9.So these animals are essentially gardening because if they didn't do that, these big, vast abyssal plains of the planet would become big, stagnant, horrible cesspits.
11.This effect is most pronounced in the tropics, while at the poles, the temperature of seawater is more or less the same from the surface down into the abyssal depths.
12.The depth of the open ocean varies considerably but the majority of it falls from the continental shelf down to depths of between 3,000 and 6000 meters, in what are known as abyssal plains.
13.Barron, who has invested millions of dollars in preliminary environmentalimpact assessments, describes the abyssal plain where the nodules are located as a " lifeless desert" where the impact of mining is likely to be minimal, if felt at all.
14.But these continents, in terms of a strict geological definition actually extend outward some way into the sea, in the form of shallow continental shelves, before suddenly dropping down into the abyssal plains of the deep oceans.