Abyssal plain
An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor. It is usually found 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) and 6,000 metres (20,000 ft) below the surface of the water. Abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface. They are among the flattest and smoothest places on Earth.[1][2][3]
Abyssal plains are believed to have lots of biodiversity. They are also play an important role in ocean carbon cycling, dissolution of calcium carbonate, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations over hundreds or thousand years. Abyssal plains also have hydrothermal vents and cold seeps.[1]
Abyssal Plain Media
Diagrammatic cross-section of an oceanic basin, showing the relationship of the abyssal plain to a continental rise and an oceanic trench
Depiction of the abyssal zone in relation to other major oceanic zones
- Pelagiczone
Oceanic crust is formed at a mid-ocean ridge, while the lithosphere is subducted back into the asthenosphere at oceanic trenches
Age of oceanic crust (red is youngest, and blue is oldest)
Location of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench
In this phase diagram, the green dotted line illustrates the anomalous behavior of water. The solid green line marks the melting point and the blue line the boiling point, showing how they vary with pressure.
Tubeworms and soft corals at a cold seep 3000 meters deep on the Florida Escarpment. Eelpouts, a galatheid crab, and an alvinocarid shrimp are feeding on chemosynthetic mytilid mussels.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Smith, C; Deleo, F; Bernardino, A; Sweetman, A; Arbizu, P (2008). "Abyssal food limitation, ecosystem structure and climate change". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 23 (9): 518–528. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2008.05.002. PMID 18584909.
- ↑ Vinogradova, N.G. (1997). "Zoogeography of the Abyssal and Hadal Zones". Advances in Marine Biology. Vol. 32. Elsevier. pp. 325–387. doi:10.1016/s0065-2881(08)60019-x. ISBN 978-0-12-026132-1.
- ↑ Geology and geochemistry of abyssal plains. Weaver, P. P. E., Thomson, J., Geological Society of London. Marine Studies Group. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Published for the Geological Society by Blackwell Scientific Publications. 1987. ISBN 0-632-01744-9. OCLC 14905840.
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