Abstract
Abyssal plains and basins are traditionally defined as areas of the deep-ocean floor in which the seabed is flat, with a slope of less than 1°, and deeper than 4,500 meters. They were not recognized as distinct physiographic features until the late 1940s, and there have been very few systematic investigations of limited areas. As a result, they are among the least known areas of the Earth’s surface. The examples presented in the Handbook of Seafloor Sonar Imagery (Blondel and Murton, 1997) came mostly from a single sonar (TOBI, 30 kHz) and from a single world-leading team at the National Oceanography Centre (U.K.). Many new results have been published in the decade since by several research groups around the world and the most representative examples will be presented in this chapter (Sections 6.3 and 6.5).
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6.7 Further Reading
About abyssal plains in general
Weaver, P.P.E.; and J. Thomson (1987). Geology and Geochemistry of Abyssal Plains. Blackwell for the Geological Society, Oxford, U.K., 246 pp.
About contourites
Rebesco, M.; and A. Camerlenghi (Eds.) (2009). Contourites. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 688 pp.
Stow, D.A.V.; C.J. Pudsey; J.A. Howe; J.C. Faugères; and A.R. Viana (Eds.) (2002). Deep-water Contourites: Modern Drifts and Ancient Series, Seismic and Sedimentary Characteristics, Memoir 22. Geological Society, London, 472 pp.
About polar seas
Davies T.A.; H. Josenhans; L. Polyak; A. Solheim; M.S. Stoker; and J.A. Stravers (Eds.) (1997). Glaciated Continental Margins: An Atlas of Acoustic Images. Chapman & Hall: London, 315 pp.
About landslides and debris flows (submarine or not)
Hampton, M.A.; H.J. Lee; and J. Locat (1996). Submarine landslides. Reviews of Geophysics, 34(1), 33–59.
Jakob, M.; and O. Hungr (2005). Debris-flow Hazards and Related Phenomena. Springer/Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany/Chichester, U.K., 739 pp.
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© 2009 Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK
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Blondel, P. (2009). Abyssal basins and the polar seas. In: The Handbook of Sidescan Sonar. Springer Praxis Books. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-49886-5_6
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