The most prominent among the group of knolls are Ghoul, Diabolical, Voodoo, Scroll, Hartless, Pyre, Gothic, Zombie, Mummy, Headstone, Morgue and Graveyard (ordered roughly by increasing size).

Many of the seamounts bear marks of tidal scour from water erosion, the result of millions of years of wear by a current moving at 1 to 2 cm (0.4 to 0.8 in) per second.

[1] The Graveyard Knolls is a home to over 50 species of fish, dominated by the orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus), black oreo (Allocyttus niger), and cardinalfish (Apogonidae).

These forests offer a home to a diverse invertebrate community that includes squat lobsters, seastars, brittle stars, polychaete worms, and crabs.

In contrast, the knolls in the group that are affected by bottom trawling are mostly barren, with few coral and a completely different ecosystem.