Porcupine Bank is a raised area on the Irish shelf, approximately west of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is 200 m below sea level at its highest.Shannon, P, Haughton, P, Corcoran D, (2001) The Petroleum Exploration of Ireland's Offshore Basins, Geological Society, P355

Etymology

The name comes from the bank's discovery in 1862 by HMS ''Porcupine'', a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

sail and paddle-wheel ship used mainly for surveying.

Location and features

Porcupine Bank is located on Ireland's

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 ...

, on the fringes of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

approximately west of

. The relatively raised area of seabed, 200 m below sea level at its highest, lies between the deep-water Porcupine Seabight and

Rockall Trough The Rockall Trough () 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 n ...

. Porcupine Bank has also been identified with

Brasil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

(also called Hy-Brasil), a

phantom island A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigati ...

of Irish myth located at approximately the same place as the bank, which was recorded on maps throughout the

late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

. In 1870, eight years after Porcupine Bank's discovery, a paper was read to the Geological Society of Ireland suggesting this identification. The suggestion has since appeared more than once, e.g., in an 1883 edition of ''

Notes and Queries ''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to " English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inner ...

'' and in the 2009 book ''Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization'' by

Graham Hancock Graham Bruce Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British journalist and author who promotes pseudoscientific ideas about ancient civilizations and hypothetical lost lands. Hancock proposes that an advanced civilization with spiritual technology ...

Biological significance

The northern and western slopes of the bank feature species of cold-water corals. According to Dr. Anthony Grehan of the

National University of Ireland, Galway The University of Galway () is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Galway" (UCG) () from 1908 to 1997 and as ...

, the virtually untouched site could benefit dwindling fish stocks and possibly aid medical research.

References

Undersea banks of the Atlantic Ocean {{marine-geo-stub