The Burdwood Bank, called Namuncurá in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

and other countries, is an undersea bank with a

prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

of approximately 200 metres (110 fathoms), part of the

Scotia Arc The Scotia Arc is the island arc system forming the north, east and south border of the Scotia Sea. The northern border, the North Scotia Ridge, comprises (from west to east) Isla de los Estados at the tip of Tierra del Fuego, the Burdwood, Davis, ...

projecting some from

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...

in the

South Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and located some south of the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

. Argentina claims economic rights over the whole of the bank, while the United Kingdom has designated about half of the bank as part of the Falklands Outer Economic Zone. The Burdwood Bank is one of the four morphological features defined by the 200 metre (110 fathom) isobath off the coast of the Argentine — the other three being the

Patagonian Shelf The Argentine (sometimes referred to as Patagonian) Shelf is part of the South American continental shelf belonging to the Argentine Sea on the Atlantic seaboard, south of about 35°S. It adjoins the coasts of Uruguay, Argentina Argen ...

(Argentine Coastal Shelf),

Isla de los Estados Isla de los Estados (English: Staten Island, from the Dutch ''Stateneiland'') is an Argentine island that lies off the eastern extremity of Tierra del Fuego, from which it is separated by the Le Maire Strait. It was named after the Netherlands ...

and the Falkland Islands. It forms a barrier to the northward flow of the

Antarctic Circumpolar Current The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is an ocean current that flows clockwise (as seen from the South Pole) from west to east around Antarctica. An alternative name for the ACC is the West Wind Drift. The ACC is the dominant circulation feat ...

. The bank itself (as defined by the 200 metre; 110 fathom isobath) is some from east to west and some from north to south. The channel to the west of the bank is about wide and deep while the channel to the east of the bank is wide and has a depth of up to deep. Burdwood Bank was the location of several landslides some three million years ago. This in turn produced

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

-like events that hit the Falkland Islands on its southern coast. Estimates of the size of the waves vary from up to at the southern coast and up to where the capital,

Port Stanley Stanley (; also known as Port Stanley) is the capital city of the Falkland Islands. It is located on the island of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope in one of the wettest parts of the islands. At the 2016 census, the city had a popula ...

, is located.

Fauna

Birds in this area include various species of albatrosses and petrels that feed on the banks and waters of Burdwood Bank:

black-browed albatross The black-browed albatross (''Thalassarche melanophris''), also known as the black-browed mollymawk,Robertson, C. J. R. (2003) is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae; it is the most widespread and common member of its family. T ...

grey-headed albatross The grey-headed albatross (''Thalassarche chrysostoma'') also known as the gray-headed mollymawk, is a large seabird from the albatross family. It has a circumpolar distribution, nesting on isolated islands in the Southern Ocean and feeding at h ...

wandering albatross The wandering albatross, snowy albatross, white-winged albatross or goonie (''Diomedea exulans'') is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae, which has a circumpolar range in the Southern Ocean. It was the last species of albatross to be desc ...

Tristan albatross The Tristan albatross (''Diomedea dabbenena'') is a large seabird from the albatross family. One of the great albatrosses of the genus ''Diomedea'', it was only widely recognised as a full species in 1998. Taxonomy Albatrosses belong to the fami ...

northern giant petrel The northern giant petrel (''Macronectes halli''), also known as Hall's giant petrel, is a large predatory seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly, but is slightly north of, the similar southern giant petrel (''Macronec ...

southern giant petrel The southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant pet ...

, chin petrel White, as well as penguins: Magellanic penguin,

rockhopper penguin The rockhopper penguins are three closely related taxa of crested penguins that have been traditionally treated as a single species and are sometimes split into three species. Not all experts agree on the classification of these penguins. Some ...

, gentoo penguin,

king penguin The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies: ''A. p. patagonicus'' and ''A. p. halli''; ''patagonicus'' ...

, and pinnipeds such as

sea lion Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...

s and

elephant seal Elephant seals are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus ''Mirounga''. Both species, the northern elephant seal (''M. angustirostris'') and the southern elephant seal (''M. leonina''), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oi ...

s. The Burdwood Bank generates conditions that favor fishing productivity in the area. In the waters surrounding the bank are breeding and spawning sites for many fish species. The species community on the bank is dominated by the small notothenids ''

Patagonotothen guntheri ''Patagonotothen guntheri'', the yellowfin notothen, is a species of notothen found in the Argentinian region of Patagonia, the Falkland Islands, the Burdwood Bank and the Shag Rocks (where it is found in abundance) west of South Georgia on the ...

'' and

Patagonian toothfish The Patagonian toothfish (''Dissostichus eleginoides'') is a species of notothen found in cold waters () between depths of in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most ...

. There are also very high levels of

chlorophyll Chlorophyll (also chlorophyl) is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words , ("pale green") and , ("leaf"). Chlorophyll allow plants to ...

References

External links

Burdwood Bank/Namuncurá Marine Protected Area
{{coord, 54, 15, 00, S, 59, 00, 00, W, display=title Landforms of Argentina Landforms of the Falkland Islands Continental shelves Undersea banks of the Atlantic Ocean