What lies beneath the Tasman Abyssal Plain?

The Tasman Abyssal Plain is a deep submarine region located off the southeast coast of Australia in the Tasman Sea. It features a delicately sloping terrain with an average depth between 4,000 and 5,000 meters. A world-first sonar mapping initiative in 2017 revealed a surprisingly craggy continental edge engraved with canyons and precipices, housing diverse deep-sea life like polychaete marine worms.

What we know

• The Tasman Abyssal Plain is located off the coast of southeast Australia in the Tasman Sea, extending from southern Queensland to Tasmania. [1, 2]
• The submarine plain has an average depth ranging between 4,000 meters and 5,000 meters. [2]
• A world-first sonar observation in 2017 mapped the plain and revealed a convoluted continental slope engraved with multiple canyons, sediment slumps, and exposed rock. [2]
• Polychaetes served as the leading members of the deep-sea macrobenthos found during exploration of the plain. [2]

Where to go next

• the bigger pictureHow was the Tasman Sea named and explored?
• compared withWhat features make up the Lord Howe Seamount Chain?
• how it workedWhat methods were used in the 2017 seafloor mapping?
• how we knowWhat are submarine topographical features?
• a case in pointHow do polychaetes survive in deep-sea abyssal zones?
• an unexpected connectionHow does deep-sea mapping connect to Dutch and British maritime exploration?Modern high-resolution sonar mapping of the deep Tasman Abyssal Plain builds directly upon centuries-old maritime navigation routes first charted across the Tasman Sea by Abel Tasman and James Cook.

Sources

• [1]Tasman Abyssal Plain (Wikidata Q133579484) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Tasman Abyssal Plain · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]List of submarine topographical features · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Tasman Sea · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Lord Howe Seamount Chain · CC BY-SA 4.0