Porcupine Seabight
The Porcupine Seabight or Porcupine Basin is a deep-water oceanic basin located on the continental margin in the northeastern portion of the Atlantic Ocean. It can be found in the southwestern offshore portion of Ireland and is part of a series of interconnected basins linked to a failed rift structure associated with the opening of the Northern Atlantic Ocean. The basin extends in a North-South direction and was formed during numerous subsidence and rifting periods between the Late Carboniferous and Late Cretaceous. It is bordered by the
- Goban Spur to the south
- Slyne Ridge to the north
- Porcupine Bank to the west
- Porcupine Abyssal Plain to the southwest
| Porcupine Seabight Basin | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Paleozoic to Mesozoic | |
Northeast Atlantic bathymetry, with Porcupine Bank and Porcupine Seabight | |
| Type | Oceanic Basin |
| Unit of | Atlantic Borderland Basins |
| Area | 60,000 km2 |
| Location | |
| Region | Southwest of Ireland |
| Type section | |
| Region | Territorial Waters |
| Country | Ireland |
Due to subsidence, water depths range from 3000 m in the south near its mouth to 400 m in the north. The Porcupine Basin lies on the Caledonian metamorphic basement and preserves up to 12 km of sedimentary strata from Late Palaeozoic to Quaternary which includes significant hydrocarbon reservoirs. Sediment was likely sourced from the uplifted Caledonian metamorphic rocks of the Porcupine Median Ridge.
The basin lent its name to Operation Seabight, an Irish drug-bust of November 2008.