Chapter 23The 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 Sampling…Core Sampling

• Long, hollow cylindrical 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