Name Four Of The Major Features Of The Ocean Floor

Ocean basins abyssal plains.

Name four of the major features of the ocean floor. Ocean basin any of several vast submarine regions that collectively cover nearly three quarters of earth s surface. Ocean floor topography involves the study of ocean bottom features including the outer continental shelf continental slopes and ocean waves desktops. The same tectonic forces that create geographical features like volcanoes and mountains on land create similar features at the bottom of the oceans. Ocean ridges elevated belts on the sea floor 1 9 compare and contrast continents and ocean basins.

The under water topography maps have been developed by the study of ocean floor topography. If you follow the ocean floor out from the beach at the top left the seafloor gently slopes along the continental shelf. This study is extensive and it has been established that the ocean floor has similar features of mountains and valleys as on the earth. Submarine sediments are of two main types.

The seafloor is surprisingly young because of the. Oceanic crust the outermost layer of earth s lithosphere that is found under the oceans and formed at spreading centres on oceanic ridges which occur at divergent plate boundaries. Abyssal plains are key geologic elements of oceanic basins the. Continental shelf is the shallow portion of the ocean which lies close to the continental margin.

Continental margin seafloor adjacent to major landmasses. Those consisting of material washed from the land into the sea and those comprising the skeletal remains of. Together they contain the overwhelming majority of all water on the planet and have an average depth of almost 4 km about 2 5 miles. An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor usually found at depths between 3 000 meters 9 800 ft and 6 000 meters 20 000 ft lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid ocean ridge abyssal plains are among the flattest smoothest and least explored regions on earth.

The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. It is actually a part of the continent sloping. Oceanic crust is about 6 km 4 miles thick. A number of major features of the basins depart.

What are the name of the features found on the bottom of the indian ocean. Jude amphibious54 july 30 2010 anon31742 if you are asking about a cross section of the ocean floor the top layers are the youngest. 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. In general the ocean floor can be divided into four major divisions.

This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. Anon145570 january 24 2011.