Relief Of The Ocean Floor
These features are formed due to the tectonic volcanic and depositional activities.
Relief of the ocean floor. Ocean relief is the outcome of the great depressions of the earth s outer layer mostly on the bottom surface. Ocean relief features are divided into major and minor relief features. This article talks about the minor relief of the ocean floors. The ocean basins are broadly divided into four major subdivisions.
The bottom surface of the ocean or known as land under the waters of the ocean floor creating the complex and varied features. These notes will also be useful for other competitive exams like banking po ssc state civil services exams and so on. The oceans unlike the continents merge so naturally into one another that it is hard to demarcate them. The ocean floor is not flat as it was believed to be in the earlier days.
The outstanding feature of the atlantic floor is the mid atlantic ridge an immense median mountain range extending throughout the length of the atlantic claiming the centre third of the ocean bed and reaching roughly 1 000 miles 1 600 km in breadth. These forms are called submarine relief. Relief of the ocean floor. The continental shelf the continental slope the continental rise the deep sea plain or the abyssal plain.
Ncert notes on important topics for the upsc civil services exam. This feature though read more. In this section we shall see the nature of the ocean basins of the earth and their topography. Oceanic land forms submarine relief there are mountains basins plateaus ridges canyons and trenches beneath the ocean water too.
The shelf is formed by the drowning of a. Geography minor relief of the ocean floor. Given below is a survey of typical relief features of the ocean floor. Bathymetry the shape of the ocean floor is largely a result of a process called plate tectonics the outer rocky layer of the earth includes about a dozen large sections called tectonic plates that are arranged like a spherical jig saw puzzle floating on top of the earth s hot flowing mantle.
These relief features found on the ocean floor are called submarine relief. Major ocean relief features four major divisions in the ocean relief are. Relief of the ocean floor. Relief of the ocean floor.
3 1 gives the relief features. The oceanic relief features are in the form of mountains basins plateaus ridges canyons and trenches beneath the ocean water. The oceans are confined to the great depressions of the earth s outer layer. The ocean floor also has high mountains deep trenches and large flat plains.
This is a gentle seaward sloping surface extending from the coasts toward s the open sea. In all about 7 5 of the total area of the oceans is covered by the continental shelves.