download google earth premium real time volcanic underwater features

Many ocean floor features are a result of the interactions that occur at the edges of these plates. Convection currents in the molten mantle cause the plates to slowly move about the Earth a few centimeters each year. The outer rocky layer of the Earth includes about a dozen large sections called tectonic plates that are arranged like a spherical jig-saw puzzle floating on top of the Earth's hot flowing mantle. Your journey across an ocean basin would end on the shore of another continent.īathymetry, the shape of the ocean floor, is largely a result of a process called plate tectonics. The Mariana Trench, for example, is the deepest place in the ocean at 36,201 feet.įinally, you would ascend tens of thousands of feet back up the continental slope and across the continental shelf. Ocean trenchesĪfter scaling the mid-ocean ridge and traversing hundreds to thousands of miles of abyssal plains, you might encounter an ocean trench. Tracing their way around the global ocean, this system of underwater volcanoes forms the longest mountain range on Earth. Rising up from the abyssal plain, you would encounter the mid-ocean ridge, an underwater mountain range, over 40,000 miles long, rising to an average depth of 8,000 feet. They are interrupted by features like hills, valleys, and seamounts (underwater mountains that are also hotspots for biodiversity). But despite their name, these “plains” are not uniformly flat. Sunlight does not penetrate to the sea floor, making these deep, dark ecosystems less productive than those along the continental shelf. At depths of over 10,000 feet and covering 70% of the ocean floor, abyssal plains are the largest habitat on earth. Abyssal plainsĬontinuing your journey across the ocean basin, you would descend the steep continental slope to the abyssal plain. The waters along the continental shelf are usually productive, both from light and nutrients from upwelling and runoff. It is narrow or nearly nonexistent in some places in others, it extends for hundreds of miles. The continental shelf is an area of relatively shallow water, usually less than a few hundred feet deep, that surrounds land. Starting from land, a trip across an ocean basin along the seafloor would begin with crossing the continental shelf. Conservation Service Corp Act Direct Hiring Authority.Information for NOAA student opportunity alumni.

About the education resource collections.

NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database.

NOAA in your backyard: Education contacts near you.

Download google earth premium real time volcanic underwater features