Is The Ocean Floor Flat

Seabed topography is flat where sedimentation is heavy and covers the tectonic features.

Is the ocean floor flat.

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. Deep ocean troughs occur in places where one of the earth s plates is being pulled down beneath another and destroyed. The process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor is seafloor spreading and the continental slope. Regions of the ocean floor can be distinguished by topographical margins e g.

We have big news. The ocean floor or seabed refers to earth s top most layer of thin basalt rock that is submerged beneath seawater. The floor of the ocean has a very varied topography. A series of volcanic ridges cuts through all the oceans.

For instance the absolute water level height is higher along the west coast of the united states than the east coast. The globe isn t flat and neither are the world s oceans. Plate tectonics and the ocean floor. We re aren t just talking about the ocean floor but the actual surface of the ocean.

Mountains plains channels canyons exposed rocks and sediment covered areas. Is the ocean floor flat. On average oceanic crust is only 6 to 7km thick compared to 35 to 40km for con tinental crust. 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.

The difference is sea level is caused by two major factors. Land erosion sediments brought mainly by rivers. Tides and ocean currents. Running through all the world s oceans is a continuous mountain range called the mid ocean ridge submarine ridge in figure 14 23.

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. The lack of weathering and erosion in most areas however allows geological processes to be seen more clearly on. The smooth flat regions that make up 40 of the ocean floor are the abyssal plain. Other articles where ocean floor is discussed.

These ridges mark the sites where the earth s surface plates are being created. Like even the flattest grasslands the world s oceans have varied elevations.