Floor Of Ocean Basins

Sunlight does not penetrate to the sea floor making these deep dark ecosystems less productive than those along.

Floor of ocean basins.

About 70 of the planet s surface is made up of ocean basins which are the regions that are below sea level these areas hold the majority of the planet s water. In fact it will. The ocean basins are partially bounded by the continents but they are interconnected which is why marine scientists refer to a single world ocean the world ocean is divided into the north and south pacific north and south atlantic indian and arctic oceans. The only exception are the crests of the spreading centres where new ocean floor has not existed long enough to accumulate a sediment cover.

A number of major features of the basins depart. It causes a rise of the ocean floor around 2 130 metres. Continuing your journey across the ocean basin you would descend the steep continental slope to the abyssal plain. You may have heard this fact before and while true.

Within the areas of the pacific ocean basin there is a ridge that forms from the gulf of california right down to the west of the southern part of south america. Older references e g littlehales 1930 consider the oceanic basins to be the complement to the continents with erosion dominating the latter and the sediments so derived ending up in the ocean basins. Ocean basin any of several vast submarine regions that collectively cover nearly three quarters of earth s surface. Together they contain the overwhelming majority of all water on the planet and have an average depth of almost 4 km about 2 5 miles.

More modern sources e g floyd 1991 regard the ocean basins more as basaltic plains than as sedimentary depositories since most sedimentation occurs on the continental shelves. At depths of over 10 000 feet and covering 70 of the ocean floor abyssal plains are the largest habitat on earth. It also causes magma to rise up from the mantle of the earth forming crusts. In fact scientists have mapped more of the surface of the moon mars and venus than the surface of our ocean.

Sediment thickness in the oceans averages about 450 metres 1 500 feet. Ocean basin ocean basin deep sea sediments. Oceanographers also recognize the southern ocean which encircles antarctica and includes the southernmost parts of the pacific. Mid oceanic ridge is normally found rising above the ocean floor at the center of the ocean basins see figure 10p 1.