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First you will need to get into a deep ocean submersible and dive almost 4 miles under the surface of the Pacific Ocean to the sea floor. Graphic depicting satellite captured, bathymetric data of the western Atlantic Ocean Basin and its ocean floor features.
The ocean floor covers more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface. Like dry land, the ocean floor has various features including flat plains, sharp mountains, and rugged canyons (Fig. 7.1). However, the lowest point in the world ocean is much deeper than the highest point on land.
The majority of our Earth’s surface is water. Today, let’s take a “deep dive” and examine some ocean floor features you should know about.
The seabed, otherwise known as the ocean floor, seafloor, ocean floor, or ocean bottom, describes the bottom of the ocean. Regardless of the depth, consistency, and geography, all floors of the ocean are known as the seabed.
Abyssal plains cover 30 percent of the ocean floor and are the flattest feature on Earth. They are covered by fine-grained sediment like clay and silt. Pelagic sediments, the remains of small ocean organisms, also drift down from upper layers of the ocean.
Features of the ocean include the continental shelf, slope, and rise. The ocean floor is called the abyssal plain. Below the ocean floor, there are a few small deeper areas called ocean trenches. Features rising up from the ocean floor include seamounts, volcanic islands and the mid-oceanic ridges and rises.
Bathymetry of the ocean floor showing the continental shelves and oceanic plateaus (red), the mid-ocean ridges (yellow-green) and the abyssal plains (blue to purple). Like land terrain, the ocean floor has mountains including volcanoes, ridges, valleys, and plains.
The seafloor has distinct features and characteristics that help us better understand Earth’s current and past conditions, potential resources, and natural hazards. However, less than 10% of the seafloor has been mapped globally.
The deepest point in the ocean drops an incredible 11,000 meters (6.8 miles) beneath the sea surface—that is deeper than Mount Everest is tall! These remarkable features, and others still awaiting discovery, play a critical role in life on Earth.
The main features of the Pacific Ocean floor are the continental slopes, which drop from about 200 meters to several thousand meters over a distance of a few hundred kilometers, the abyssal plains—exceedingly flat and from 4,000 meters to 6,000 meters deep, volcanic seamounts and islands, and trenches at subduction zones that are up to 11,000 ...