Abyssal Hill

abyssal hill, small, topographically well-defined submarine hill that may rise from several metres to several hundred metres above the abyssal seafloor, in water 3,000 to 6,000 metres (10,000 to 20,000 feet) deep. Typical abyssal hills have diameters of several to several hundred metres. They elongate parallel to spreading centres or to marine magnetic anomalies and cover the entire flanks and crests of oceanic ridges. Abyssal hill provinces, areas of abyssal seafloor occupied exclusively by such hills, characteristically occur seaward of the smooth abyssal plains at the bases of continental rises. Isolated hills and groups of hills also protrude from abyssal plain surfaces, and the base of an abyssal plain accumulation of marine sediment, as revealed by sub-bottom seismic profiling, generally matches the undulating topography and relief of abyssal hill provinces.

Apparently, the hills are constructed by two processes: volcanism and block faulting. The relative contribution of each may depend on the spreading rate. At slower rates, faulting of the oceanic crust is a dominant factor in forming the relief, and the relief of the hills is greater as the rate is slower. At the crest of a spreading centre, volcanism in the neovolcanic zone initiates the construction of volcanic hills. The zone of active faulting is where they form or are modified by block faulting. The existence of discrete and separate volcanic hills indicates that volcanism at a spreading centre is episodic.

Abyssal hills, although generally covered with marine sediments, probably are identical in composition and origin to the extrusive basaltic prominences on the upper flanks of mid-ocean ridges and rises. Thus, it is believed that abyssal hills underlie most of the ocean floor, locally buried by accumulations of abyssal sediment. In the Atlantic Ocean, long abyssal hill provinces parallel both flanks of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge along most of its length. The Pacific Ocean has a smaller supply of continental sediment than the Atlantic Ocean, and numerous trenches and local rises separate the main ocean floor from the continents, preventing the seaward transport of sediment. Consequently, between 80 and 85 percent of the Pacific abyssal floor is occupied by abyssal hills.