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Why are abyssal plains more common in the Atlantic Ocean than in the Pacific Ocean?

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Map graphic showing the boundaries of the five oceans-Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern-using color-coded regions. Four different map projections are included: North Pole view, South Pole view, International Date Line view, and Greenwich Meridian view, each displaying the oceans' extents around the continents. — ocean Earth's oceans and their marginal seas cover nearly 71 percent of the planet's surface.

Abyssal plains are more common in the Atlantic Ocean than in the Pacific Ocean primarily due to differences in sedimentation and tectonic structure.12

Abyssal plains are formed by the accumulation of land-derived sediment that fills in and smooths out the irregular, hilly topography of the seafloor. The Atlantic Ocean receives a larger supply of this continental sediment, which is transported down continental slopes by turbidity currents to blanket the basin floor.12

In contrast, the Pacific Ocean has a significantly smaller supply of continental sediment. Furthermore, the Pacific is characterized by numerous deep-sea trenches and local rises that act as physical barriers, separating the main ocean floor from the continents and preventing the seaward transport of sediment. Because these sediments cannot reach the deep basins to bury the underlying abyssal hills, approximately 80 to 85 percent of the Pacific abyssal floor remains occupied by these hills rather than smooth plains.2