Now that the deep sea mining of polymetallic nodules on the
abyssal plain (4000 to 6000 m depth) of the central Eastern Pacific is to begin in the next few years, serious consideration must be given to the possible effects on the abyssal environment.
Subsequently, they are most abundant on the continental slopes and organic poor sediment cover on
abyssal plain restricts their formation, it says.
Plate and the western margin of the Indian Plate and continued further south-westward in the Gulf of Oman
abyssal plain. We support the notion of Critelli and De Rosa (1987) and Critelli et al.
It rises approximately 2,000m from the surrounding
abyssal plain, reaching a water depth of 690m at the top of the feature.
Plunging into the ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island, the more than 800 kilometers of fiber optic cables that connect the research stations stretch across the continental shelf, plummet down the slope and across an
abyssal plain, and skirt hydrothermal vents near a mid-ocean ridge where the Earth gives birth to new ocean crust.
Export of alloch-thonous plant material from adjacent continental shelves to the slope and
abyssal plain is a major [C.sub.org] source in the Gulf of Mexico (Pequegnat et al., 1983; Soto et al., 1998) and off North Carolina (Rowe and Menzies, 1968).
This feral existence is compounded by the fact our office sits in a part of Belfast that would rival the ocean's
abyssal plain for signs of life and home comforts.
The margin includes a steep narrow slope that extends from 200 to 4000 m water depth onto the Sohm
Abyssal Plain (Fig.
And they also had high activity, meaning that more carbon is turned over by bacteria in the trenches than is turned over at 6,000m of depth in the
abyssal plain.
The device successfully operated at depths of 5,600m in the Iberian
Abyssal Plain in the North Atlantic.
The islands are perched at the ragged edge of the continental shelf, right before it plunges more than 2 miles down to the
abyssal plain. The upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water at this ledge makes the location a showcase for the entire food chain, from microscopic plankton to the ocean's most magnificent predator, the great white shark.