George Bligh Bank is a

seamount A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

that lies in the Rockall Trough. It is a roughly circular feature in the northeast

Atlantic 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 ...

, west of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, centred at approximately 59°N, 14°W at the northern end of both the Hatton and Rockall Banks. The bank is approximately 75 km in diameter with a summit at approximately 450 m rising from a depth of over 1000 m. The ‘moat’ around the base of George Bligh Bank deepens from north to south and is deeper than 1650 m in the south.Narayanaswamy, B.E., Hughes, D.J., Howell, K.L., Davies, J., Jacobs, C. (2013) First observations of megafaunal communities inhabiting George Bligh Bank, Northeast Atlantic. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 92: 79-86. George Bligh Bank is part of the Rockall-Hatton Plateau, a large piece of continental crust that separated from the northwest European continental margin around 100 million years ago. It is not of volcanic origin and thus is not recognized as a seamount under the

OSPAR Convention The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic or OSPAR Convention is the current legislative instrument regulating international cooperation on environmental protection in the North-East Atlantic. Work ...

, even though it rises more than 1000 m from the surrounding seafloor. Lack of sediment cover on the upper flanks and summit of George Bligh Bank is thought to be related to increased current flow as a result of the topography. Photographic and video observations were made on George Bligh Bank during 2005, covering a depth range from 425 to 1338 m. Diverse communities of sedentary suspension-feeding organisms were observed along five of the seven transects, with some evidence of localised hard coral (''

Lophelia pertusa ''Lophelia pertusa'', the only species in the genus ''Lophelia'', is a cold-water coral that grows in the deep waters throughout the North Atlantic ocean, as well as parts of the Caribbean Sea and Alboran Sea. Although ''L. pertusa'' reefs are ...

'') frameworks. Community composition on George Bligh Bank is similar to those observed on other hard substrata in the deep northeast Atlantic. George Bligh Bank is named after the fisheries

research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

RV George Bligh RV ''George Bligh'' (LO309) was a fisheries research vessel that was operated by the Directorate of Fisheries, now known as the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). Originally built as an Admiralty for use in t ...

that discovered the seamount during her maiden voyage in service with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom) in April 1921 In October 2020 the seamount was made part of the West of Scotland Marine Protected Area by the Scottish Government in attempt to protect the area's ecology.

References

{{Reflist Seamounts of the Atlantic Ocean