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Earth’s Oceans

Earth’s Oceans. The Ocean Floor. Ocean floor. Ocean Floor. what does the Ocean floor look like?. Have you ever heard of topography ? What is a topography? What is the topography of the ocean floor? Is the topography of the ocean floor similar to the topography of the continents?.

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Earth’s Oceans

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  1. Earth’s Oceans The Ocean Floor

  2. Ocean floor

  3. Ocean Floor

  4. what does the Ocean floor look like? • Have you ever heard of topography? • What is a topography? • What is the topography of the ocean floor? • Is the topography of the ocean floor similar to the topography of the continents?

  5. What is a topography? • Topography is the shape of Earth’s structure Now, What is the topography of the ocean floor?

  6. Ocean floor’s topography • The topography of the ocean floor is a description of the shape of the ocean floor, its characteristics and major features.

  7. Ocean floor vs continents • Has higher mountains • Deeper canyons, and larger • Flatter plains • More volcanoes • Greater frequency of Earthquakes • Rocks • Thinner crust

  8. Edges of the continents • On a continent, there is a boundary where the land and ocean meet. (Shoreline) • A shoreline doesn’t mark the end of the continent. It marks the average position of sea level

  9. Edges of the continents • The area where the underwater edge of a continent meets the ocean floor is called a continental margin. • Is it part of the Ocean floor or the land?

  10. Edges of the continents • Although a continental margin forms part of the ocean floor, it is more a part of the land than it is a part of the ocean. • It consists of: • A continental shelf • A continental slope • A continental rise

  11. Continental margin

  12. Continental shelf • The relatively flat part of a continental margin that is cover by shallow water • Usually slopes very gently downward from the shoreline (less than 1.2 m for every 100 m from the shoreline).

  13. Continental shelf • It can be beneficial to us (humans) • The best fishing area • Large mineral deposits • Large deposits of oil and natural gas

  14. Continental slope • At the edge of a continental shelf, the ocean floor plunges steeply 4 to 5 kilometers • It marks the boundary between the continental crust and the oceanic crust

  15. Continental rise • It is made of large sediments (small pieces of rocks, remains of animals and plants) • The sediments are carried down the slope turbidity currents (underwater avalanche) • It separates a continental slope from the ocean floor.

  16. Features of the ocean floor • Scientists have identified several major features of the ocean floor (ocean basin) • These features includes: • Abyssal plains, seamounts, guyots, trenches, midocean ridges, reefs….

  17. Abyssal plains • The large flat areas on the ocean • They are larger in the Atlantic and Indian oceans than in the Pacific Ocean. • Two reasons: • The world greatest rivers • The floor of the pacific contains cracks

  18. Seamounts and Guyots • Seamounts are underwater volcanic mountains that rise more than 1000 meter above the surrounding ocean floor. • They have steep sides that lead to a narrow top

  19. Seamounts and Guyots • Guyots are flat-topped seamounts • The flat tops are the result of wave erosion.

  20. Seamounts and Guyots

  21. Trenches • The greatest depths of the ocean are found in trenches along the edges of the ocean as oppose to the middle of the ocean floor. • They are long, narrow cracks that can be more than 11,000 meters deep.

  22. Midocean ridges • The larger mountain ranges on Earth located under the oceans • They are areas where molten material from deep within the Earth flows up to the surface

  23. Video to consider • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2qdlYkl2HY

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