Table of Contents
What type of maps reveal the features of the ocean floor?
Contour maps for land are called topographic maps. Contour maps for ocean depths are called bathymetric maps or charts.
Which features forms most of the ocean floor?
The feature that forms most of the ocean floor is the abyssal plain.
What type of ocean floor feature are the Hawaiian Islands?
The Hawaiian Trough, otherwise known as the Hawaiian Deep, is a moat-like depression of the seafloor surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. The weight from the volcanic island chain depresses the plastic lithosphere that is already weakened by the underlying thermal hotspot, causing subsidence to occur.
What are the bathymetric features of the ocean floor?
Bathymetric features such as the continental shelf and seamounts interact with ocean currents and winds to produce regions of upwelling, where nutrient-rich waters are brought to the surface. This nutrient-rich water supports high levels of primary production by phytoplankton, which in turn attracts larger organisms.
What is the ocean floor made of?
The seafloor contains deposits of minerals that we use in everyday life such as copper, zinc, nickel, gold, silver, and phosphorus. These deposits occur as crusts on volcanic and other rocks and as nodules on abyssal plain sediment that are typically about 3 to 10 centimeters (1 to 4 inches) in diameter.
Where is the ocean floor?
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as ‘seabeds’.
Which is one feature of the ocean floor found in the open ocean?
Features of the ocean floor include the continental shelf and slope, abyssal plain, trenches, seamounts, and the mid-ocean ridge.
Which is the most common feature of the seafloor?
Oceanographers, geographers, mariners, and cartographers have a whole vocabulary for these features. Table 7.6 lists many of the common features of the seafloor and coastline. Table 7.6. Common features of the seafloor and coastline Abyssal plain. A flat region of deep ocean basins. Alluvial fan.
How is the continental shelf different from the seafloor?
Starting from land, a trip across an ocean basin along the seafloor would begin with crossing the continental shelf. The continental shelf is an area of relatively shallow water, usually less than a few hundred feet deep, that surrounds land. It is narrow or nearly nonexistent in some places; in others, it extends for hundreds of miles.
How to see the ocean floor from the surface?
First you will need to get into a deep ocean submersible and dive almost 4 miles under the surface of the Pacific Ocean to the sea floor. Graphic depicting satellite captured, bathymetric data of the western Atlantic Ocean Basin and its ocean floor features. (NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite and Information Service)
Is the ocean floor flat or featureless?
However, the ocean floor is not flat; it has a wide variety of geological features (e.g., Fig. 7.28; Table 7.6). Navigators of ships and submarines are interested in avoiding dangers or impediments to their progress.