Abstract
The Rockall-Porcupine margin incorporates the Atlantic continental margins off NW Britain (south of the Wyville-Thomson Ridge) and Ireland. This is an uncharacteristically wide margin extending, for the most part, between about 600 and 1,000 km to the NW of the UK and Irish land-masses, and between about 1,200–1,300 km along the strike of the margin (Fig. 1). The margin extends over approximately 11° of latitude, between 49° and 60°N, and displays a wide range of sediment transport systems, both alongslope and downslope (Weaver et al. 2000). This chapter presents a brief introduction to the Rockall-Porcupine region, summarising previous and current background work, the regional setting, ENAM II objectives and achievernents, exploitable potential and future questions and problems. The chapters that are presented in this atlas for the Rockall-Porcupine region are referred to where appropriate in the following text.
Bathymetric setting of the Rockall-Porcupine margin (contours in metres), showing location of geographical and morphological features, major sediment drifts (shaded) and areas in Figs. 2–4 referred to in the text. WSS, West Shetland Shelf; FS, Faroe Shelf; FSC, Faroe-Shetland Channel; FBC, Faroe Bank Channel; FB, Faroe Bank; BBB, Bill Bailey’s Bank; LB, Lousy Bank; WTR, Wyville-Thomson Ridge; HS, Hebrides Shelf; SSF, Sula Sgeir Fan; RB, Rosemary Bank seamount; GBB, George Bligh Bank; BF, Barra Fan; AD, Anton Dohrn seamount; HT, Hebrides Terrace seamount; DF, Donegal Fan; MS, Malin Shelf; IS, Irish Shelf; PB, Porcupine Bank; PSB, Porcupine Seabight; PAP, Porcupine abyssal plain; RKB, Rockall Bank; HRB, Hatton-Rockall Basin; HB, Hatton Bank; F, Feni Ridge; H, Hatton Drift; G, Gardar Drift; Bj, Bjorn Drift. The present-day bottom-circulation pattern is shown by arrows: North Atlantic Deep Water, solid arrow; Norwegian Sea Deep Water, dashed arrow;Labrador Sea Water, dotted arrow. Inset map shows location of commercial wells referred to in the text, and the study areas included in this volume
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Stoker, M.S., Hitchen, K. (2003). The Rockall-Porcupine Margin. In: Mienert, J., Weaver, P. (eds) European Margin Sediment Dynamics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55846-7_26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55846-7_26
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