Marine habitats |
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An ocean bank, sometimes referred to as a fishing bank or simply bank, is a part of the seabed that is shallow compared to its surrounding area, such as a shoal or the top of an underwater hill. Somewhat like continental slopes, ocean bank slopes can upwell as tidal and other flows intercept them, sometimes resulting in nutrient-rich currents.[ how? ] Because of this, some large banks, such as Dogger Bank and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, are among the richest fishing grounds in the world.
There are some banks that were reported in the 19th century by navigators, such as Wachusett Reef, whose existence is doubtful.
Ocean banks may be of volcanic nature. Banks may be carbonate or terrigenous. In tropical areas some banks are submerged atolls. As they are not associated with any landmass, banks have no outside source of sediments. Carbonate banks are typically platforms, rising from the ocean depths, whereas terrigenous banks are elevated sedimentary deposits. [1]
Seamounts, by contrast, are mountains rising from the deep sea and are steeper and higher in comparison to the surrounding seabed. [2] Examples of these are Pioneer and Guide Seamounts, west of the Farallon Islands. The Pioneer Seamount has a depth of 1,000 meters, [2] In other cases, parts of a bank may reach above the water surface, thereby forming islands. [3]
The largest banks in the world are:
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about 106,460,000 km2 (41,100,000 sq mi). It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and Asia from the "New World" of the Americas in the European perception of the World.
This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the other lists of islands below.
A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor but that does not reach to the water's surface, and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the seafloor to 1,000–4,000 m (3,300–13,100 ft) in height. They are defined by oceanographers as independent features that rise to at least 1,000 m (3,281 ft) above the seafloor, characteristically of conical form. The peaks are often found hundreds to thousands of meters below the surface, and are therefore considered to be within the deep sea. During their evolution over geologic time, the largest seamounts may reach the sea surface where wave action erodes the summit to form a flat surface. After they have subsided and sunk below the sea surface such flat-top seamounts are called "guyots" or "tablemounts".
Outer Islands of Mauritius is the single first-order administrative division of the country and consists of the islands of Mauritius and several outlying islands. It is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Local Government and Outer Islands. The Constitution of Mauritius provides that the country includes the islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues, Agaléga, Saint Brandon, Tromelin and the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia and any other island comprised in the State of Mauritius. The Government of Mauritius claims sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, which the United Kingdom split from its territories to create the British Indian Ocean Territory before its independence in 1968. Additionally, France shares a sovereignty claim over Tromelin, an uninhabited islet between Madagascar and Mauritius' main island.
The Lucayan Archipelago, also known as the Bahama Archipelago, is an island group comprising the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The archipelago is in the western North Atlantic Ocean, north of Cuba and the other Antilles, and east and southeast of Florida.
The Mascarene Plateau is a submarine plateau in the Indian Ocean, north and east of Madagascar. The plateau extends approximately 2,000 km (1,200 mi), from Seychelles in the north to Réunion in the south. The plateau covers an area of over 115,000 km2 (44,000 sq mi) of shallow water, with depths ranging from 8–150 m (30–490 ft), plunging to 4,000 m (13,000 ft) to the abyssal plain at its edges. It is the second-largest oceanic plateau in the Indian Ocean after the Kerguelen Plateau.
The Saya de Malha Bank is the largest submerged ocean bank in the world, a part of the vast undersea Mascarene Plateau.
Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary is a marine sanctuary located off the coast of California. It protects an area of 1,286 sq mi (3,331 km2) of marine wildlife. The administrative center of the sanctuary is on an offshore granite outcrop 4.5 sq mi (12 km2) by 9.5 sq mi (25 km2), located on the continental shelf off of California. The outcrop is, at its closest, 6 mi (10 km) from the sanctuary itself.
The Agulhas Bank is a broad, shallow part of the southern African continental shelf which extends up to 250 km (160 mi) south of Cape Agulhas before falling steeply to the abyssal plain.
Navidad Bank is a submerged bank in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Dominican Republic and southeast of the Territory of Turks & Caicos. It is separated from Silver Bank by the wide Navidad Bank Passage.
The Bahama Banks are the submerged carbonate platforms that make up much of the Bahama Archipelago. The term is usually applied in referring to either the Great Bahama Bank around Andros Island, or the Little Bahama Bank of Grand Bahama Island and Great Abaco, which are the largest of the platforms, and the Cay Sal Bank north of Cuba. The islands of these banks are politically part of the Bahamas. Other banks are the three banks of the Turks and Caicos Islands, namely the Caicos Bank of the Caicos Islands, the bank of the Turks Islands, and wholly submerged Mouchoir Bank. Farther southeast are the equally wholly submerged Silver Bank and Navidad Bank north of the Dominican Republic.
The Rockall Trough is a deep-water bathymetric feature to the northwest of Scotland and Ireland, running roughly from southwest to northeast, flanked on the north by the Rockall Plateau and to the south by the Porcupine Seabight. At the northern end, the channel is bounded by the Wyville-Thomson Ridge, named after Charles Wyville Thomson, professor of zoology at the University of Edinburgh and driving force behind the Challenger Expedition. At the southern end, the trough opens into the Porcupine abyssal plain. The Rockall Basin is a large sedimentary basin that lies beneath the trough. Both are named after Rockall, a rocky islet lying 301.4 km west of St Kilda.
Bowie Seamount is a large submarine volcano in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, located 180 km (110 mi) west of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to Oceanography.
The Fogo Seamounts, also called the Fogo Seamount Chain, are a group of undersea mountains southeast of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean. This seamount chain, lying approximately 500 km (310 mi) offshore from the island of Newfoundland, consists of several submarine volcanoes that have been extinct for millions of years. They are one of the few seamount chains located in Canadian waters off the coast of Atlantic Canada.
The Walvis Ridge is an aseismic ocean ridge in the southern Atlantic Ocean. More than 3,000 km (1,900 mi) in length, it extends from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, near Tristan da Cunha and the Gough Islands, to the African coast. The Walvis Ridge is one of few examples of a hotspot seamount chain that links a flood basalt province to an active hotspot. It is also considered one of the most important hotspot tracks because the Tristan Hotspot is one of few primary or deep mantle hotspots.
Limalok is a Cretaceous-Paleocene guyot/tablemount in the southeastern Marshall Islands, one of a number of seamounts in the Pacific Ocean. It was probably formed by a volcanic hotspot in present-day French Polynesia. Limalok lies southeast of Mili Atoll and Knox Atoll, which rise above sea level, and is joined to each of them through a volcanic ridge. It is located at a depth of 1,255 metres (4,117 ft) and has a summit platform with an area of 636 square kilometres (246 sq mi).
The marine ecoregions of the South African exclusive economic zone are a set of geographically delineated regions of similar ecological characteristics on a fairly broad scale, covering the exclusive economic zone along the South African coast.
Echo Bank is an underwater mountain, part of Canary Islands Seamount Province and located southwest of the Canary Islands. Of uncertain geologic origin, it is part of a larger cluster of submarine mountains and rises to a depth of 255 metres (837 ft) below sea level. It has a flat top, indicating that it formerly might have emerged from the sea.
The Barra Fan and Hebrides Terrace Seamount is the name given to a Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area that lies in Scottish waters to the west of the Outer Hebrides, adjacent to the boundary with Ireland. It covers two distinct geological features of the North Atlantic Ocean: the Barra Fan and the Hebrides Terrace Seamount.