Bank (topography)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See also: Sandbank
A bank is a comparatively shallow area or an underwater hill on the continental shelf. It may be of volcanic nature. Seamounts, by contrast, rise from the deep sea, and are steeper, and higher in comparison to the surrounding seabed.
Examples are Cordell Bank, northwest of the Farallon Islands, which has a least depth of 35 meters, and Schmieder Bank. In other cases, parts of a bank may reach above the water surface, thereby forming islands, as in the case of Pedro Bank.
The largest banks in the world are:
- Great Bahamas Bank (95,798.12 km², has islands, area without islands)
- Saya de Malha (35,000 km², excluding the separate North bank, least depth 7 m)
- Seychelles Bank (31,000 km², including islands of 266 km²)
- Lansdowne Bank (21,000 km², west of New Caledonia, least depth 3.7 m) [1]
- Dogger Bank (17,600 km², least depth 13 m)
- Little Bahamas Bank (14,260.64 km², has islands, area without islands)
- Great Chagos Bank (12,642 km², including islands of 4.5 km²)
- Reed Bank, Spratly Islands (8,866 km², least depth 9 m)
- Caicos Bank, Caicos Islands (7,680 km², including islands of 589.5 km²)
- Macclesfield Bank (6,448 km², least depth 9.2 m)
- North Bank or Ritchie Bank (5,800 km², north of Saya de Malha, least depth <10 m)
- Cay Sal Bank (5,226.73 km², including islands of 14,87 km²)
- Rosalind Bank (4,500 km², lest depth 7.3 m)
Some of these banks may be sunken atolls. Continental shelf areas like the Grand Banks are not considered banks in this context.
