Download Ocean Floor Features

Ocean Floor Features
Underwater canyon
• A submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley on
the sea floor (often found near the mouth of a
river)
http://vimeo.co
m/5566788
Underwater mountain
http://www.kidcrosswords.com/
kidoutdoors/where%20to%20go
/underwater_mountains.htm
An underwater mountain
rises from the ocean floor
and has a peaked or flattopped summit below the
surface of the sea.
Underwater mountain range
• A series of mountain ranges on
the ocean floor, more than
84,000 kilometers (52,000 miles)
in length
Shallow sea
• It's the ocean next door, i.e., the shallow seas that the
vast majority of ocean life calls home. Shallow seas are
rich with coral reefs, mangrove swamps, kelp forests and
sea-grass plains, and include open waters off icy islands,
thick with penguins, krill and whales.
• These waters are also where whales come to give birth
and suckle their young. Whether it's humpbacks off the
Hawaiian Islands or gray whales off the coast of Baja
California, shallow bays and the waters near islands
provide shelter for some of the most impressive marine
mammals found anywhere on the planet.
Continental shelf
• The shallow underwater plain that is a Continent's real
outer edge. The continental shelf slants from the
shore's low-tide line to the continental slope, a cliff
that plunges abruptly to the deep Ocean floor. The
shelf can be a few miles wide to over 200 miles (322
km), reaching a typical depth of 450 feet (137 m). It
collects most of the sand, silts and other sediments
that rivers carry to the sea. The eastern continental
shelf of the United States is over three times as wide as
that on the West Coast.
Island chain
• A string of islands
Underwater plain
http://www.scienceandthesea.org/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=108&Ite
mid=10
An abyssal plain is
an underwater plain
on the deep ocean
floor. They are
among the flattest,
smoothest and least
explored regions on
Earth.
Hydrothermal vent
http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/vents/inde
x.html
• Hydrothermal vents form in places where there is
volcanic activity, such as along the Mid-Ocean
Ridge. Water seeps through cracks in the seafloor
and is heated by molten rock deep below the
ocean crust to as high as 400°C. The hot fluid
rises to the surface and gushes out of the vent
openings. This hydrothermal fluid carries with it
dissolved metals and other chemicals from deep
beneath the ocean floor.
http://www.scienceandthesea.org/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=106&Ite
mid=10