Exploring the Ocean Floor

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Exploring the Ocean Floor

• By Laura Barrios, Uriel Flores, Edgar Gonzalez,
  Emmanuel Solis.

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Divisions of the ocean floor

• The global ocean is divided in to three major
  oceans.
• Atlantic ocean
• Pacific ocean
• Indian ocean
• Waters in the polar regions are sometimes called
  oceans.
• Sea is the term applied to smaller areas that are
  partially surrounded by land ( ex Mediterranean
  sea, and Caribbean sea)

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What is the Ocean Floor?

• The ocean floor consist of
• Continental Margins ( line that divides
  continental and oceanic crust)
• Deep Ocean Basins ( plains, submerged volcanic
  mountains, trenches, Abyssal planes, and flat
  planes, mid-ocean ridges, and seamounts ).
• Sediments ( fragments that result from the
  breaking of rocks, minerals, and organic mater.)
  

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Continental Margins

• Continental Shelf ( edge of a continental covered
  by shallow ocean water)
• gently slopes from shorelines.
• Average depth is 60 meters.
• The length varies as the continents shape and
  size changes.
• There areas are commonly affected by changes in
  sea levels.

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Continental Slope

• Continental slope ( a steep incline at the edge
  of a continental shelf.)
• Boundary between continental and oceanic crusts.
• Ocean depth increases several thousand meters.
• Submarine Canyons are deep under water v-shaped
  valleys.
• They are associated with mouths of major rivers.
• caused by turbidity currents.
• Turbidity Currents are dense currents that
  carries a large amount of sediments, down the
  continental slopes.
• Continental rise the accumulation of sediments at
  the base of a continental slope.

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Deep Ocean Basins

• Deep ocean basins
• Trenches
• deepest feature on the earths surface.
• Long and narrow.
• The deepest in the world is the Mariana Trench
  located in the western pacific ocean, near the
  island of Guam.
• Most trenches located along the pacific ring of
  fire.

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• Abyssal Planes( extremely flat areas that lie in
  the deep ocean basins.)
• Occurs where oceans depth is greater than 4km
• They cover around ½ of the deep ocean basins.
• Mid-Ocean ridges ( Continuous series of
  underwater mountains along the ocean floor.)
• They have narrow depressions ( aka rifts )
• They separate at different rates, there for they
  create fracture zones.
• Fracture Zones faults running perpendicular to
  mid-ocean ridges.

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• Seamounts ( Submerged volcanic mountains )
• They are at least 1,000 m high.
• The seamounts that are less than 1 km height they
  are called the abyssal hills.
• they are normally associated with hotspots.
• Seamounts are also the creator of islands they
  rise about the surface ( ex, Hawaii and the
  canary islands. )

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Exploring The Ocean Floor

• Submersibles- under water vessels that allow
  oceanographers to study the depts. of the ocean.
• Bathysphere- spherical submersibles that
  remains attached to a research ship to establish
  communication and support.
• Bathyscaph- self propelled moving submersible.
• Sonar- ( sound navigation system ) method for
  mapping the ocean floor using sound waves.