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The Earth’s Oceans
A Dynamic System where many physical
and chemical changes are taking place!
The World’s Oceans
•71% of the surface of the
Earth is ocean
•97% of all the Earth’s
water is found in the oceans
•The Atlantic, Pacific, and
the Indian oceans are the
major oceans
•The Arctic Ocean,
Mediterranean Sea, and the
Caribbean Sea are part of
the Atlantic Ocean
•The Pacific Ocean is the
largest and the deepest
•Followed by the Atlantic
Ocean, the Indian Ocean is
deeper
Mapping the Ocean Floor
•1872 the
Challenger sailed
from England, it
remained at sea for
three and a half
years. It used wire
to measure ocean
depths. The
Challenger collected
animals and water
samples from the
ocean floor. It used
special
thermometers to
record temperatures
on the ocean floor.
•In 1920 the German ship Meteor
used sonar for the first time to
map the seafloor.
•Today the satellite Topex/Poseidon
orbits the Earth using side scan
sonar to map the bottom of the
ocean
Mapping the Ocean
•Mapping the bottom of the ocean can only
be done by indirect methods, such as echo
sounding, radar, sonar, and seismographic
surveys
Moving Ocean Water
•Waves are pulses of energy that move
through the ocean
•They carry energy, not matter
•They begin as wind stirred ripples on
the surface of the water
•The greater the wind, the greater the
wave
Wave Formation
•The height of the wave depends on
wind speed, the length of time the
wind blows, and the distance the wind
blows
•Increasing any of these can increase
the size of the wave
Wave Trivia
•The highest wave every noted
was 34 meters high in 1933
during a wind storm in the
Pacific
Wave Characteristics
•The crest is the highest part of the
wave
•The trough is the lowest part to the
wave
•Wavelength is measured from crest
to crest or trough to trough
Waves (cont)
•Waves are more destructive in the
winter
•Tsunamis is a giant wave caused
by earthquakes
Tides
• These are the regular rise and fall
of ocean water caused by the
gravitational pull between the
moon and the Earth
• A bulge occurs in the ocean nearest
the moon, this is the high tide and
in the opposite is the low tide
• There are two high tides and two
low tides a day
• Spring tides are highest of the high
tides higher and the lowest of the
low tides and neap tides have the
smallest difference between the
high and the low tides.
The Ocean Floor
•Continental margin consist of the
continental shelf, continental slope, and
the continental rise
•Continental shelf is the relatively flat
area along the edge of every continent: it
ranges from almost nothing to 1200
kilometers, the best fishing, large mineral
deposits, and petroleum are found there
•Continental slope is at the edge of
the continental shelf where the sea
floor may plunge steeply 4-5
kilometers
•Marks the boundary between the
continental crust and the oceanic
crust
•Continental rise is the area
between the continental slope and
the ocean floor
•It is made of sediments that wash
down from the continental shelf
•Turbidity current carry large
amounts of these sediments in
masses of moving water, it is like
an underwater avalanche
•Submarine canyons are deep
V shaped valleys cut through
the continental shelf and slope
Features of the Ocean Floor
Abyssal Plain
• Large flat areas on the bottom of
the ocean
• Atlantic and Indian oceans have
largest abyssal plains because
almost all the worlds major rivers
flow into them producing a large
amount of sediment deposits in the
plains
Seamounts and Guyots
• Seamounts are underwater
volcanic mountains
• They have steep sides and narrow
summits and rise more than 1000
meters above the sea floor
• When seamounts rise above the
surface of the ocean they become
islands
• Guyots are seamounts that do not
rise to a peak or have eroded tops
Midocean Ridges
•Largest mountain ranges on the
Earth
•These are formed where the plates
are pulling apart
•Rift valleys run along the middle of
the midocean ridges
Trenches
•The deepest part of the ocean
found along edges of sea floor
•Long narrow crevices that can be
11,000 meters deep
•Deepest trench is the Mariana
Trench in the Pacific Ocean that is
more than 11,000
meters deep
Hydrothermal Vents
•Openings into the mantle of the Earth
where sea water seeps down and
returns to the ocean
Reefs
•Reefs are large masses and ridges
of limestone rocks produced by the
shells of animals
•There are three types of coral
reefs: fringing reefs touch the
shoreline of a volcanic island
Coral Reefs (cont)
•Barrier reefs that are separated
from the shore by an area of
shallow water called a lagoon
Coral Reefs (cont)
•And an atoll that is a ring of coral
reef that surrounded an island that
has beenworn away or sunk
This is the easy part!!!!!
And you thought the ocean was
just for fun!!!!!!!