Question

Sophia was fascinated while studying the role of oceans in the hydrosphere. She decided to illustrate the features of the ocean floor on a poster for her part in a group project. Identify and describe the kinds of features found on the ocean floor.

Answer 1

Answer:

The Major features of the ocean floor are:

1. Continental Shelf
2. Continental Slope
3. Continental Rise
4. Abyssal Plain
5. Oceanic Trench
6. Mid-Ocean Ridge

Explanation:

1. Continental Shelf: This refers to the part of the land on every continent that is covered with water that is not too deep. The types of animals that can be found on the continental shelf are:

Crab, Tuna, Lobster, Dungeness cod, etc. Within the Continental shelf, there are permanent rocks that house other organisms such as sponges, anemones, clams, sponges, oysters. The continental shelf also contains the route of migration for bigger animals such as sea turtles dolphins and even whales.

2. Continental Slope: This spans from the shelf break to the continental rise.  It can slope up to 4 degrees. Slopes can be created by faulting, slumping of huge boulders of sediments, rifting, etc.

Some of the aquatic animals that can be found in this region include but are not limited to:

Sablefish, Dover sole rockfish, etc.

3. Continental rise

This part of the ocean floor usually has a very steep gradient or angle slope. It slopes very steeply into the abyssal plain of the ocean.

The following can help form continental rise:

• Mass wasting;
• deposition from contour currents and
• the longitudinal settling of biogenic and clastic particles

4. Abyssal Plain.

This is the real bottom of the ocean. There is a very high probability that one would find animals such as nematodes, polychaetes, etc which are all types of worms down there. The Abyssal plain is also home to molluscs,  and echinoderms.

5. Oceanic Trench

Sometimes there is a long and narrow indenture or depression along the seafloor. These are called Trenches. Trenches are sometimes formed by the boundaries between one lithospheric plate and another. The deepest trench on earth is found in the Pacific Ocean. It has been nick-named the Challenger Deep and said to be the deepest point known on earth reaching almost 11 kilometers.

6. Mid-Ocean Ridge

This is a mountain range underneath the ocean. It is formed when there is an upward push by convection currents of the mantle beneath the oceanic crust. When this happens and molten magma is ejected or created at the boundary between the plates, the result is a Mid-Oceanic Ridge.

Cheers