WeRtheOcean
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Since I plan to be buried at sea, I have been interested in benthic/abyssal geophysics and biota. I now live on the Atlantic Coast, which means that it is likely that I will end up being buried in the Atlantic Ocean. I have, therefore, been comparing the Atlantic with the Indo-Pacific. The Atlantic is a much younger ocean, and has not had as much time to develop geophysical and biotic features.
In the Indo-Pacific, we find the East Pacific Rise, Galapagos Rift, black and white smokers, and various subduction trenches because of the assemblage of tectonic plates, of which the Marianas Trench is only the deepest. The Clipperton Fracture Zone has become prominent recently in the controversy over ocean floor mining. There are whole archipelagoes of seamounts. Along the midocean ridge lives the famous Riftia polyptila tube worm, the Pompeii worm, and the clams and mussels with chemosynthetic bacterial symbionts (Calyptogena and Bathymodiolus)
The Atlantic is fundamentally different in that there is no Atlantic Plate. The only subduction trench I know of is at the Caribbean Plate boundary. Looking at a bathymetric map, I see a couple of seamount archipelagoes, one related to the New England Hotspot and what appers to be another near southern Africa. Black and white smokers have been found at the midocean ridge, and, after searching, I did find references to Calyptogena and Bathymodiolus in the Atlantic as well. Cold seeps and deep-water reefs, likewise, are found in both oceans.
Still, the Atlantic seems to be a less complex geophysical and biotic system than the Indo-Pacific, with fewer of the aforementioned features. Rosalind Bank appears to be the only true atoll in the Atlantic, and is completely submerged, in contrast to the numerous Indo-Pacific atolls and barrier reef islands like Bora Bora; likewise, the Puerto Rico Trench appears to be the only trench. I have found no references to Riftia polyptila or the Pompeii worm in the Atlantic, and sponge reefs are only known in the North Pacific. So it seems that the types of points of interest in the Atlantic are a subset of those in the Indo-Pacific.
Have I missed something? Are there features of the Atlantic that are unique, not shared with the Indo-Pacific? Or what makes the Atlantic an interesting basin to study?
In the Indo-Pacific, we find the East Pacific Rise, Galapagos Rift, black and white smokers, and various subduction trenches because of the assemblage of tectonic plates, of which the Marianas Trench is only the deepest. The Clipperton Fracture Zone has become prominent recently in the controversy over ocean floor mining. There are whole archipelagoes of seamounts. Along the midocean ridge lives the famous Riftia polyptila tube worm, the Pompeii worm, and the clams and mussels with chemosynthetic bacterial symbionts (Calyptogena and Bathymodiolus)
The Atlantic is fundamentally different in that there is no Atlantic Plate. The only subduction trench I know of is at the Caribbean Plate boundary. Looking at a bathymetric map, I see a couple of seamount archipelagoes, one related to the New England Hotspot and what appers to be another near southern Africa. Black and white smokers have been found at the midocean ridge, and, after searching, I did find references to Calyptogena and Bathymodiolus in the Atlantic as well. Cold seeps and deep-water reefs, likewise, are found in both oceans.
Still, the Atlantic seems to be a less complex geophysical and biotic system than the Indo-Pacific, with fewer of the aforementioned features. Rosalind Bank appears to be the only true atoll in the Atlantic, and is completely submerged, in contrast to the numerous Indo-Pacific atolls and barrier reef islands like Bora Bora; likewise, the Puerto Rico Trench appears to be the only trench. I have found no references to Riftia polyptila or the Pompeii worm in the Atlantic, and sponge reefs are only known in the North Pacific. So it seems that the types of points of interest in the Atlantic are a subset of those in the Indo-Pacific.
Have I missed something? Are there features of the Atlantic that are unique, not shared with the Indo-Pacific? Or what makes the Atlantic an interesting basin to study?