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Ocean Floor Topography

The document discusses the major and minor relief features of ocean basins. It divides ocean basins into two parts: continental margins including the continental shelf, slope, and rise, and deep ocean basins including the ocean basin floor and mid-ocean ridges. The major relief features are listed as the continental shelf, continental slope, abyssal plains, and ocean deeps/submarine trenches. Minor relief features include mid-ocean ridges, submarine canyons, atolls, island arcs, faults, fracture zones, abyssal hills, seamounts, and guyots. Definitions of each feature are also provided.

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Zannatul Nayema
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256 views3 pages

Ocean Floor Topography

The document discusses the major and minor relief features of ocean basins. It divides ocean basins into two parts: continental margins including the continental shelf, slope, and rise, and deep ocean basins including the ocean basin floor and mid-ocean ridges. The major relief features are listed as the continental shelf, continental slope, abyssal plains, and ocean deeps/submarine trenches. Minor relief features include mid-ocean ridges, submarine canyons, atolls, island arcs, faults, fracture zones, abyssal hills, seamounts, and guyots. Definitions of each feature are also provided.

Uploaded by

Zannatul Nayema
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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On the basis of Bathymetry and other studies, the morphology of Ocean basins includes two parts-

1) Continental margins – a) continental slope

b) continental shelf

c) continental rise

2) Deep ocean basins – a) ocean basin floor

b) mid-ocean ridges

**Ocean basin floor and mid-ocean ridges are further divided into more features.

MAJOR AND MINOR RELIEF FEATURES

The ocean water conceals a considerable variety of landscape very similar to its counterpart on the
continents. There are mountains, basins, plateaus, ridges, canyons and trenches beneath the ocean
water too. These relief features found on the ocean floor are called submarine relief. Among all the
features the major relief features are –

1. Continental Shelf
2. Continental Slope
3. Abyssal Plains
4. The Ocean Deeps/ Submarine Trenches

All the other features are known as minor relief features.

DEFINITIONS

 Continental Shelf

The continental shelf is the extended margin of each continent occupied

by relatively shallow seas and gulfs. It is the shallowest part of the ocean

showing an average gradient of 1° or even less. The shelf typically ends

at a very steep slope, called the shelf break.

 Continental Slope

The continental slope connects the continental shelf and the ocean basins.

It begins where the bottom of the continental shelf sharply drops off into

a steep slope. The slope boundary indicates the end of the continents.
 Continental Rise

The continental rise is a low-relief zone of accumulated sediments that lies between the continental
slope and the abyssal plain.

 Mid-Ocean Ridges

A mid-oceanic ridge is composed of two chains of mountains separated by a large depression.

It is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics.

 Submarine Canyons

Narrow steep-sided valleys that cut into continental slopes and continental rises of the oceans.

 Atoll

These are low islands found in the tropical oceans consisting of coral reefs surrounding a central
depression.

 Island Arcs

Island arcs are long chains of active volcanoes with intense seismic activity found along convergent
tectonic plate boundaries.

 Faults

At spreading centres, magma rises from a low-viscosity layer called the asthenosphere, and volcanic
activity produces the crust of the sea floor. Spreading centres are separated into segments connected by
plate boundaries known as oceanic transform faults.

 Fracture Zone

A fracture zone is a linear feature on the ocean floor—often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers
long—resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments.

 Abyssal Plains

An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000
metres and 6,000 metres. Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge.
 Abyssal Hills

An abyssal hill is a small hill that rises from the floor of an abyssal plain. They are the most abundant
geomorphic structures on the planet Earth.

 Seamounts and Guyots

Seamounts and Guyots are volcanoes that have built up from the ocean floor, sometimes to sea level or
above. Guyots are seamounts that have built above sea level.

 The Ocean Deeps/Submarine Trenches

These areas are the deepest parts of the oceans. The trenches are relatively steep sided narrow basins.
They occur at the bases of continental slopes and along island arcs and are associated with active
volcanoes and strong earthquakes. That is why they are very significant in the study of plate
movements.

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