Journey to Bottom of the Ocean

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Journey to Bottom of the Ocean
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Continent

• Asia
• Africa
• North America
• South America
• Antarctica
• Europe
• Australia

• A continent is a large landmass.
• There are seven continents on the Earth

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Click on a feature to go there or click next to
continue with the journey
Rift
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We will begin our journey where land meets the
ocean.
Do you know where we are?
Yes. At the beach.
Beaches are the fastest changing part of the
ocean. They change with every wave.
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Continental Shelf

• The edge of the continents slope down from the
  shore into the ocean. The part of the continent
  located under water is known as the Continental
  Shelf.

• There are several part to the continental
  shelf.
• The continental break
• The continental slope
• The continental rise

The continental shelf is rich in resources such
as marine life, minerals and oil. For this
reason, countries around the world claim the
bordering continental shelf as part of their
territories.
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Continental Slope

• The continental slope is a steep slope that
  connects the continental- shelf to the bottom of
  the ocean floor. The slope begins at a depth of
  around 460 feet (140 meters).

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Volcanic Island Arc

• Volcanic island arcs are a series of seamount
  tall enough to break the sea surface and form an
  island.
• The Augustine Island Volcano in Alaska is an
  example of a volcanic arc.

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Abyss

• The deepest point in the ocean is called the
  abyss
• The Mariana Trench is the deepest known point in
  the ocean. It is located in the western part of
  the Pacific Ocean near the fourteen Mariana
  Islands.
• The Mariana Trench is a semi-circle that extends
  from the northeast to the southwest for about two
  thousand five hundred fifty meters and is seventy
  kilometers wide.

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Mid Ocean Ridge

• The mid ocean ridge is a series of mountain
  ranges on the ocean floor.
• They are more than 84,000 kilometers (52,000
  miles) in length and they extend through the
  North and South of the Atlantic ocean, the Indian
  Ocean, and the South Pacific ocean.
• According to the plate tectonics theory, volcanic
  rock is added to the sea floor as the mid-ocean
  ridge spreads apart.

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Abyssal Plain

• Abyssal plains are the vast, flat,
  sediment-covered areas of the deep ocean floor.
  They are the flattest, most featureless areas on
  Earth. These flat abyssal plains occur at depths
  of over 6,500 ft (1,980 m) below sea level.

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Seamount

• Seamounts are undersea volcanic mountains rising
  from the bottom of the sea that do not break the
  water's surface
• Seamounts are usually isolated and cone-shaped,
  often volcanic in origin.
• Smaller volcanoes are called sea knolls, and
  flat-topped seamounts are called guyots.

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Guyot

• Guyots are seamounts that have built above sea
  level. Over time erosion by waves destroyed the
  top of the seamount resulting in a flattened
  shape

The seamount becomes submerged to form a Guyot
Seamount rises above water
Erosion by waves flattens the top of the mount
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Ocean Trench

• A deep-sea trench is a narrow, elongate, v-shaped
  depression in the ocean floor.
• Trenches are the deepest parts of the ocean, and
  the lowest points on Earth.
• They reach depths of nearly 7 mi (10 km) below
  sea level.
• They can be thousands of miles in length, yet as
  little as 5 mi (8 km) in width.

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Rift

• A rift valley is formed where two tectonic plates
  pull apart from one another creating a deep
  valley.
• Rifts are the opposite of mountain ranges like
  the Alps or the Himalayas where the plates push
  together to create a mountain.

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Compare continental and oceanic landforms
Continental landform Canyon Valley Volcanic
mountain Mountain Range Low hills or plains
Oceanic landform Trench Rift Seamount Mid-ocean
ridge Ocean basin (abyssal plains)
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Sources

• http//www.utdallas.edu/pujana/oceans/guyot.html
• http//www.enotes.com/earth-science/abyssal-plains
  
• http//www.answers.com
• http//images.google.com/images?um1hlenrlz1T4
  ADBF_enUS279US280qoceantrenchpictures
• http//oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02galap
  agos/logs/jun04/jun04.html

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