Seamounts Found On Ocean Floor Near Abyssal Plain

Seamounts are large underwater mountains that are formed by volcanic activities.

Seamounts found on ocean floor near abyssal plain.

Like the continental shelf slope abyssal plain and trenches ridges are found in every ocean basin. Abyssal plains are considered as the levelest areas on the earth. They cover a major portion of the ocean floors between the depths of 3000m to 6000m. Coral reefs at the ocean surface grow away from seamounts over time.

Teeming with life unlike the continental slope and abyssal plain deep sea seamounts are densely inhabited. They are defined by oceanographers as independent. They are among the flattest smoothest and least explored regions on earth. 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.

Ridges can be found rising from a depth of about 5 kilometers to a uniform depth of about 2 5 kilometers and can be hundreds of miles wide. An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor usually found at depths between 3 000 metres 9 800 ft and 6 000 metres 20 000 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. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.

They rise abruptly from the abyssal plain to heights at least 3 300 feet 1 000 metres above the ocean floor. Smaller submarine volcanoes are called sea knolls and flat topped seamounts are called guyots. The shelf lies beneath the deepest part of the ocean. Great meteor tablemount in the northeast atlantic standing more than 4 000 m 13 120 feet above the surrounding terrain with a basal diameter of up to 110 km 70 miles.

Abyssal plains are as irregular as the continental plains with submarine plateaus hills guyots and. Seamounts are extinct submarine volcanoes that are conically shaped and often flat topped. Abyssal plains are the extremely flat and featureless plains of the deep ocean floor. Cold water corals sponges sea anemones and sea fans form crowded communities on the rocky slopes filtering these nutrients out of the water.

In the indian ocean seamounts are particularly abundant between réunion and seychelles in the central indian basin and the vening meinesz group near wharton basin. Seamount large submarine volcanic mountain rising at least 1 000 m 3 300 feet above the surrounding deep sea floor. The shelf is the region located between deep sea fans and the abyssal plain.