Whittard Canyon

The map of Whittard Canyon

Whittard Canyon is a submarine canyon off the coast of southwest Ireland that lies between Celtic Sea and Atlantic Ocean. It covers an area of 2,000 square miles (5,200 km²) which span over 80 by 20 miles (129 by 32 km), with overall depth below 1,500 m.^[1]^[2]

The canyon has been used as subject for numerous scientific research, ranging from its sediment transport to its biodiversity.^[3] In 2015, a group of scientists from NERC's National Oceanography Centre (NOC) on board RRS James Cook studied the canyon for five weeks. During the studies, they found abundant forms of deep-water life, such as blue sharks, swordfishes, cold-water corals, clams, and deep-sea oysters. In this canyon, the coral species can live in darkness and get their food from the passing water, which differed from the tropical corals that need sunlight to survive.^[4]

Another expedition team from NIOZ also studied that layers with high concentrations of suspended particles in the canyon, which called nepheloid layers, contribute significantly to the transport of matter that formed a good condition for the high diversity of the canyon's fauna.^[5]

References[]

Citations[]

^ "Irish Marine Scientists Explore Whittard Canyon Deep-Sea Submarine Canyon". afloat.ie. Afloat Magazine. 13 June 2014. Archived from the original on 26 July 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
^ Dorschel et al. 2010, pp. 40-41.
^ Amaro et al. 2016, p. 4.
^ Derbyshire, David (24 May 2019). "Cliffs, clams and coral reefs: Looking below the sea's surface". nerc.ukri.org. Natural Environment Research Council. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
^ "The role of Whittard Canyon in particle dispersal and retention". www.nioz.nl/en/education. Retrieved 5 October 2019.

Book[]

Dorschel, Boris; Wheeler, Andrew J.; Monteys, Xavier; Verbruggen, Koen (2010). Atlas of the Deep-Water Seabed: Ireland (illustrated ed.). Springer. ISBN 978-9048193769. OCLC 706474770.

Journal[]

Amaro, Teresa; Huvenne, Veerle A.I.; Allcock, A. Louise; Aslam, Tahmeena; Davies, Jaime S.; Danovaro, Roberto; De Stigter, Henko C.; Duineveld, Gérard C.A.; Gambi, Cristina; Gooday, Andrew J.; Gunton, Laetitia M.; Hall, Rob A.; Howell, Kerry L.; Ingels, Jeroen; Kiriakoulakis, Konstadinos; Kershaw, C.E.; Lavaleye, Marc S.S.; Robert, Katleen; Stewart, Heather; Van Rooij, David; White, Martin A.; Wilson, Annette M. (2016). "The Whittard Canyon – A case study of submarine canyon processes" (PDF). Progress in Oceanography. 146: 38–57. Bibcode:2016PrOce.146...38A. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2016.06.003.