Romanche Trench

The Romanche Trench, also called Romanche Furrow, Romanche Gap, or Romanche Fracture Zone, is the third deepest of the major trenches of the Atlantic Ocean, after the Puerto Rico Trench and the South Sandwich Trench. It dissects the Mid-Atlantic Ridge just north of the equator at the narrowest part of the Atlantic between Brazil and West Africa, extending from 2°N to 2°S and from 16°W to 20°W. The trench is part of a major transform fault zone that offsets the ridge. It is situated between the Sierra Leone Basin to the North and Northeast, the South Atlantic Basin to the East and Southeast, the Northern Brazilian Basin To the South and Southwest, and North Atlantic Ridge to the West and Northwest. Geologically, it is at the seam of the South American Plate to the West and the African Plate to the East. The trench has a depth of 7,760 m, is 300 km long and has an average width of 19 km and allows for a major circulation of deep ocean basin water from the west Atlantic to the east Atlantic basins. Deep water flow through the trench is from west to east with a rate of 3.6×10⁶ m³/s of 1.57°C water.[1]

References

• Schlitzer, Reiner, et.al.; 1985; A meridional ¹⁴C and ³⁹Ar section in northeast Atlantic deep water; Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 90, Issue C10, p. 6945-6952 abstract