Laurentian Abyss

The Laurentian Abyss is an underwater depression off the eastern coast of Canada in the Atlantic Ocean. Not a trench, but more of an "underwater valley", it is estimated to be at most ~6,000 meters in depth. The Laurentian Abyss is a product of glaciation and water currents from the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

The trench is the site of hydrothermal vents with their own ecosystems independent of sunlight.

In popular culture

• The Laurentian Abyss was the covert rendezvous point for Soviet and American submarines in the 1990 technothriller film The Hunt for Red October. The location, however, was a departure from the book, and was not used in the original 1984 novel by Tom Clancy.
• In the 2007 film Transformers, the body of Megatron, is dropped into the abyss. It is stated that the pressure and "sub-freezing" temperatures (presumably meaning below the freezing point of pure water at 1 atmosphere of pressure) at this depth would "crush and entomb" the evil alien robot. However, the film doubly erroneously states that the abyss is, at 7 miles (11.3 Km) below sea level, the deepest point on Earth; the actual deepest point is the Challenger Deep, a section of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. In the 2009 film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the remains are found at the bottom of the Abyss and Megatron is reactivated. Decepticon Protoforms are also seen climbing up a destroyed ship sinking into the Abyss waters. The film incorrectly states that the abyss is 9,300 fathoms deep, or about 17,000 meters.

See also

• Abyssal plain

References

Notes