Bridges – Bridge geomorphic features were first described by Gardner and Armstrong (2011) as blocks of material that partially infill the Mariana Trench in four locations, forming a “bridge” across the trench. In this study we have extended Gardner and Armstrong’s (2011) interpretation and applied it to all troughs and trenches and have identified a number of bridge features that appear to partially infill trenches and troughs in the global ocean. Slumping on the sides of some troughs and trenches has formed a bridge across the trench/trough, thereby dividing it into two separate sections
Statistics of bridges (after Harris et al., 2014).
| Ocean | Bridge area km2 | Number of Bridges | Average Bridge Size km2 |
| Arctic Ocean | 50 | 2 | 30 |
| Indian Ocean | 2240 | 12 | 190 |
| Mediterranean and Black Sea | 270 | 18 | 20 |
| North Atlantic Ocean | 210 | 16 | 10 |
| North Pacific Ocean | 2410 | 33 | 70 |
| South Atlantic Ocean | 60 | 4 | 20 |
| South Pacific Ocean | 2850 | 32 | 90 |
| Southern Ocean | 170 | 8 | 20 |
| All Oceans | 8270 | 125 | 70 |
References
Gardner, J.V., Armstrong, A.A., 2011. The Mariana Trench: A new view based on multibeam echosounding, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011. American Geophysical Union, San Francisco.
Harris, P.T., MacMillan-Lawler, M., Rupp, J., Baker, E.K., 2014. Geomorphology of the oceans. Marine Geology 352, 4-24.