Undersea bank

An undersea bank, also called a fishing bank or simply a bank, is a part of the seabed that rises shallower than the surrounding ocean floor, such as a shoal or the top of a submerged hill, without breaking the surface. Banks form in different ways: some are volcanic, some are carbonate platforms rising from the deep ocean, and some are terrigenous, built from elevated sedimentary deposits, while in the tropics some are submerged atolls. Tidal flow over a bank can concentrate nutrients, making banks such as the Dogger Bank and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland among the most productive fishing grounds in the world, and banks are shallower and more gently rising than seamounts, which are steeper and taller.