The Average Ocean Floor Depth Is Near Continental Edges

The world s combined continental slope has a total length of approximately 300 000 km 200 000 miles and descends at an average angle in excess of 4 from the shelf break at the edge of the continental shelf to the beginning of the ocean.

The average ocean floor depth is near continental edges. This community lives in or near marine sedimentary environments from tidal pools along the foreshore out to the continental shelf and then down to the abyssal depths the benthic zone is the ecological region on in and immediately above the seabed including the sediment surface. Study the maps the world ocean floor map the pacific ocean map and the mid atlantic ridge map and refer to your textbook as needed to answer the following questions. These are deep ocean floor found at a depth of 3 000 to 6 000 metres. This exists beyond continental rise.

What is greater the average depth of the ocean or the average height of the continent. The trailing edge of a continental crustal plate would likely exhibit features of which of the two types of margins. Even though they are underwater continental shelves are. The average width of continental shelves is about 80 km 50 mi.

Various features are located along the continental margins and ocean basin floor. Basalt the once molten rock that makes up most new oceanic crust is a fairly magnetic substance and scientists began using magnetometers to measure the magnetism of the ocean floor in the 1950s what they discovered was that the magnetism of the ocean floor around. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. They occupy 40 of ocean floor.

Ocean sediments lead to the development of the theory of plate tectonics. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. It is the largest and deepest of all oceans. Benthos is the community of organisms which live on in or near the seabed the area known as the benthic zone.

The slope of the shelf is usually quite low on the order of 0 5. Near shore the features of the ocean floor and are similar to those of the adjacent because they share the same basement. The rest of the water covered area comprises mainly shallow seas the continental shelves and lakes the ocean basins are characterized not only by lying in deep water the ocean floor averages about 4km below sea level but also by being underlain by a thin layer of crust. The depth of the shelf also varies but is generally limited to water shallower than 100 m 330 ft.

A continental shelf is the edge of a continent that lies under the ocean continents are the seven main divisions of land on earth. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. A continental shelf extends from the coastline of a continent to a drop off point called the shelf break from the break the shelf descends toward the deep ocean floor in what is called the continental slope. It is 16 880 km at its broadest and 11 516 m at it s deepest.

Vertical relief clarification needed is also minimal at less than 20 m 66 ft. It occupies 32 25 per cent of earth s area.