Flat Features Of The Deep Ocean Floor

The smooth flat regions that make up 40 of the ocean floor are the abyssal plain.

Flat features of the deep ocean floor. Finally large flat areas called abyssal plains we. What was discovered was a large chain of mountains along the deep seafloor called mid ocean ridges. Deep ocean water is divided into layers or zones each with typical features of salinity pressure temperature and marine life according to their depth. Running through all the world s oceans is a continuous mountain range called the mid ocean ridge submarine ridge in figure 14 23.

They are among the flattest smoothest and least explored regions on earth. As plates converge one plate may move under the other causing earthquakes forming volcanoes or creating deep ocean trenches. Scientists also discovered deep sea trenches along the edges of continents or in the sea near chains of active volcanoes. An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor usually found at depths between 3 000 metres 9 800 ft and 6 000 metres 20 000 ft lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid ocean ridge abyssal plains cover more than 50 of the earth s surface.

Deep ocean basins deep ocean basins situated between the continen tal margins and oceanic ridges are abyssal plains parts of these regions consist of incredibly flat features deep ocean trenches ocean floor also contains extremely deep depressions seamounts dotting the ocean floor are submerged volcanic structure oceanic ridges oceanic ridge mid. Many ocean floor features are a result of the interactions that occur at the edges of these plates.