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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]
The biomass of the abyssal zone actually increases near the seafloor as most of the decomposing material and decomposers rest on the seabed. [9] The composition of the abyssal plain depends on the depth of the sea floor. Above 4000 meters the seafloor usually consists of calcareous shells of foraminifera, zooplankton, and phytoplankton.
Deep ocean water is divided into layers or zones, each with typical features of salinity, pressure, temperature and marine life, according to their depth. Lying along the top of the abyssal plain is the abyssal zone, whose lower boundary lies at about 6,000 m (20,000 ft).
The Porcupine Abyssal Plain is a vast, relatively level stretch of seabed with a depth range of 4,000 to 4,850 m (13,120 to 15,910 ft). It has a muddy floor in the abyssopelagic zone and scattered rocky abyssal hills that rise into the bathypelagic zone forming seamounts and knolls. [2]
Profile of the Arctic Ocean from the Barents Sea towards the (geographic) North Pole. The Nansen Basin (also Central Basin, [1] formerly Fram Basin) is an abyssal plain with water-depths of around 3 km in the Arctic Ocean and (together with the deeper Amundsen Basin) part of the Eurasian Basin.
For research purposes, the Madeira Abyssal Plain can be divided into three sub-basins. They are a southern sub-basin, which lies at a water depth of about 5,350 meters (17,550 ft), a central sub-basin which lies at a deeper water depth of about 5,440 meters (17,850 ft), and the northern sub-basin which lies at an intermediate water depth of about 5,420 meters (17,780 ft).
Not a trench, but more of an "underwater valley", it is estimated to be at most ~19,685 feet (3.7 miles; 6.0 km) in depth. The Laurentian Fan is a product of glaciation and water currents from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. [2] It is part of the Laurentian cone region, bound by the Laurentian Channel and the Sohm Abyssal Plain.