Banc Capel is a

guyot In marine geology, a guyot (pronounced ), also known as a tablemount, is an isolated underwater volcanic mountain ( seamount) with a flat top more than below the surface of the sea. The diameters of these flat summits can exceed .volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

, in the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fre ...

Description

Banc Capel is a

guyot In marine geology, a guyot (pronounced ), also known as a tablemount, is an isolated underwater volcanic mountain ( seamount) with a flat top more than below the surface of the sea. The diameters of these flat summits can exceed .atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

with steep sides and a flat top – and is swept by strong currents. There are no sandy or muddy substrates, the surface being occupied by rocks or gravel

scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ha ...

Biodiversity

Banc Capel is inhabited by species including '' Nassarius alabasteroides'' and ''

Laurentaeglyphea ''Laurentaeglyphea neocaledonica'' is a species of Glypheoidea, glypheoid lobster, and the only species in the genus ''Laurentaeglyphea''. It is known from a single specimen collected on a guyot in the Coral Sea between Australia and New Caledon ...

''. It is dominated by

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

s, including the genus '' Phloedictyon'' and gorgonians. Other

decapods The Decapoda or decapods (literally "ten-footed") are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp and prawns. Most decapods are scavengers. The order is estim ...

found in the same trawls including the

slipper lobster Slipper lobsters are a family (Scyllaridae) of about 90 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda clade Reptantia, found in all warm oceans and seas. They are not true lobsters, but are more closely related to spiny lobsters and furry lo ...

Ibacus brucei ''Ibacus'' is a genus of slipper lobsters, including commercially important species such as the Balmain bug Balmain may refer to: Places * Balmain, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * Electoral district of Balmain, an electoral divi ...

'', the crab '' Randallia'' and swimming crabs.

Notes and references

Guyots Seamounts of the Pacific Ocean Coral Sea New Caledonia Volcanoes of Zealandia {{marine-geo-stub