Ocean Floor Features
Some ocean floor features ate the continental margins, ocean basin floor, and the mid-ocean ridge. The zone between the continent and the adjacent ocean basin floor is the continental margin. In the Atlantic Ocean, thick layers of undisturbed sediment cover the continental margin. In the Pacific Ocean, occeanic crust is plunging beneath the continental crust. The forceresults in a narrowcontinental margin that experiences both volcainic activity and earthquakes. The continental shelf is the gently sloping submerged surface exending from the shoreline. Continental shelves contain important mineral deposits, large resevoirs of oil and natral gas, and huge sand and gravel deposits. A continental slope is a steep gradient that leads to the deep-ocean floor and marks the seaward edge of the continental shelf. Deep, steep-sided valleys that are cut into the continental slope are called submarine caynyons. Turbidity currents are occaisonal movements of dense, sediment-rich water down in the continental slope.
The ocean basin floor lies between the continental margin and the mid-ocean ridge. The size of the ocean basin floor is almost 30 percent of Earth's surface and is comparable to the percentage of land above sea level. The region includes deep-ocean trenches, very flat areas, or abysal plains, and tall volcainic peaks called seamounts and guyots. Trenches form at sites of plate convergence where one moving plate goes beneath another and plunges back into the mantle. Abyssal plains are deep, exteremely flat features. The sediments that make up abyssal plains are carried there by turbidity currents or deposited as a result suspended sediments settling. Seamounts are submerged volcainic peaks that dot the ocean floor. A mid-ocean ridge is found near the center of most ocean basins. Seafloor spreading occours at divergent plate bounadries where two lithosphereic plates are moving apart. New ocean floor is formed at mid ocean ridges as magma rises between the diverging plates and cools.
The ocean basin floor lies between the continental margin and the mid-ocean ridge. The size of the ocean basin floor is almost 30 percent of Earth's surface and is comparable to the percentage of land above sea level. The region includes deep-ocean trenches, very flat areas, or abysal plains, and tall volcainic peaks called seamounts and guyots. Trenches form at sites of plate convergence where one moving plate goes beneath another and plunges back into the mantle. Abyssal plains are deep, exteremely flat features. The sediments that make up abyssal plains are carried there by turbidity currents or deposited as a result suspended sediments settling. Seamounts are submerged volcainic peaks that dot the ocean floor. A mid-ocean ridge is found near the center of most ocean basins. Seafloor spreading occours at divergent plate bounadries where two lithosphereic plates are moving apart. New ocean floor is formed at mid ocean ridges as magma rises between the diverging plates and cools.