How much of the ocean is abyssal plain?

How much of the ocean is abyssal plain?

At depths of over 10,000 feet and covering 70% of the ocean floor, abyssal plains are the largest habitat on earth.

What is the average depth of the abyssal plain?

3,000 to 6,000 m
Abyssal plain, flat seafloor area at an abyssal depth (3,000 to 6,000 m [10,000 to 20,000 feet]), generally adjacent to a continent.

What does the abyssal plain do?

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 by turbidity currents that have been channelled from the continental margins along submarine canyons into deeper water.

What are the characteristics of the abyssal plain?

Abyssal plains are the vast, flat, sediment-covered areas of the deep ocean floor. They are the flattest, most featureless areas on the Earth, and have a slope of less than one foot of elevation difference for each thousand feet of distance.

What lives on the abyssal plain?

Animals that commonly occur in abyssal sediments include molluscs, worms (nematodes, sipunculids, polychaetes, hemichordates and vestimentiferans) and echinoderms (holothuroids, asteroids, ophiuroids, echinoids, and crinoids).

What is the largest abyssal plain?

the Sohm Plain
The largest single recognized abyssal plain is the Sohm Plain in the North Atlantic, which covers around 900,000 km² of ocean floor.

Why is the abyssal plain so smooth?

Abyssal plains consist of beds of volcanic rock topped with sediments that are up to thousands of feet thick. Most of the sediments wash off the continents, and are carried to the depths by dense currents. Over time, the sediments spread out to provide a smooth, level surface.

What color is the abyssal plain?

Abyssal plains occur at depths greater than 6,500 ft (2,000 m) below sea level and are underlain by oceanic crust composed primarily of basalt, a dark colored volcanic rock rich in iron- and magnesium-silicate minerals.

Why are abyssal plains flatter than abyssal hills?

Oceanographers believe that abyssal plains are so flat because they are covered with sediments that have been washed off the surface of the continents for thousands of years. On the abyssal plains, these layers of sediment have now covered up any irregularities that may exist in rock of the ocean floor beneath them.

Do sharks live in the abyssal zone?

While there are a number of different fish species representing many different groups and classes, like Actinopterygii or ray-finned fish, there are no known members of the class Chondrichthyes, animals such as sharks, rays, and chimeras, that make the abyssal zone their primary or constant habitat.

What lives in abyssal zone?

Animals in this zone include anglerfish, deep sea jellyfish, deep sea shrimp, cookiecutter shark, tripod fish, and abyssal octopus also known as the dumbo octopus. The animals that live in this zone will eat anything since food is very scarce this deep down in the ocean.

Why is it called the abyssal zone?

The Abyssopelagic Zone (or abyssal zone) extends from 13,100 feet (4,000 meters) to 19,700 feet (6,000 meters). It is the pitch-black bottom layer of the ocean. The name (abyss) comes from a Greek word meaning “no bottom” because they thought the ocean was bottomless.

Where is the abyssal plain in the ocean?

LOCATED IN THE world’s oceans, an abyssal plain is a depositional surface on the seafloor. The plain is generally 13,000 to 20,000 ft (4,000 to 6,000 m), extending seaward from the base of a continental slope or from the seaward edge of an oceanic trench to the midocean ridge.

What are the salinities in the abyssal zone?

Abyssal salinities range narrowly between 34.6 and 35.0 parts per thousand, and temperatures are mostly between 0° and 4° C (32° and 39° F). Pressure increases by about one atmosphere (approximately 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level) with each 10-metre increment in depth; thus, abyssal pressures range between 200 and 600 atmospheres.

What kind of minerals are found in the abyssal plain?

Sediments of certain abyssal plains contain abundant mineral resources, notably polymetallic nodules. These potato-sized concretions of manganese, iron, nickel, cobalt, and copper, distributed on the seafloor at depths of greater than 4000 meters, are of significant commercial interest.

Where are turbidites found in the abyssal plain?

Turbidites are distinctive layers of sediments on the edges of abyssal plains next to continental slopes. Turbidites come from river sediment deposited on the outer edge of the continental shelf. Turbidity currents move the sediments from the shelf to the plain.