Physical Layout Of The Ocean Floor

This video examines the different types of features in the ocean primarily on the ocean floor.

Physical layout of the ocean floor. The ocean is a huge body of saltwater that covers about 71 percent of the earth s surface. The abyssal plain has a depth between 2 200 and 5 500 m 7 200 and 18 000 ft and covers about 40 of the ocean floor. Other articles where ocean floor is discussed. These areas are among the flattest and least explored on the earth s surface.

Describe any differences you observe between the eastern pacific ocean floor and the western pacific ocean floor. We know very little about the vast expanse of our oceans. Mountains plains channels canyons exposed rocks and sediment covered areas. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.

For more free educational resources visit http lincolnlear. Abyssal plains are the extremely flat and featureless plains of the deep ocean floor. The planet has one global ocean though oceanographers and the nations of the world have divided it into distinct geographic regions. Abyssal plains are as irregular as the continental plains with submarine plateaus hills guyots and seamounts.

They cover a major portion of the ocean floors between the depths of 3000m to 6000m. The floor of the oceans b c. We tend to picture the ocean floor as being as flat and sandy as the beaches with which we are familiar. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.

Less than one tenth of 1 of. Tharp investigations into physical geology j. Pacific ocean refer to the map. Exploration of the seafloor and the earth s crust.

This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. The ocean floor off the continental shelf is known as the abyssal plain. Today s technology has allowed us to learn more about the seafloor including both its physical properties and its effects on living organisms. The ocean floor has the same general character as the land areas of the world.

The pacific atlantic indian and arctic oceans. Though people have traveled on the ocean for millennia people have explored only a tiny fraction of the ocean floor. The lack of weathering and erosion in most areas however allows geological processes to be seen more clearly on. In recent years some oceanographers have determined that the seas around antarctica deserve their own designation.

Abyssal plains are considered as the levelest areas on the earth. The study of landforms is the science of topography. The floor of the oceans to answer the following questions.