* Astronomy

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: Scotland's highest mountain.


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
RE: Scotland's highest mountain.
Permalink  
 


UK's deep sea mountain life filmed

Scientists have sent a remotely operated vehicle to film one of the UK's three undersea mountains, known as seamounts.
The Hebrides Terrace Seamount, off the west coast of Scotland, is higher than Ben Nevis, but its peak is 1,000m beneath the surface.
Prof J Murray Roberts, from Heriot-Watt University, and his colleagues filmed more than 100 species on its slopes.

Read more



__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Rosemary Bank
Permalink  
 


10.29265W_59.32031N

__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
RE: Scotland's highest mountain.
Permalink  
 


Rosemary Bank is a broadly domed and elongate seamount with a diameter of 70 km, occurring in water depths of between 300 and 2300 m, 120 km west of the UK mainland in the northern Rockall Trough.
Rosemary Bank
59°14'N 010°04'W

The sea mount is actually a large extinct volcano, that last erupted some 70 million years ago during the early phases of opening of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Rosemary Bank has steep sides bearing the concave scars of large landslides. The top is relatively flat with terraces tens of metres high, just like the trap lavas in northern and western Mull. Scattered over the top of the bank are small volcanic cones, probably representing the last stages of volcanic activity.



__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

Climbers will have to don deep-sea diving gear in future if they want to scale Scotland's genuinely highest mountain.

Geologists have established that, at 6,200ft, Rosemary Bank would tower well over Ben Nevis.
However, it is midway between the outer Hebrides and St Kilda, and its summit is 1,000ft below sea level.
The discovery has been made by the use of the latest sound wave technology for scanning the deep as part of offshore exploration.
Thought to be named after a Royal Navy survey boat, Rosemary Bank is, in fact, an extinct 40-mile wide volcano dating back between 56million and 70million years.
It may not prove to be the UK's highest as sub-sea mapping is a continuing process, largely prompted by the oil industry seeking a new source.
Recent mapping has also made a mockery of Everest being the world's tallest mountain.
At 56,000ft, Hawaii would overshadow it somewhat, although only 13,000ft of it is above sea level.

"Sea level is not the best datum to measure the height of mountains from because it assumes that every mountain has its base exactly at sea level which, of course, is rubbish and sea level varies on the tides and so on. This is a bit of fun, really. Anybody who knows anything about the offshore has known about Rosemary Bank, but what has happened in the past few years is access to very detailed surveys of the seabed carried out by the National Oceanography Centre." - Ken Hitchen of the British Geological Survey team in Edinburgh.

Source P & J

__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.



Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard