected the trench’s close relationship with Java, the Indonesian island lying along part of its northern margin, while the modern name recognizes the wider Sunda region and the trench’s full geographic extent.

The trench runs through the eastern Indian Ocean from near the Lesser Sunda Islands past Java and around southern Sumatra toward the Andaman Islands. It formed where the Australian–Capricorn plate system is being forced beneath the Eurasian Plate, more specifically the Sunda Plate in this region.

“Java Trench” remains a defensible historical or regional term, so it appears in older charts and scientific writing. However, Sunda Trench is the standard modern name for the entire feature. The trench is also closely associated with major earthquakes and tsunamis, including the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, whose rupture occurred along the same broad subduction boundary.