Download The Ocean Floor

Water and Weather
Chapter Seven: Oceans
• 7.1 Introduction to Oceans
• 7.2 Waves
• 7.3 Shallow Marine Environments
• 7.4 The Ocean Floor
7.4 The Ocean Floor
• The ocean floor can be divided into the
continental margin and the deep ocean floor.
• The continental margin is the region around
continents that includes the continental shelf,
continental slope, and continental rise.
7.4 Features of the ocean floor
• Maps can show the
location of the
continental shelf
(light blue areas).
• The true ocean floor
is called the
abyssal plain.
(dark blue.) It is flat
and smooth
because a thick
layer of sediment
covers its features.
7.4 The deep ocean floor
• A barrier island is a
low, sandy island
that lies parallel to
the shoreline.
• A bank is a low, flat
region on the
continental shelf.
• A seamount is a
steep-sided
mountain that rises
from the ocean floor.
7.4 The deep ocean floor
• A guyot is a seamount
that has eroded so that it
has a flat top and is
underwater.
• Mid-ocean ridges mark
places where two tectonic
plates are separating and
new ocean crust is being
made. They are long
chains of undersea
mountains.
• Deep-ocean trenches are
the deepest parts of the
ocean.
Water Safety Connection
Rip Currents
• Rip currents can cause
a swimmer to be pulled
out to sea.
• A rip current forms when
water piles up near the
shore and moves away
from the shore all at one
time.
Activity
Circumnavigating
the Globe
• You will plot a sailboat
route for circumnavigating
the globe from the coast
of Massachusetts to the
coast of California.