Notes on the Ocean FloorOcean Floor Features

When we look across the ocean, we see miles and miles of water.

However, if we were to look under all this water, we would see many

geological features that look very similar to those found on land.

Features of the Ocean Floor We Will Be Studying:

•Continental Shelf•Continental Slope•Continental Rise•Abyssal Plain•Ocean Trench•Ocean Volcano

The ocean waters usually meet the continent at the

beach.

Continental Margin• Extension of the continent, but

underwater.• Includes continental shelf,

continental slope, and continental rise.

• Ocean floor does not officially begin until the end of the continental rise.

Continental Shelf• Gradually sloping edge of the

continent that reaches into the ocean. Can be thought of as the underwater section of the beach.

• Some continental shelves are short and some are very wide.

Continental Slope & Continental Rise

The continental slope is the steep slope down to the ocean floor.

The continental rise is where the continent finally meets the ocean

floor.

Abyssal Plain• Flat smooth surface of the ocean

floor that is made mostly of sediment from the surface of the water and runoff from the continent.

• Because the abyssal plain is so deep under the ocean, no sunlight gets there. It is very dark, and very cold.

Ocean Trench• Long, narrow (but deep) depressions

in the ocean floor that are deeper than the abyssal plain.

• Usually happens when an oceanic plate and a continental plate collide or when two oceanic plates collide.

• The deepest spots on Earth are found in ocean trenches.

Ocean Volcano• A mountain on the ocean floor that

has hot flowing magma.• When the magma reaches the top of

the mountain and cools, the mountain gets bigger and may form an island at the surface in the ocean.