Literary notes about Abyssal (AI summary)
The term "abyssal" is employed in literature to evoke a sense of unfathomable depth, whether referring to the physical vastness of the ocean floor or to profound emotional despair. In scientific and descriptive writings, it denotes extensive, flat regions of the deep sea, such as the broad and featureless plains and the interspersed hills—seen in references to the Madeira Abyssal Plain, the Sohm Abyssal Plain, and many similar formations [1, 2, 3]. In contrast, the same word is also used metaphorically to depict an overwhelming, inescapable void within the human experience, as illustrated by a depiction of a character trapped in the "abyssal pit of her despair" [4]. This dual usage enriches the language by exploiting the literal imagery of endless depth to convey complex emotional states.
- The Madeira Abyssal Plain occupies 150,000 square miles.
— from The Floors of the Ocean: 1. The North AtlanticText to accompany the physiographic diagram of the North Atlantic by Bruce C. Heezen - After passing through the gap, the canyon turns west, broadens, and is finally lost in the Sohm Abyssal Plain.
— from The Floors of the Ocean: 1. The North AtlanticText to accompany the physiographic diagram of the North Atlantic by Bruce C. Heezen - A trench plain is an abyssal plain in the bottom of a deep-sea trench.
— from The Floors of the Ocean: 1. The North AtlanticText to accompany the physiographic diagram of the North Atlantic by Bruce C. Heezen - Manguino was ill-at-ease over the love shown to Brook by his people, and there was another that could not climb out of the abyssal pit of her despair.
— from Scorched Earth: A Future History of Planet Earth by Walter D. Petrovic
