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

An article in the Saturday Evening Post relates the story of a scientific party in a whaling boat on the Bering Sea in the early 20th Century "witnessed an awesome sight when, with mighty roars, fire and smoke and exploded lava shot out of the water, casting ashes and pumice all over" (Hubbard, p. 10). and, Hubbard adds, "Not infrequently huge gas bubbles hurtle upward from the ocean bottom

These worms play an integral part of the community. They do not have any digestive capacities, as they lack mouths and digestive systems. Rather, they absorb the nutrient-rich waste products of the bacteria through their epidermal layers. They use hemoglobin produced inside their bodies to combine hydrogen sulfide, which is a necessity of many of the bacteria living in and around the vents. The worms transfer this hydrogen sulfide

" Hamilton explains that while Continental Lithosphere is as much as 93 miles thick, the "Oceanic Lithosphere" is much thinner - up to perhaps six miles. Indeed, the oceanic crust makes up only 0.099% of earth's mass, according to Hamilton. Oceanic lithosphere is a product of the volcanic magma that pushes up to force tectonic plates aside. As new oceanic lithosphere is actually formed the heat that comes up with the

Continental tropical (cT) air masses are hot, dry, unstable at low levels and generally stable aloft (upper-level ridge); they originate in northern Mexico. Continental polar (cP) or continental arctic (cA) air masses are cold, dry, and stable originating over northern Canada and Alaska as a result of radiational cooling. (Oklahoma Climatological Survey, 2004)" The greenhouse effect has been in the news for the last several decades especially with the resulting

China Sample California's costal ocean region is characterized with both positive and negative attributes. The California Coastal Region is along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. This area is a beautiful, desirable area to live in, causing real estate to be among the highest in the United States. In fact, this area was one of the fastest to recover after the great recession of 2008, due primarily to its natural beauty.