List of submarine topographical features
This is a list of submarine topographical features, oceanic landforms and topographic elements.
Abyssal plain
An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between and. 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. Abyssal plains are key geologic elements of oceanic basins. In addition to these elements, active oceanic basins also typically include an oceanic trench and a subduction zone. Abyssal plains cover more than 33% of the ocean floor, but 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. Abyssal plains result from the blanketing of an originally uneven surface of oceanic crust by fine-grained sediments, mainly clay and silt. Much of this sediment is deposited from turbidity currents that have been channeled from the continental margins along submarine canyons down into deeper water. The remainder of the sediment is composed chiefly of pelagic sediments.
Use of a continuously recording fathometer enabled Tolstoy & Ewing in the summer of 1947 to identify and describe the first abyssal plain. This plain, located to the south of Newfoundland, is now known as the Sohm Abyssal Plain. Following this discovery many other examples were found in all the oceans.
List of abyssal plains and oceanic basins
Following is a list of named abyssal plains and oceanic basins:| Name | Alternate name | Ocean | Coordinates |
| Adriatic Abyssal Plain | Mediterranean Sea | ||
| Agulhas Bank | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Alaska Plain | North Pacific Ocean | ||
| Alborán Plain | Alboran Sea | ||
| Aleutian Basin | North Pacific Ocean | ||
| Amerasian Basin | |||
| Amundsen Basin | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Amundsen Plain | Southern Ocean | ||
| Angola Plain | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Argentine Abyssal Plain | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Atlantic-Indian Basin | Indian Ocean | ||
| Balearic Abyssal Plain | Mediterranean Sea | ||
| Baffin Basin | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Barracuda Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Bauer Basin | |||
| Bellingshausen Plain | Southern Ocean | ||
| Biscay Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Blake Basin | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Boreas Plain | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Burdwood Abyssal Plain | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Canada Plain | . One of two sub-basins of the Amerasian Basin. | Arctic Ocean | |
| Canary Basin | |||
| Cape Plain | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Cape Verde Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Cascadia Plain | North Pacific Ocean | ||
| Ceará Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Central Pacific Basin | |||
| Ceylon Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| Chile Basin | |||
| Chukchi Plain | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Cocos Abyssal Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| Colombian Plain | Caribbean Sea | ||
| Comoro Plain | Mozambique Channel | ||
| Cuvier Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| Demerara Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Dibble Basin | Southern Ocean | ||
| Dumshaf Plain | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Enderby Plain | Southern Ocean | ||
| Eratosthenes Abyssal Plain | Mediterranean Sea | ||
| Eurasian Basin | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Euxine Abyssal Plain | Black Sea | ||
| Fernando de Noronha Plain | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Ferradura Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Fletcher Plain | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Florida Plain | Gulf of Mexico | ||
| Fram Basin | One of two sub-basins of the Eurasian Basin. | Arctic Ocean | |
| Gambia Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Gascoyne Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| Greenland Plain | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Grenada Abyssal Plain | Caribbean Sea | ||
| Guiana Basin | |||
| Guinea Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Hatteras Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Herodotus Basin | Levantine Sea | ||
| Hellenic Trench | Ionian Sea | ||
| Hispaniola Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Horseshoe Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Iberian Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Jamaican Abyssal Plain | Caribbean Sea | ||
| Japan Plain | Sea of Japan | ||
| JOIDES Basin | Southern Ocean | ||
| Labrador Basin | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Laurentian Abyss | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Madeira Abyssal Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Makarov Basin | one of two sub-basins of the Amerasian Basin. | Arctic Ocean | |
| Mascarene Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| Melanesian Basin | |||
| Mendeleyev Plain | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Mid Indian Abyssal Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| Mornington Abyssal Plain | South Pacific Ocean | ||
| Namibia Abyssal Plain | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Nansen Basin | One of two sub-basins of the Eurasian Basin. | Arctic Ocean | |
| Nares Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Natal Basin | |||
| Newfoundland Basin | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| North Australian Basin | Indian Ocean | ||
| North Polar Basin | |||
| Northwest Pacific Basin | |||
| Northwind Plain USCGC Northwind | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Okhotsk Abyssal Plain | Sea of Okhotsk | ||
| Oman Plain | Arabian Sea | ||
| Panama Plain | Caribbean Sea | ||
| Papua Plain | South Pacific Ocean | ||
| Para Abyssal Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Penrhyn Basin | |||
| Pernambuco Plain | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Perth Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| Peru Basin | |||
| Pole Plain | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Porcupine Abyssal Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Raukumara Abyssal Plain | South Pacific Ocean | ||
| Rhodes Basin | Sea of Crete | ||
| Roggeveen Basin | |||
| Sardino-Balearic Plain | Mediterranean Sea | ||
| Seine Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Siberian Abyssal Plain | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Sicilia Plain | Mediterranean Sea | ||
| Sierra Leone Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Sigsbee Deep | Gulf of Mexico | ||
| Silver Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Sirte Basin | Libyan Sea | ||
| Sohm Abyssal Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Somali Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| South Australian Plain | Indian Ocean | ||
| South China Basin | South China Sea | ||
| South East Pacific Basin | |||
| South Fiji Basin | |||
| South Indian Plain | Southern Ocean | ||
| South West Pacific Abyssal Plain | South Pacific Ocean | ||
| Tagus Abyssal Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Tasman Plain | Tasman Sea | ||
| Town Abyssal Plain | South Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Tsushima Basin | Korea Strait | ||
| Tufts Plain | North Pacific Ocean | ||
| Tyrrhenian Plain | Tyrrhenian Sea | ||
| Valdivia Abyssal Plain | Southern Ocean | ||
| Venezuelan Plain | Caribbean Sea | ||
| Vidal Abyssal Plain | North Atlantic Ocean | ||
| Weddell Plain | Southern Ocean | ||
| Wrangellia Terrane | Arctic Ocean | ||
| Yamato Basin | Sea of Japan | ||
| Yucatan Abyssal Plain | Caribbean Sea |
Oceanic trenches
es are long, narrow topographic depressions of the seabed. They are the deepest parts of the ocean floor, and they define one of the most important natural boundaries on the Earth's solid surface: the one between two lithospheric plates. Trenches are a distinctive morphological feature of plate boundaries. Trenches are found in all oceans with the exception of the Arctic Ocean and they are most common in the North and South Pacific Oceans.There are three types of lithospheric plate boundaries: 1.) divergent convergent transform.
An oceanic trench is a type of convergent boundary at which two oceanic lithospheric slabs meet; the older of these slabs flexes and subducts beneath the other slab. Oceanic lithosphere moves into trenches at a global rate of about a tenth of a square meter per second. Trenches are generally parallel to a volcanic island arc, and about 200 km from a volcanic arc. Oceanic trenches typically extend 3 to 4 km below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor. The greatest ocean depth to be sounded is in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10,911 m below sea level.
List of oceanic trenches
The following is a list of the deepest parts of the Earth's oceans and seas :| Name | Location | Depth | Depth | Depth | |
| 1 | Challenger Deep | Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc, Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean | 11,034 | 36,197 | 6.86 |
| 2 | Tonga Trench | Pacific Ocean | 10,882 | 35,702 | 6.76 |
| 3 | Galathea Depth | Philippine Trench, Pacific Ocean | 10,545 | 34,580 | 6.54 |
| 4 | Kuril-Kamchatka Trench | Pacific Ocean | 10,542 | 34,449 | 6.52 |
| 5 | Kermadec Trench | Pacific Ocean | 10,047 | 32,963 | 6.24 |
| 6 | Izu-Ogasawara Trench | Pacific Ocean | 9,810 | 32,087 | 6.08 |
| 7 | Japan Trench | Pacific Ocean | 9,000 | 29,527 | 5.59 |
| 8 | Puerto Rico Trench | Atlantic Ocean | 8,605 | 28,232 | 5.35 |
| 9 | Yap Trench | Pacific Ocean | 8,527 | 27,976 | 5.30 |
| 10 | South Sandwich Trench | Atlantic Ocean | 8,428 | 27,651 | 5.24 |
| 11 | Richards Deep | Peru–Chile Trench, Pacific Ocean | 8,065 | 26,456 | 5.01 |
| 12 | Diamantina Deep | Diamantina Fracture Zone, Indian Ocean | 8,047 | 26,401 | 5.00 |
| 13 | Romanche Trench | Atlantic Ocean | 7,760 | 25,460 | 4.82 |
| 14 | Cayman Trough | Caribbean Sea | 7,687 | 25,238 | 4.78 |
| 15 | Aleutian Trench | Pacific Ocean | 7,679 | 25,194 | 4.77 |
| 16 | Java Trench | Indian Ocean | 7,455 | 24,460 | 4.63 |
| 17 | Weber Deep | Banda Sea | 7,351 | 24,117 | 4.56 |
| 18 | Middle America Trench | Pacific Ocean | 6,669 | 21,880 | 4.14 |
| 19 | Puysegur Trench | Pacific Ocean | 6,300 | 20,700 | 3.9 |
| 20 | Vityaz Trench | Pacific Ocean | 6,150 | 20,177 | 3.8 |
| 21 | Litke Deep | Eurasian Basin*, Arctic Ocean | 5,450 | 17,881 | 3.39 |
| 22 | Manila Trench | South China Sea | 5,400 | 17,700 | 3.36 |
| 23 | Calypso Deep | Hellenic Trench, Mediterranean Sea | 5,267 | 17,280 | 3.27 |
| 24 | Ryukyu Trench | Pacific Ocean | 5,212 | 17,100 | 3.24 |
| 25 | Murray Canyon* | Southern Ocean, Australia | 5,000 | 16,400 | 3.1 |
- Entries marked with * are the deepest parts of their respective water bodies, but are not oceanic trenches.
Oceanic plateau
The anomalous volcanism associated with the formation of oceanic plateaux at the time of the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary ago may have been responsible for the environmental disturbances that occurred at that time. The physical manifestations of this were elevated atmospheric and oceanic temperatures, a significant sea-level transgression, and a period of widespread anoxia, leading to the extinction of 26% of all genera. These eruptions would also have resulted in the emission of large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to global warming. Additionally, the emission of sulfur monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and halogens into the oceans would have made seawater more acidic resulting in the dissolution of carbonate, and further release of. This runaway greenhouse effect was probably put into reverse by the decline of the anomalous volcanic activity and by increased -driven productivity in oceanic surface waters, leading to increased organic carbon burial, black shale deposition, anoxia and mass extinction in the ocean basins.
, Bounty Trough, Campbell Plateau, Challenger Plateau, Chatham Rise, Havre Trough, Hikurangi Plateau, Kermadec Trench, Lord Howe Rise, Louisville Ridge, New Caledonia Basin, Norfolk Ridge, South Fiji Basin, South West Pacific Basin, and Tasman Basin.
List of oceanic plateaus
- Campbell Plateau
- Challenger Plateau
- Agulhas Plateau
- Caribbean-Colombian Plateau
- Exmouth Plateau
- Hikurangi Plateau
- Kerguelen Plateau
- Manihiki Plateau
- Marquesas Plateau
- Mascarene Plateau
- Naturaliste Plateau
- Ontong Java Plateau
- Shatsky Rise
- Vøring Plateau
- Wrangellia Terrane
- Yermak Plateau
Mid-ocean ridges
List of mid-ocean ridges
- Aden Ridge
- American-Antarctic Ridge
- Carlsberg Ridge
- Central Indian Ridge
- Chile Rise
- Cocos Ridge
- East Pacific Rise
- East Scotia Ridge
- Explorer Ridge
- Gakkel Ridge
- Gorda Ridge
- Juan de Fuca Ridge
- Knipovich Ridge
- Kolbeinsey Ridge
- Mid-Atlantic Ridge
- Mohns Ridge
- Norfolk Ridge
- Pacific-Antarctic Ridge
- Palau-Kyushu Ridge
- Reykjanes Ridge
- Southeast Indian Ridge
- Southwest Indian Ridge
- West Mariana Ridge