Kings Trough (sometimes spelled King's Trough) is an undersea trough in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is located on the east side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, northwest of the Açores-Biscay Rise and roughly 400 km (250 mi) north-northeast of the Azores. It is approximately 400 km (250 mi) long, running in a northwest–southeast direction. To the east it branches into the Peake Deep and Freen Deep. The center depth is 4,500 m (14,800 ft). Surrounding the trough are high ridges and seamounts, such as the Antialtair Seamount and the Crumb Seamount complex.[1] Various explanations for the complex have been suggested, ranging from compression,[2] a former plate boundary,[3] transform faulting or even an oblique meteor impact.[4]

The trough, being in an apparently geologically stable region, has been studied as a possible location for radioactive waste disposal.[5]

References

43°48′00.0″N 22°00′00.9″W / 43.800000°N 22.000250°W / 43.800000; -22.000250

  1. ^ Laughton, A.S., Roberts, D.G. and Graves, R. (1975) – Bathymetry of the Northeast Atlantic: Mid-Atlantic Ridge to Southwest Europe. Deep-Sea Research 22:792–810.
  2. ^ Kenneth O. Emery; Elazar Uchupi (6 December 2012). The Geology of the Atlantic Ocean. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 360–. ISBN 978-1-4612-5278-8.
  3. ^ Wes Gibbons; Teresa Moreno (Ph. D.); Geological Society of London (2002). The Geology of Spain. Geological Society of London. pp. 368–. ISBN 978-1-86239-127-7.
  4. ^ Lars G. Franzén, Gustaf D. Nelhans, A geomorphologic approach to the interpretation of the King’s Trough Complex, North-East Atlantic. 3rd Symposium on the Iberian Atlantic Margin, Faro, Portugal. 2000 http://www.gvc.gu.se/digitalAssets/1308/1308561_franzen-and-nelhans-2010.pdf Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Kidd, R.B., Searle, R.C., Weaver, P.P.E., Jacobs, C.L., Huggett, Q.J., Noel, M.J. and Schultheiss, P.J. (1983) King's Trough Flank: geological and geophysical investigations of its suitability for high-level radioactive waste disposal. Wormley, UK, Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, 99pp. (Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Report,(166)) http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/14583/
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