Darwin Mounds

59.75 - 7.2166666666667Koordinaten: 59 ° 45 '0 "N, 7 ° 13' 0 " W

The Darwin Mounds are a large domain of underwater sand hills or sand cones located north- west of the coast of Scotland in the north-eastern part of the Rockall trough. They represent a unique habitat, which consists of deep-water coral reefs. They were discovered in 1998, when it was searched in the field of oil companies and government authorities on raw material deposits. The hills were named for the research vessel, which in turn was named after the biologist Charles Darwin.

Description of the Darwin Mounds

The Darwin Mounds are well 1,000 meters below the sea surface and some 185 kilometers north- west of Cape Wrath, the north-west tip of the Scottish mainland .. The area includes hundreds of such sand hills, total cover an area of about 100 square kilometers. The individual hills usually have a rounded shape. Some are up to five meters high and have a diameter of up to 100 meters. A large number of sand hills has a "tail " on. These tails have different length and unite some with the foothills of the other hill. Basically they have a teardrop -like shape and extend from the hills, starting in a southwesterly direction. The particular shape of the hillock formation is apparently a worldwide unique feature of the Darwin Mounds.

The hills consist mainly of sand. The characteristic shape of the hill was probably, than sat down, the sand and the water was squeezed out of him. The rising water formed thereby, the cone- like shape. Such sand cones are also found in fossil layers of the Devonian time in the UK. They are usually found only in regions of the Earth with seismic activity. In the Darwin Mounds, this is excluded. The southwestern slope of the seabed in this region ( the so-called Wyville -Thomson Ridge ) is probably responsible for the formation of the hills.

On the top of the sand cone can be found living, the stony corals belonging to the genus Lophelia corals ( Lophelia pertusa in particular ). Until the discovery of the Darwin Mounds, it was assumed that these corals grow only on solid ground.

Deep-water coral regions such as the Darwin Mounds are considered particularly sensitive to changes in habitat. Unlike coral reefs in shallow waters, they are not adapted to wave motions. On the sand cones also home to a large population of xenophyophore Syringammina gragilissima. These are large single-celled organisms that are widely used in deep water regions. They occur in an unusual density in the Darwin Mounds. The corals also provide a habitat for a wide variety of other marine life dar. These include sponges, worms and shellfish. Here lives a number of different fish species, such as the orange roughy.

Protection measures

On 23 October 2001, the then British Minister gave for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Margaret Beckett, across from the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) in their commitment to protect the Darwin Mounds. In particular, fishing with bottom trawls is harmful to regions such as the Darwin Mounds and occasionally has been fished in this region with nets, weighing up to a ton. The scientist Jason Hall - Spencer of the University of Glasgow found in trawls, who worked in areas off the coast of Ireland and Scotland, coral fragments, which were at least 4,500 years old. An intensive use of bottom trawls in this region would cause significant damage to this habitat. Since 22 March 2004, the Darwin Mounds are now as important marine water habitats under protection. Fishing with bottom trawl gear is prohibited in this area.

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