Is The Ocean Floor Flat

On average oceanic crust is only 6 to 7km thick compared to 35 to 40km for con tinental crust.

Is the ocean floor flat. Deep ocean troughs occur in places where one of the earth s plates is being pulled down beneath another and destroyed. The ocean floor has the same general character as the land areas of the world. Land erosion sediments brought mainly by rivers. The smooth flat regions that make up 40 of the ocean floor are the abyssal plain.

We re aren t just talking about the ocean floor but the actual surface of the ocean. Exploration of the seafloor and the earth s crust. Mountains plains channels canyons exposed rocks and sediment covered areas. The globe isn t flat and neither are the world s oceans.

The floor of the ocean has a very varied topography. The ocean basins are characterized not only by lying in deep water the ocean floor averages about 4km below sea level but also by being underlain by a thin layer of crust. These ridges mark the sites where the earth s surface plates are being created. The process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor is seafloor spreading and the continental slope.

A series of volcanic ridges cuts through all the oceans. Running through all the world s oceans is a continuous mountain range called the mid ocean ridge submarine ridge in figure 14 23. Tides and ocean currents. The ocean floor or seabed refers to earth s top most layer of thin basalt rock that is submerged beneath seawater.

We have big news. Regions of the ocean floor can be distinguished by topographical margins e g. Plate tectonics and the ocean floor. Other articles where ocean floor is discussed.

Like even the flattest grasslands the world s oceans have varied elevations. Seabed topography is flat where sedimentation is heavy and covers the tectonic features. The lack of weathering and erosion in most areas however allows geological processes to be seen more clearly on. Most people are surprised to learn that just as the surface of the earth is not flat the surface of the ocean is not flat and that the surface of the sea changes at different rates around the globe.

Is the ocean floor flat. The difference is sea level is caused by two major factors.