CRCT Question
What are flat top seamounts called?
a. Trenches
b. mid-ocean ridges
c. Guyots
d. plains
Gallery Walk
Coffee Talk
Extention: Features and life on
the Ocean Floor
How do we know what the ocean
floor looks like?
National Geographic
“DRAIN THE
OCEAN” Part 2
Pick your Hat!
Red Hat: What are your thoughts and
feelings as your watch this?
White Hat: Find important Facts and
information
Blue Hat: What questions to you still have
after watching this
Green Hat: What ideas for your project did
you get from watching this?
Self Reflection
What can I add to my project?
You may add items you think you
need before you hand it in 
All done?
Go to my website and “tag the
text” for the last part of our notes

Tagging the Text
+=New information
?=don’t understand
Star=very important to
remember
Bubble=I wonder more about
this
Mapping the ocean floor
1.
2.
3.
4.
SCUBA
Sonar
Submersibles
Satellites
Features of the Ocean Floor
 Shoreline – a boundary where the land and
the ocean meet
 Continental margin – area where the
underwater edge of a continent meets the
ocean floor.
 Continental shelf – relatively flat part of a
continental margin that is covered by
shallow ocean water
 Continental slope – marks the boundary
between the crust of the continent and the
crust of the ocean floor.
 Abyssal Plains – large flat areas on the ocean
floor.
 Seamounts and Guyots – scattered along the
floor of the ocean are thousands of
underwater mountains called seamounts.
They are volcanic mountains that rise more
than 1000 meters about the surrounding
ocean floor. Flat top seamounts are called
guyots.
 Trenches – the greatest depths found along
the edges of the ocean floor
 Midocean ridge – mountain ranges on the
ocean floor.
Ocean Life Zones
 Intertidal zone – lies between the low
and high tide lines. Hard for living
things to survive.
 Neritic Zone – extends from the low
tide line to the edge of the continental
shelf. Rich in life.
 Open-Ocean Zone – bathyal and
abyssal zones, no sunlight, plants do
not grow, little food is available, most
animals are small.
Part 3
Ocean Motions
Waves – are pulses of energy that moves through the
ocean.
Caused by wind blowing over long distances. Also affected
by how long the wind has been blowing.
Deep water is not affected by wave motion as much as
surface.
Tides – are the daily rise and fall of the sea level along a
coastline
They are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun
on the earth.
There are 2 high tides and 2 low tides every 24 hours
This means the tide goes from high to low in about 6 hours.
Spring tides Neap tides
 Are tides that are
especially high or low
during a 24 hour
period.
 They are caused by
the earth, moon, and
sun lining up in a
straight line and the
pull on the oceans is
especially strong.
 Tides that show very
little change between
high and low tide
during a 24 hour
period.
 They are caused by
the earth, moon, and
sun forming a right
angle and the pull on
the oceans is weak
Currents – an ocean current is a “river” of moving water with
the ocean.
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
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Example – Atlantic Gulf Stream
The water in the current has the same properties and does not
mix much with the rest of the ocean.
All ocean currents flow in predicable patterns
Surface currents, like waves, are driven and determined by
wind and the Coriolis effect
Coriolis effect – the apparent curving of the path of a moving
object from an otherwise straight path due to the Earth’s
rotation.
Ocean currents can affect climate by warming or cooling the
air above the current. Example – England is warmer than it
should be based on its latitude because of the Gulf Stream
current coming from the southern USA.