Ocean Floor

When you dive, you’re at the bottom of the ocean. Few humans have gone to the ocean’s depths, as it necessitates the use of specialised diving equipment and the water pressure increases as you descend. When you’re that far down, you can’t afford to be without protective gear. The water’s pressure would crush you.

Other tools, such as radar, are being used by scientists to investigate the ocean floor. The ocean floor was mapped to a resolution of 1.5 kilometres in 2015, according to Scientific American. This means that anything greater than 1.5 kilometres (one mile) will be visible. The canyons, abysses, and slopes of the ocean floor would be visible thanks to this mapping.

Ocean Floor Characteristics:

Landforms found underwater:

Underneath the flat ocean surface, a diverse underwater world rivals anything found on land. The seafloor is complicated in shape and depth, despite the ocean’s average depth of 2.3 miles. Some features, like canyons and seamounts, are common on the surface, while others, such as hydrothermal vents and methane seeps, are only found in the deep.

Shelf on the continent:

Crossing the continental shelf would be the first step of a journey across an ocean basin along the bottom, starting from land. The continental shelf is an area of relatively shallow water that surrounds land, usually less than a few hundred feet deep. In some locations, it is tiny or non-existent, while in others, it stretches for hundreds of kilometres. Light and nutrients from upwelling and runoff usually make the waters along the continental shelf fruitful.

Plains of the Abyss:

You’d continue your trek across the ocean basin by descending the abyssal plain’s steep continental slope. Abyssal plains, at depths of over 10,000 feet and encompassing 70% of the ocean bottom, are the world’s largest habitat. Because sunlight does not reach the seafloor, these deep, gloomy habitats are less productive than those found along the continental shelf. These “plains,” despite their name, are not uniformly flat.

Ridge in the middle of the ocean:

The mid-ocean ridge, a 40,000-mile-long underwater mountain range rising to an average depth of 8,000 feet, would be encountered as you rose from the abyssal plain. This chain of underwater volcanoes constitutes the world’s longest mountain range, tracing its way across the world’s oceans.

Trenches in the sea:

You might come upon an ocean trench after mounting the mid-ocean ridge and trekking hundreds to thousands of miles of abyssal plains. The Mariana Trench, for example, is 36,201 feet deep, making it the deepest location in the ocean.

Finally, you’d return up the continental slope and across the continental shelf, climbing tens of thousands of feet.

Island of Volcanoes:

The term “islands” is commonly used to describe volcanic islands. Seamounts that breach the water’s surface are called islands by definition. In areas like Hawaii, the formation of new land may be observed when lava cools as it enters the water. The example of Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park is a good one.

Ocean Floor Structure:

Most oceans have a similar structure, which is formed by common physical events such as tectonic movement and sediment from numerous sources. Starting with the continents, the ocean’s structure normally begins with a continental shelf, then moves on to the continental slope, a sharp decline into the ocean, until reaching the abyssal plain, a topographic plain that marks the start of the seabed and its primary region.

The continental rise, which is caused by sediment cascading down the continental slope, is usually a more gradual decline between the continental slope and the abyssal plain.

The mid-ocean ridge is a mountainous rise that runs through the middle of all the oceans, connecting the continents. Normally, a rift runs along the ridge’s edge. 

Volcanic activity, which erupts on a regular basis as the tectonic plates move over a hotspot, creates hotspot volcanic island ridges. There are hydrothermal vents in volcanic locations and marine trenches, which release high pressure, extremely hot water and chemicals into the generally frigid water around them.

Ocean water is divided into three categories:

According to their depth, deep ocean water is split into layers or zones, each with distinct salinity, pressure, temperature, and marine life characteristics. The abyssal zone runs along the top of the abyssal plain, with its bottom edge at roughly 6,000 metres (20,000 ft). The hadal zone, which includes the oceanic trenches, is the deepest oceanic zone, measuring between 6,000 and 11,000 metres (20,000–36,000 feet).

Conclusion:

They absorb carbon dioxide, maintain the earth’s temperature, and provide sustenance for billions of humans.

We can gain a better knowledge of towering mountains, deep valleys, and deep pits near continental borders by surveying ocean floors. 

Paralleling the mid-ocean ridge are alternating strips of normal and reversed polarity.