The Rockall Trough (Scottish Gaelic: Clais Sgeir Rocail) is a deep-water bathymetric feature to the northwest of Scotland and Ireland, running roughly from southwest to northeast, flanked on the north by the Rockall Plateau and to the south by the Porcupine Seabight. At the northern end, the channel is bounded by the Wyville-Thomson Ridge, named after Charles Wyville Thomson, professor of zoology at the University of Edinburgh and driving force behind the Challenger Expedition. At the southern end, the trough opens into the Porcupine abyssal plain. One of the features of the Rockall Trough is the Anton Dohrn Seamount, a seamount named in the memory of Anton Dohrn rising 1,500 metres from the surrounding seabed.
The petroleum and natural gas resources in the area have been the source of political tensions between the governments of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands (a possession of Denmark).
The area supports cold water coral colonies and carbonate mound fields such as the Logachev Mounds; the trough supports a rich deep sea fish population.[1]
Features of the Rockall Plateau have been officially named after features of Middle-earth in the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, e.g. Eriador Seamount, Rohan Seamount, Gondor Seamount, Fangorn Bank, Edoras Bank, Lorien Knoll, Isengard Ridge.[2]
In February 2000, a British oceanographic research vessel sailing in the Rockall Trough encountered the largest waves ever recorded by scientific instruments in the open ocean, with a SWH of 18.5 metres (61 ft) and individual waves up to 29.1 metres (95 ft).[3]
  | http://www.gebco.net/data_and_products/undersea_feature_names/ - GEBCO undersea feature names |
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