Ocean floor topography involves the study of ocean bottom features including the outer continental shelf continental slopes and ocean waves desktops.
What are some main features of the ocean floor.
The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable.
Together they contain the overwhelming majority of all water on the planet and have an average depth of almost 4 km about 2 5 miles.
This study is extensive and it has been established that the ocean floor has similar features of mountains and valleys as on the earth.
The under water topography maps have been developed by the study of ocean floor topography.
Ocean basin any of several vast submarine regions that collectively cover nearly three quarters of earth s surface.
The same tectonic forces that create geographical features like volcanoes and mountains on land create similar features at the bottom of the oceans.
If you follow the ocean floor out from the beach at the top left the seafloor gently slopes along the continental shelf.
The abyssal plain has a depth between 2 200 and 5 500 m 7 200 and 18 000 ft and covers about 40 of the ocean floor.
A number of major features of the basins depart.
You ll see underwater mountains called seamounts cliffs trenches and abysses.
These areas are among the flattest and least explored on the earth s surface.
This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level.
The ocean floor off the continental shelf is known as the abyssal plain.