The Geikie Slide is a

submarine landslide Submarine landslides are marine landslides that transport sediment across the continental shelf and into the deep ocean. A submarine landslide is initiated when the downwards driving stress (gravity and other factors) exceeds the resisting stres ...

on the seabed of the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

to the northwest of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The slide occurs in a region known as the Hebridean Slope, the

continental slope A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margi ...

where the seabed drops from the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

surrounding Britain (a depth of ''c.'' 200 m) into the deep ocean (a depth of ''c.''1800 m). Since 2014 an area of has been designated as a Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area under the name Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope MPA. The Geikie Slide is named after the Scottish geologist, Sir

Archibald Geikie Sir Archibald Geikie (28 December 1835 – November 1924) was a Scottish geologist and writer. Early life Geikie was born in Edinburgh in 1835, the eldest son of Isabella Thom and her husband James Stuart Geikie, a musician and music critic. ...

. The ecology of the Hebridean Slope region alters with the descent into deeper, with the sands and gravels of the continental shelf giving way to mud at lower depths. The bottom of the slope provides a habitat for creatures such as mud shrimp and deep sea

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

, which build burrows in the mud.

Sea urchin Sea urchins or urchins () are echinoderms in the class (biology), class Echinoidea. About 950 species live on the seabed, inhabiting all oceans and depth zones from the intertidal zone to deep seas of . They typically have a globular body cove ...

sea spider Sea spiders are marine arthropods of the class (biology), class Pycnogonida, hence they are also called pycnogonids (; named after ''Pycnogonum'', the type genus; with the suffix '). The class includes the only now-living order (biology), order P ...

, and deep sea worms are also found here, and the area is a

breeding ground In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

for fish such as blue ling.

References

External links

Into the (very) deep
- a blog post on a survey of the Geike Slide and Hebridean Slope from the JNCC Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas of Scotland Landforms of the Atlantic Ocean Geology of Scotland {{scotland-geo-stub