Seamounts: Undersea mountains ‘litter’ ocean floor

Date: March 2, 2011

The seafloor is littered with underwater mountains, a new global survey has revealed.

Almost 5% of the ocean is covered by seamounts, peaks rising more than 1000m above the surrounding sea floor, with 16% covered by smaller knolls.

Seamounts and knolls are important and little studied habitats for marine life, say the survey’s scientists.

Seamounts alone make up a habitat equivalent in size to Russia or all the world’s tropical dry forest.

 

 

Read full story at BBC

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