Seafloor Morphology, Geology, Sediments and Sedimentation Processes

The mid-ocean ridges altogether cover ca. 23% of Earth’s surface and focus the interest of the scientific community as well as those interested in the commercial potential of these areas (e.g., deep-sea mining). However, in many respects, they belong to the least studied parts of our planet. The present chapter provides a short overview of the published works on seafloor morphology, geology, sediments, and sedimentation processes in the part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (northern Atlantic) encompassing the area of the Polish polymetallic sulphides exploration. The present state of knowledge is far from satisfactory and any commercial activities must be preceeded by thorough research including the problem of the potential impact of metal-enriched sediment resuspension on the benthic ecosystems.