East Australian Basin
East Australian Basin
or Tasman Basin, a bottom depression in the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, between the continental slopes of Australia and New Zealand and the underwater mountains of the Tasman Sea (the Lord Howe range) and the Australian-Antarctic rise. The basin occupies the southern part of the Tasman Sea and adjacent parts of the Pacific Ocean. It is more than 2,400 km long, about 1,500 km wide, and up to 5,994 m deep, with a floor of red clay. Isolated underwater mountains, with depths above them of 1,829 m and 126 m, rise above the East Australian Basin.