Instanz: TeilenTeilen:How a shifting plate boundary and hot mantle material formed one of the largest canyons in the oceanIlka Thomsen Kommunikation und MedienGEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel29.01.2026 11:54The King’s Trough Complex is a several-hundred-kilometre-long, canyon-like system of trenches on the North Atlantic seafloor. One such colossal submarine canyon lies roughly 1,000 kilometres off the coast of Portugal: The King’s Trough Complex. What is particularly notable is that even before the plate boundary shifted here, the oceanic crust in this region was unusually thick and thermally altered. The researchers interpret this as an early branch of the present-day Azores mantle plume. & Hoernle, K. (2025): Origin of the King’s Trough Complex (North Atlantic): Interplay Between a Transient Plate Boundary and the Early Azores Mantle Plume.