Is The Ocean Floor Flat

The ocean floor or seabed refers to earth s top most layer of thin basalt rock that is submerged beneath seawater.

Is the ocean floor flat.

Mountains plains channels canyons exposed rocks and sediment covered areas. The lack of weathering and erosion in most areas however allows geological processes to be seen more clearly on. The ocean floor has the same general character as the land areas of the world. Exploration of the seafloor and the earth s crust.

We have big news. The globe isn t flat and neither are the world s oceans. For instance the absolute water level height is higher along the west coast of the united states than the east coast. Most people are surprised to learn that just as the surface of the earth is not flat the surface of the ocean is not flat and that the surface of the sea changes at different rates around the globe.

Regions of the ocean floor can be distinguished by topographical margins e g. Running through all the world s oceans is a continuous mountain range called the mid ocean ridge submarine ridge in figure 14 23. Is the ocean floor flat. Deep ocean troughs occur in places where one of the earth s plates is being pulled down beneath another and destroyed.

A series of volcanic ridges cuts through all the oceans. Tides and ocean currents. Land erosion sediments brought mainly by rivers. The process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor is seafloor spreading and the continental slope.

The smooth flat regions that make up 40 of the ocean floor are the abyssal plain. Bathymetry the shape of the ocean floor is largely a result of a process called plate tectonics the outer rocky layer of the earth includes about a dozen large sections called tectonic plates that are arranged like a spherical jig saw puzzle floating on top of the earth s hot flowing mantle. These ridges mark the sites where the earth s surface plates are being created. Other articles where ocean floor is discussed.

The ocean basins are characterized not only by lying in deep water the ocean floor averages about 4km below sea level but also by being underlain by a thin layer of crust. Plate tectonics and the ocean floor. We re aren t just talking about the ocean floor but the actual surface of the ocean. Like even the flattest grasslands the world s oceans have varied elevations.

Seabed topography is flat where sedimentation is heavy and covers the tectonic features. Sediments comes from various sources.