Chapter 23
The Ocean Floor
• 3 ways to study
the ocean
floor…….
• Echo sounding
• Sediment
sampling
• Satellite
observations
• Echo Sounding
• SONAR
• Sound signal is sent
to the ocean floor
and the time it takes
to reach the ocean
floor and return
determines the
depth
• Sediment
• Long, hollow
Sampling…Core cylindrical
Sampling
instrument
removes a long
core of sediments
from the ocean
floor
• Satellites
• Provides the
greatest amount
of speed and
information for
creating ocean
floor maps
23.2 - The Continental Margin
• Continental
Margin
• Underwater part
of the continental
crust
• Parts of the
continental
Margin
• Shelf
• Slope
• Rise
• Parts of the
continental
Margin
• A plate boundary
……like a
subduction zone
• Not on a plate
boundary
23.3 - The Ocean Basin
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Abyssal Plains
Abyssal Hills
Deep Sea Trenches
Mid-Ocean Ridges
Deep Ocean Vents
Corals And Atolls
Seamounts &
Guyots
23.4 – Ocean Floor Sediments
• Terrigenous
• Biogenous
• Hydrogenous
• Sediments from the
rocks on land
• Sediments from
once living things
• Crystals formed in
the water that settle
on the sea floor