¶ … Features of the Ocean Floor
Continental Margins
As one travels away from the continents, water depths increase in a systematic manner.
Closest to the continents are continental shelves with water depth typically less than 1000 m. Continental shelves were formed as rivers carried tons of particles of sand and soil from the land out to sea. This sand and soil then settled as layers of sediments, or layers of particles of rock and animal remains.
Commonly at the distal edge of the continental shelves, there is a marked continental slope where water depths increase quickly. The continental slope separates the continental shelf from the ocean floor.
The continental rises, located at the base of the continental slopes, mark the beginning of the deep ocean basins.
Submarine canyons commonly occur along continental margins and transport sediment from the margins down into the deep ocean basins.
B. Mid Ocean Ridges
Long mountain chains found in the deep ocean basins of all major oceans.
1) The mid ocean ridges commonly occur far from continental margins and on the edges of deep-sea basins.
2) The ridges commonly have long fracture zones associated with them; the fracture zones occur on both sides of the ridges and run perpendicular to them.
C. Deep Ocean Basins
Topographic basins bounded by Mid Ocean Ridges and Continental Slopes.
1) Many plains on the ocean basin are larger and flatter than any found on the Earth's surface. They are called abyssal plains. Abyssal plains are form by sediments deposited by turbidity currents. It sediments continually falling from the seawater above.
D. Deep Sea Trenches
The deepest parts of the ocean are long linear trenches, which commonly occur adjacent to continental margins.
E. Oceanic Rises
Throughout the oceans are located isolated topographic highs...
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