Date:
Oceanography is a multidisciplinary science. That means it includes several
____________________ _____________________.
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Physical Oceanography: The ____________ of the sea floor.
Chemical Oceanography: The ____________ of sea waters.
Biological Oceanography: The study of all the _________ that lives in the seas.
Physical Oceanography
MARINE PROVINCES
Continental Shelf: Large __________ areas that stick out from the edges of the ______________.
The majority of __________ ____________ lives in this area.
Continental Slope: Steep ________________ that goes down from the edge of the continental
shelf to the sea floor. Contains underwater ___________________, and moves tremendous
amounts of ________________________ down to the bottom of the ocean.
Abyssal Plain: Large very flat areas between the edge of the continental slope and the
__________-___________ _________________. Not as much life as on the shelf, but some very strange
sea creatures live here. The bottom of the plain is covered by ooze- a mix of fine sediment
and decayed organic material.
Mid-Ocean Ridges: The largest chain of ___________________ on the planet. Remember from
the Plate Tectonics Unit, the mid-ocean ridges are where new _____________ is being created.
Sea Mounts: Cone-shaped ________________ __________________ that stick up out of the abyssal
plain, but do not break the surface of the ocean.
(If they do break the surface, we call them _____________.)
Guyots: Guyots start off as ___________________ islands. The tops of the islands are
________________ and _________________ away by waves until they are flat. The island sinks
(subsides) back down below the ocean surface, leaving a flat-topped sea mount.
Deep Ocean Trenches: The deepest areas of the ocean are located at ____________-____________
____________________ boundaries. The deepest spot measured in any ocean on earth was
35,802 feet below the surface in the Marianas Trench.
SONAR = SOund Navigation And Ranging
ECHO SOUNDING
1. Sound pulses
2. Measures depth