What is the most important topographic feature of the ocean floor?

Abyssal plains Continuing your journey across the ocean basin, you would descend the steep continental slope to the abyssal plain. At depths of over 10,000 feet and covering 70% of the ocean floor, abyssal plains are the largest habitat on earth.

What is the main feature of the ocean floor?

Features of the ocean floor include the continental shelf and slope, abyssal plain, trenches, seamounts, and the mid-ocean ridge. The ocean floor is rich in resources. Living things on the ocean floor are used for food or medicines. Nonliving resources include oil, gas, and minerals.

What are two topographic features of the ocean floor?

What are two topographic features of the ocean floor? Features of the ocean include the continental shelf, slope, and rise. The ocean floor is called the abyssal plain. Below the ocean floor, there are a few small deeper areas called ocean trenches.

What is the topography of the ocean floor?

Science has established that the topography of the ocean floor is similar to the ground topography with features such as valleys, mountains, and plateaus. Three quarters of the Earth consists of ocean water. All these details are incorporated on underwater topography maps.

What are the three major topographic features on the ocean floor?

The ocean floor or seabed can be divided into three major regions: the continental margins, abyssal plains, and mid-ocean ridges. These regions are easily distinguished by topographical characteristics.

What are the most common ocean features?

What are the most common ocean features or landforms? [These are known as continental shelves, conti- nental slopes, abyssal plains, mid-ocean ridges, and oceanic trenches.]

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.

How are bathymetry and topography related?

Topographic maps show elevation of landforms above sea level. Bathymetric maps show depths of landforms below sea level.

Which feature of the ocean floor includes its deepest parts?

The deepest parts of the ocean are within the subduction trenches, and the deepest of these is the Marianas Trench in the southwestern Pacific (near Guam) at 11,000 m (Figure 18.5).

What is the order of ocean floor features between the shore of a continent and the deep ocean floor?

The shelf usually ends at a point of increasing slope (called the shelf break). The sea floor below the break is the continental slope. Below the slope is the continental rise, which finally merges into the deep ocean floor, the abyssal plain. The continental shelf and the slope are part of the continental margin.

What are the features of ocean basin describe each?

A number of major features of the basins depart from this average—for example, the mountainous ocean ridges, deep-sea trenches, and jagged, linear fracture zones. Other significant features of the ocean floor include aseismic ridges, abyssal hills, and seamounts and guyots.

What are the common to all features of ocean basin structure?

Yet, they all contain certain common features such as oceanic ridges, trenches, and fracture zones and cracks, abyssal plains and hills, seamounts and guyots.

What are the major parts of the ocean floor and how do they differ from each other?

Features of the ocean include the continental shelf, slope, and rise. The ocean floor is called the abyssal plain. Below the ocean floor, there are a few small deeper areas called ocean trenches. Features rising up from the ocean floor include seamounts, volcanic islands and the mid-oceanic ridges and rises.

How are features found on the ocean floor similar to features found on land?

The ocean floor covers more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface. Like dry land, the ocean floor has various features including flat plains, sharp mountains, and rugged canyons (Fig. 7.1). However, the lowest point in the world ocean is much deeper than the highest point on land.

What are the key surface features produced by sea floor spreading?

Midocean ridges, transform faults and fracture zones are the key surface features produced by seafloor spreading.

What types of technology are used to study the ocean floor?

• The seafloor can be studied indirectly with tools such as sonar. …
• Technologies used to explore outer space and the ocean include submersibles, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), satellites, rovers, diving/scuba gear, buoys, mega corers, water column samplers, and sonar for mapping.

What are the surface features of the ocean floor and how do they form?

As plates converge, one plate may move under the other causing earthquakes, forming volcanoes, or creating deep ocean trenches. Where plates diverge from each other, molten magma flows upward between the plates, forming mid-ocean ridges, underwater volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, and new ocean floor crust.

How does sonar technology measure the depth of the ocean floor?

The most common and fastest way of measuring ocean depth uses sound. Ships using technology called sonar, which stands for sound navigation and ranging, can map the topography of the ocean floor. The device sends sound waves to the bottom of the ocean and measures how long it takes for an echo to return.





How has technology helped the ocean?

These shiny, orange drones are improving NOAA’s access to data that can help forecast hurricane intensity , informing sustainable fisheries management, detecting oil spills, conserve threatened species, mapping the seafloor and helping scientists more deeply understand how the climate is changing ocean ecosystems like …

What technology is used to clean oceans?

The new technology involves plastic interceptors, which are solar-powered barrier and conveyor systems that use river currents to pull plastic into containers. Slat said, “If you look at coastlines, coastlines are actually very effective ways of catching plastic.

How has technology impacted the study of the oceans?

Environmental satellites provide images of sea surface temperature which is helpful in knowing water circulation patterns. Satellite also gives data of the color of the ocean (among other data) which help oceanographers to determine impact of floods along the coast and to detect algal blooms.

How can I help save the ocean?

How can you help our ocean?




1. Conserve Water. Use less water so excess runoff and wastewater will not flow into the ocean.
2. Reduce Pollutants. …
3. Reduce Waste. …
4. Shop Wisely. …
5. Reduce Vehicle Pollution. …
6. Use Less Energy. …
7. Fish Responsibly. …
8. Practice Safe Boating.

What causes ocean pollution?

Ocean pollution is caused by the introduction of toxic materials and harmful pollutants such as agricultural and industrial waste, chemicals, oil spills, and plastic litter into the ocean waters.

How is ocean pollution fixed?

6 Ways to Reduce Ocean Pollution

1. Use fewer plastics. …
2. Opt for multi-use products. …
3. Avoid chemical fertilizers. …
4. Recycle. …
5. Lower your energy use. …
6. Support an environmental advocacy group.

How much pollution is in the ocean?

There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic waste estimated to be in our oceans. 269,000 tons float, 4 billion microfibers per km² dwell below the surface. 70% of our debris sinks into the ocean’s ecosystem, 15% floats, and 15% lands on our beaches.

How much litter ends up in the ocean?

Approximately 10 million tonnes of litter end up in the world’s seas and oceans every year. Plastics, more particularly plastic packaging waste such as beverage bottles and single-use bags, are by far the main type of debris found in the marine environment.





Who pollutes the ocean the most?

They discovered that China and Indonesia are the main sources of plastic pollution for single use: bottles, packaging, main bags polluting the oceans. This study estimates that China and Indonesia alone are responsible for around 5 million tonnes of plastic waste ending up at sea each year.