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An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 metres (9,800 and 19,700 ft).Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface.
An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) and 6,000 meters (20,000 ft).Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains are among the flattest, smoothest and least explored regions on Earth. [1]
They are poorly preserved in the sedimentary record because they tend to be consumed by the subduction process. The abyssal plain is formed when the lower oceanic crust is melted and forced upwards by the asthenosphere layer of the upper mantle. As this basaltic material reaches the surface at mid-ocean ridges, it forms new oceanic crust.
These canyons are often V-shaped, and can sometime enlarge onto the continental shelf. At the base of the continental slope, there is a sudden decrease in slope angle, and the sea floor begins to level out towards the abyssal plain. This portion of the seafloor is called the continental rise, and marks the outermost zone of the continental ...
Some troughs look similar to oceanic trenches but possess other tectonic structures. One example is the Lesser Antilles Trough, which is the forearc basin of the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. [8] Also not a trench is the New Caledonia trough, which is an extensional sedimentary basin related to the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone. [9]
The sediments accumulated here were originally part of the Alaskan Abyssal Plain. The maximum depth of the trench is 2 km, and the deposition at the maximum depth has been 10 times faster than the abyssal plain. As a result, there is a sediment wedge that is 20–30 km wide and 1 km thick has been created over ~0.6 my.
The North Australian Basin (NAB; formerly Argo Abyssal Plain, or Argo Plain) is an oceanic basin in the easternmost corner of the Indian Ocean between northwest Australia and Indonesia. It was discovered by the U.S. research vessel " Argo " of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1960. [ 1 ]
Its peak lies at the depth of 690 metres (2,300 ft) and it rises 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above the surrounding seafloor, which is located at the depth of up to 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) and is a part of the Herodotus Abyssal Plain. [4] It is one of the largest features on the Eastern Mediterranean seafloor.