One of the deepest depressions in the Atlantic Ocean has been named the Vavilov Deep. Located in the Romanche Fracture Zone, it reaches a depth of over 7,000 meters. It was named in honor of the research vessel Akademik Sergey Vavilov and the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov.
The name was approved by the Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN), operating under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and the International Hydrographic Organization. The proposal was prepared by researchers from Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who had spent several years studying deep-sea bottom currents in the area.
"The idea to name this unnamed depression came to us during one of the expeditions to the equatorial Atlantic conducted by the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. While carrying out a series of measurements in the Romanche Deep-Sea Fracture Zone, we discovered an anomalously fast current in the near-bottom water layer. It split into separate streams that subsequently merged back together — the whole phenomenon resembled a system of waterfalls within a narrow underwater canyon at a depth of approximately 6,000 meters.
It is noteworthy that our vessel, Akademik Sergey Vavilov — after which we decided to name the depression — had operated in this basin for many years prior to this. For me, this is particularly symbolic, as Akademik Sergey Vavilov was the first ship on which I set out on a scientific expedition to the open ocean," says Dmitry Frey, PhD in Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Leading Researcher at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The Vavilov Deep is a large depression in the equatorial section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, elongated along the axis of the Romanche transform fracture. Two depressions, separated by a sill with depths of less than 5,500 m, are located in the central part of the fracture; the Vavilov Deep is the westernmost of the two. It extends for approximately 190 km, varies in width from 9 to 21.5 km, is bounded by the 6,000 m isobath, and reaches a maximum depth of 7,061 m.
How the depression received its official name
It is named after the research vessel Akademik Sergey Vavilov; between 2011 and 2014, researchers from the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences used the vessel to study Antarctic Bottom Water currents and the seafloor topography of the fracture zone.
To assign an official geographic name to an underwater feature, it is necessary to prepare a proposal containing a detailed description of its coordinates, dimensions, depths, and topographic characteristics, as well as a justification for the proposed name. The proposal must be accompanied by bathymetric data, including depth measurements, maps, 3D images, and seabed profiles.
The materials are reviewed by the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN). The proposal for the name "Vavilov Deep" was submitted by staff from the Institute of Oceanology in 2023 and approved during the 38th SCUFN meeting held in Denpasar, Indonesia, in November 2025. In August 2026, the name was included in the GEBCO Gazetteer.
"This was our first time submitting a proposal to SCUFN, and the approval process took much longer than we expected — spanning about three years in total. As a professional hydrographer and a graduate of the GEBCO training program, I find this achievement particularly significant, and I am glad we managed to overcome all the challenges. The Vavilov Depression is one of the few names proposed by Russian researchers to have been approved by SCUFN over the past four years," says Ivan Dudkov, a researcher at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The application is based on data from long-term expeditions
Preparing the submission would have been impossible without detailed bathymetric data. The primary multibeam survey was conducted under the Russian-Italian PRIMAR program: in 1993, using a Hollming Echos 625 multibeam echosounder aboard the RV Akademik Nikolai Strakhov, and in 1996, using a SIMRAD EM12 echosounder aboard the RV Gelendzhik. Supplementary depth measurements obtained during other expeditions — including those by the RV Akademik Sergei Vavilov — were also utilized. These data made it possible to describe the depression's topography in detail, define its boundaries, and prepare the maps and profiles required for the submission.
"We have been conducting research on Antarctic Bottom Water in the near-bottom abyssal layer of the Atlantic Ocean since 2002. Over this period, we have carried out approximately 30 expeditions, 12 of which were aboard the research vessel Akademik Sergey Vavilov. During this time, we discovered a number of new near-bottom currents in previously unexplored Atlantic channels and fracture zones. The Romanche Fracture Zone is a key feature among them, facilitating the transport of deep waters between the abyssal basins of the western and eastern Atlantic," says Evgeny Morozov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Head of the Laboratory of Hydrological Processes, and Chief Researcher at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the RAS.