Mar 5, 2026 08:10 PM
https://www.sciencealert.com/we-finally-...c-seafloor
INTRO: The King's Trough complex, about 1,000 kilometers (roughly 600 miles) off the coast of Portugal, is known as the 'Grand Canyon of the Atlantic' because of its vast size, and a new study details the monumental forces that formed it.
Experts have long debated how this gigantic network of trenches and basins, extending some 500 kilometers across the seafloor, was created. One plausible explanation was that the features were simply the result of the oceanic crust being pulled apart.
The researchers behind the new study, led by a team from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany, wanted to take a closer look – and they say the reality is rather more complicated.
Based on new, comprehensive datasets, the team suggests that a combination of weakening from heat from an existing mantle plume and the immense pressure of a temporary plate boundary caused the King's Trough complex (KTC) to form in this spot.
"Researchers have long suspected that tectonic processes – that is, movements of the Earth's crust – played a central role in the formation of the King's Trough," says marine geologist Antje Dürkefälden, from GEOMAR.
"Our results now explain for the first time why this remarkable structure developed precisely at this location." (MORE - details)
INTRO: The King's Trough complex, about 1,000 kilometers (roughly 600 miles) off the coast of Portugal, is known as the 'Grand Canyon of the Atlantic' because of its vast size, and a new study details the monumental forces that formed it.
Experts have long debated how this gigantic network of trenches and basins, extending some 500 kilometers across the seafloor, was created. One plausible explanation was that the features were simply the result of the oceanic crust being pulled apart.
The researchers behind the new study, led by a team from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany, wanted to take a closer look – and they say the reality is rather more complicated.
Based on new, comprehensive datasets, the team suggests that a combination of weakening from heat from an existing mantle plume and the immense pressure of a temporary plate boundary caused the King's Trough complex (KTC) to form in this spot.
"Researchers have long suspected that tectonic processes – that is, movements of the Earth's crust – played a central role in the formation of the King's Trough," says marine geologist Antje Dürkefälden, from GEOMAR.
"Our results now explain for the first time why this remarkable structure developed precisely at this location." (MORE - details)