Ocean Floor Features

Question 1

What is the Continental shelf?

Answer 1

The gradual slope end of a continent that goes under the ocean
-average width is 40miles
- shallow, usually less than a few 100ft

Question 2

what is the continental slope

Answer 2

continental slope extends from the continental shelf down to the ocean floor (like a drop off)

Question 3

what is the worldwide average angle is?

Answer 3

4 degrees

Question 4

what is the continental rise?

Answer 4

a wide, gentle incline from the abyssal plain to a continental slope, this is created by deposition

Question 5

what is the abyssal plain

Answer 5

flat seafloor areas, typically around 1000 to 2000ft below sea level
- make up about 70% of the seafloor
- largest habitat on Earth

Question 6

how do Mid-ocean Ridge form

Answer 6

areas where tectonic plates seperate
-found in the middle of basins
-lava rises to fill the gap, and new floor is created
-they look like underwater mountain ranges
-average is 8000ft

Question 7

What are ocean trenches

Answer 7

deepest parts of the oceans
-form when 2 tectonic plates collide, the denser one will subduct (go under the other)
- the plate that subducted will melt in the mantle and become destroyed

Question 8

What are seamounts

Answer 8

are active volcanoes beneath the ocean
-when the growing volcano hasn’t reached the surface yet we call it a seamount
-when it reaches the surface we cal;l it a island

Question 9

what is the largest seamount in US?

Answer 9

Maunakea in Hawaii

Question 10

what is the largest seamount in the world

Answer 10

Davidson Seamont

Question 11

How do scientist know what the ocean floor looks like?

Answer 11

was thought at first that the seafloor was flat, but a woman scientist named Marie Tharp created maps of the ocean floor by analyzing sound profiles
- discovered the Mid-Ocean Ridge and published 1st complete world map of ocean floor (1977)

Question 12

what did her maps help with

Answer 12

scientist compared her maps to earthquake ones, it supported the theory of continental shift

Question 13

what 3 pieces of technology do we use to explore the ocean floor

Answer 13

scuba, submersibles, sonar

Question 14

what are hydrothermals

Answer 14

are underwater geysers
-water seeps through ocean fissures and is heated by magma

Question 15

some animals can get energy from this instead of using sunlight, it is called

Answer 15

chemosythesis

Question 16

what are the 4 ocean habitats

Answer 16

Intertidal, Neritic, Open Ocean, Benthic

Question 17

what are the 3 ocean zones

Answer 17

Photic, Dysphotic, Aphotic

Question 18

what is the intertidal zone

Answer 18

place where the ocean meets the land between high and low tides
-animals that live here have adaptations to survive exposure to air, and attaching themselves to rocks so they are not washed away

Question 19

what is the Neritic habitat

Answer 19

where water becomes deeper, but is still over the continental shelf
-where coral, seaweed, dolphins, sea turtles, and fish live in this zone
- where humans fish and use for recreational use

Question 20

what si the open ocean ahbitat