The Floors of the Ocean: 1. The North Atlantic: Text to accompany the physiographic diagram of the North Atlantic — John Shaqi
The Floors of the Ocean: 1. The North Atlantic: Text to accompany the physiographic diagram of the North AtlanticHeezen, Bruce C.
Science
The Floors of the Ocean: 1. The North Atlantic: Text to accompany the physiographic diagram of the North Atlantic
Heezen, Bruce C.
Ocean bottom
Southeast Newfoundland Ridge.--From the southern tip of the Grand Banks
a broad ridge runs southeasterly toward the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and
forms a natural barrier between the Newfoundland Basin and the North
America Basin [to the south]. Since it is almost impossible to define
a boundary between the continental rise and the ridge, we consider the
Southeast Newfoundland Ridge an extension of the continental rise. The
ridge is 60-100 miles wide, and its crest plunges southeastward from
depths of 1500 fathoms near 50° W. to depths of 2200 fathoms near 45°
W. Profiles N-1 and N-2 (Fig. 11) cross the Southeast Newfoundland
Ridge at about 41.5° N. and 39.5° N. respectively. Profile N-1 is of
poor quality, which probably accounts for the lack of fine-textured
relief. The Mid-Ocean Canyon is again seen at the eastern end of
Profile N-2. Profile W-5 (Pl. 24) crosses the Southeast Newfoundland
Ridge from north to south. The similarity of profiles W-5 and W-23
suggests that the Southeast Newfoundland Ridge is an outer ridge of the
same kind as the one east of the Blake-Bahama region. The northern one
is not so long, and it does not totally enclose a basin. Otherwise, it
is quite similar to the outer ridge east of the Bahamas in relative
position, size, and surface features. The term Southeast Newfoundland
Ridge was proposed by Wüst (1940b; 1943) and the feature has been shown
on bathymetric charts (Tolstoy, 1951) and profiles (Emery, 1950). This
ridge will be discussed again in connection with the Mid-Ocean Canyon
and the ocean-basin floor.
Southern Grand Banks Sector.--Profiles W-4 and W-5 cross the southern
tip of the Grand Banks. The shelf break is at 50 fathoms on both
profiles. On Profile W-4 an apparent gradient of 1:25 extends from
200 to about 1000 fathoms where, after some irregularities probably
associated with submarine canyons, the gradient drops to 1:40. This
lower gradient extends to 1750 fathoms. Profile W-5 is quite similar to
W-4 except that a steep initial slope of 1:5, from about 200 fathoms to
650 fathoms, is followed by a gradient of 1:80 which continues to 1000
fathoms. This same terracelike feature is also seen on W-3, W-4, W-5,
W-6, W-7, and W-8. Below 1000 fathoms a gradient of about 1:50 is found
on profiles W-4, W-5, W-6, W-7, and W-8. Profile W-6 runs south of the
Grand Banks through the epicenter of the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake
and then south through the area passed over by the 1929 Grand Banks
turbidity current (Heezen and Ewing, 1952). The depression marked by
the 1150-fathom sounding on the continental slope in Profile W-6 is
a canyon running south from the Laurentian Channel. The continental
rise is 250 miles wide and has an average gradient of 1:400 over its
deepest third. At a depth of 2750 fathoms the gradient abruptly drops
to 1:2000, and this marks the northern edge of the Sohm Abyssal Plain.
[Illustration: FIGURE 12.--_Laurentian Channel_
Profile replotted from NMC echogram]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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