1.

2 Continental Margin
The outer margins of continents, where continental crust transitions to oceanic crust.
Two types of continental margins:
1. Passive continental margin

 Found along most coastal areas that surround the Atlantic ocean
 Exhibit wide, extensive continental shelves
 Not associated with plate boundaries
 Geologically inactive
 Experience little volcanism
 Few earthquakes
 Found primarily in the Atlantic ocean
2. Active continental margin

 Geologically active
 Convergent plate boundaries where oceanic lithosphere is being subducted beneath the leading
edge of a continent.
 Accretionary wedges or deep ocean trenches may be found these convergent plate boundaries.
 Located in Pacific Ocean
3 Features of the Continental Margin

 Continental Shelf- First area of ocean floor

- Submerged extension of the continent
- Gently sloping & relatively featureless
- Contains oil, natural gas and important minerals deposits

 Continental slope-marks the area between continental and oceanic crust; very steep.
- Marks the seaward edge of the continental shelf
- Boundary between continental crust and oceanic crust

 Continental Rise- Where trenches do not exist the steep slope merges into a more gradual incline.
- Continental slope merges into a more gradual incline
- Thick accumulations of sediment that moved down the continental slope
Ocean Basins
The ocean basins topography varies widely and includes features such as abyssal plains and hills,
deep-s ea trenches and mid-ocean ridges.
Abyssal plain – is flattest of all Earth’s surface areas. They composed of sediments, most of which came from
continents and can be more than one km thick
Abyssal hills – are small, rolling hills often occurring in groups next to ocean ridge systems
Deep-sea trenches – are long, narrow, steep-sided troughs that run parallel to continental margins or to
volcanic island chains called islands arcs.
- Deep-sea trenches are common sites of earthquakes and volcanic activity
Mid-ocean ridges – are not seamless. Hundreds of transform faults break them into separate pieces. The
transform faults make up fracture zones
- Some fracture zones may form high submarine cliffs and others may extend across
an entire ocean basin.
Seamounts – are volcanic Cone Mountains that peak high above the ocean floor.
Guyots – are seamounts that have had their peaks won down by wave action.
Coral reefs can form around volcanic islands. As the islands sink with the ocean crust, rings of coral are left
behind which continue to grow, forming barrier reefs and ring-shaped coral island are called Coral atolls.

Structure of Earth
Consist of Crust, Mantle, Inner core and Outer core

 Earth Crust it consist of all kind of rocks, soil and everything you see above the earth surface
- You will be surprise to know that crust that the land that we walk is almost 3x thicker than the crust under
the ocean
 And it extend above 25 miles and the earth crust floats in the layer of mantle
- Mantle is made of thick, solid and rocky substance
-The 1st 50 miles of the mantle consists of very hard rock
--Next 150 miles is made up of super-hot solid rocks
And the last layer of the mantle consist of 1800 miles thick and the largest layer of the earth
 The Earth Outer layer core is made up of super-hot substance called lava
- This lava is belief remain of iron an nickel and it extend to s depth of 3000 miles beneath the earth surface
 And the last layer is the Inner core and it extend again another 900 miles through the center of the earth
and this belief that the inner core is a solid volt of iron and nickel
 Asthenosphere- upper mantle
 Lithosphere- uppermost mantle and crust
Earth’s crust
Oceanic crust
 Consist of basalt (bottom layer)
 200 myo
 Dense and thin
Continental crust
 Consist of granite(a very hard, granular, crystalized and igneous rock consisting mainly of quartz)
 3.8 byo
 Not dense and thick
Continental drift or theory of Continental drift

Continent is a giant land masses covering about 29% of the earth

 Alfred Wegener is brave scientist

 He is a German meteorologist and he studied weather
 Theory states that all the continents had once been joined in a single super continent Pangaea, that
exist in 250 million year ago
 Pangaea Greek word (entire earth) or all earth- super continent(land masses)
 Wegener think about the continent are moving! And people thought about the possible of continent
moving, but Wegener devoted to study the proof
4 Evidence:
1. The apparent fit of the continents – the coastlines of the continents appear to fit together like the
pieces of a puzzle
2. Fossil correlation – identical fossils have been found in the rocks on either side of the ocean
3. Rock and mountain correlation - identical rocks and mountains structures have been found on
either side of the ocean
4. Paleoclimate data – Coal has been found in cold regions and glacial evidence has been found in
warm regions
 Later in his life, Wegener talks an expeditions to the north pole and wanted more evidence to support
his theory about the continental drift, unfortunately an a very cold and dark stormy day Wegener said
out on an expeditions together food for his coldest, and he never survive and died on the exposure, and
was frozen on the ice, and his bodied is still there until now and frozen forever.
Sad thing about this theory is
 Wegener could not explain what was driving the motions of the continents, what the continent
move? What made the super continent rift apart, and he died before his theory would become
accepted by the scientifically community, he never see his life work.
Seafloor Spreading Evidence

 Discovery of the Mid ocean Ridge

 Discovered using sonar(Sound Navigation and Ranging Technology)
 Interrupted by large geological fault called transform faults
 EX Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific rise
 Magnetic reversals
 Discovered by the Glomar Challenger in 1968
 Symmetric pattern of magnetic poles
 Opposite matching bands on either side of mid-oceanic ridge
 Sediment age and thickness
 Thickest and oldest sediments are found farthest from the mid ocean ridge
Seafloor Spreading

 Proposed by Henry Hess in 1960’s

 Theory states that mantle rises up the seafloor and moved towards the continents
 Mechanism was thought to be convection of the mantle beneath the seafloor
Plate Tectonics
Also a continuation of Wegener study

 Combination of continental drift and seafloor spreading

  Theory earth’s surface is covered by a fairly rigid layer composed of the crust and the uppermost part
of the mantle called the Lithosphere that is broken into plates which move over the mantle
Plate Collisions
 Oceanic Plate to Oceanic Plate
 Causes trenches, earthquakes, volcanoes and island arcs
 Ex Aleutian island in alaska
 Oceanic plate and continental plate
 Creates a trench, earthquakes and continental volcanoes
 Seafloor is destroyed at the trench which explains why the seafloor is so young
 Continental plate and continental plate
 Create mountains
 Ex Himalayan mountains
Plate Movements

 Apart plats do move apart and create new crust

 Ex mid ocean ridge and Iceland
 Shear boundary plate are able to slide past each other
 Ex California’s San Andreas Fault
Marine Sediments
1. Hydrogenous
 Result from chemical reactions within seawater
2. Cosmogenous
 Result from outer space
3. Lithogenous sediment
 Formed from the weathering and erosion of rocks
4. Biogenous sediment
 Created from the skeleton or shells of marine organisms
5. Siliceous made of silica
Hot Spots
Is simple an area where we have single area of magma that able punch through a in the middle of the
plate.

 Stationary plume of magma under a moving plate

 Creates volcanic islands in the middle of plates
 1.3 Marine Provinces
In marine province there are some other ways we can categorize the ocean environments.

The first major distinction is between the pelagic and benthic zones;
 Pelagic zone - refers to the water column, where swimming and floating organisms live.
 Benthic zone – refers to the bottom, and organisms living on and in the bottom are known as the
benthos.

The Pelagic zone is divided into two provinces: the neritic province corresponds to all of the water from
the low tide line to the shelf break, while the oceanic province represents all of the other water in the open
ocean regions.

The oceanic province is divided into depth zones;

 Epipelagic zone – (200m depth) (“epi-upon”, as in on top of the pelagic zone). This is the region where
enough light penetrates the water to support photosynthesis, and it is also called the euphotic or
photic zone.
 Mesopelagic zone – (200-1000m) (“meso-middle”). There is some light here, but not enough for
photosynthesis, so it is called the dysphotic zone or the twilight zone.
 Bathypelagic zone – (1000-4000m) (“bathy-deep”). There is no light at these depths, so it is referred
to as the photic zone. About 75% of the living space in the ocean lies at these depths or deeper.
 Abyssopelagic or Abyssalpelagic zone – (4000-6000m) which extends to the seafloor in most areas.
 Hadopelagic or Hadalpelagic – (6000m) (named for Hades or “hell”). This refers to the water in deep
ocean trenches.
-Inhabitants of these regions are referred to according to their habitat, for example mesopelagic fish or
epipelagic squid.
 The benthic environment is also divided into zones, most of which correspond to the pelagic divisions:

 Superlittoral zone – lies above the high tide line. Also called the spray zone, it is only
submerged during storms or unusually high waves.
 Littoral zone – is the region between the high and low tides. Thus it is also referred to as
intertidal zone.
 Sublittoral zone – it is below to littoral zone, and also extending from the low tide mark to the
shelf break, essentially covering the continental shelf.
 Bathyal zone – extends along the bottom from the shelf break to 4000m, so it generally
includes the continental slope and rise.
 Abyssal zone – is found between 4000-6000m, including most of the abyssal plains. Abyssal
zone represents about 80% of the benthic environment.
 Hadal zone – includes all benthic regions deeper than 6000m, such as in the bottom of
trenches.

1.4 Mapping the Seafloor

Why map the seafloor?

 To help ships and boaters know how deep the water is.
 To help them avoid running into dangerous objects underwater.
 Ships bring us most of the things we buy, and carry passengers to other places. We want to make sure
that ship can safety cross the ocean.

How did we map the sea floor in the past?

 The first survey to map the sea floor in the United States was completed in 1834 on the South Shore of
long island, New York. It was done using lead line and sounding poles.
  Lead lines were ropes with numbers marked along them, like a ruler. A lead weight was attached at the
end.
 Sounding poles were like big rulers.

How did this work?

 A surveyor lowered a line into the ocean. When it hit bottom, he marked the measurements from
different parts of the ocean. Then he put them on a chart to create a ‘’picture ‘’of the ocean floor.
 The measurements were often right, but the uncharted spaces between them were really big. Many
objects were missed. Some were rocks as big as your house!
 These objects caused many shipwrecks. (the destruction of a ship at sea by sinking or breaking up)

How do we map the ocean floor today?

 Today scientists use sonar mapping. They use computer mapping software soundings into rainbow
colored maps.

Mapping the Seafloor

 This type of sounding is only reliable only in calm,shallow areas
 Near continental shelve,in inland seas,and near med ocean islands.
 The first succesful deep water soundings were made with large balls of twine.
 A heavy weight was attached and tossed overboard,pulling twine from the ball until it hit bottom.
 Because the weight of a length of twine was know,the depth of the ocean at the point could be
determined.

Sonar Soundings
 Modern oceanographers use sophisticated remote-sensing techniques to gather data.
 The data is then plotted on charts and maps and used to create models that help us understand what
seafloor features are like.
 In 1930 the echo-sounding sonar devices (fathometers) replaced sounding ranging.
 SONAR- sound navigation ranging
 It works by sending out pulses of sound waves from a ship
 Instruments record the time it takes for the sound waves to travel to the bottom, reflect and turn to the
ship
 Because the velocity of sound in seawater is known to be about 1,460 meters per second, the depth
cab be calculated.
 The speed does vary with the temperature and salinity in different regions of the ocean.

-The advantage of using sonar is that a vessel can keep moving at normal speed while soundings are made.
 Recording a series of soundings on a strip of paper or making a computer printout products a two-
dimensional visual profile.
 Also called an echogram or sonography
 Research vessels cross the ocean making sonar profiles along navigated parallel course called
transect lines.

Swath mapping
 Developed in 1970’s
 Instead within of a single line of sounding, this makes many measures of depth within a two-
dimensional area of the seafloor.
 With swath mapping one transect the area sounded may be 10-60 km wide.
 Details are so clear that small scale features can be clearly identified.
 Features 10m across can be detected.
 Scientists use detailed swath mapping and image mapping to learn more about the processes that
formed the sea floor.
There 2 types of swath mapping:
1. Multibeam sonar – sends out and tracks up to 16 closely speed sonar beams at a time.
-Multibeam syatems can provide more accurate measurements than echo sounders. Multibeam
systems collect data from as many as 121 beams to measure the contours of the ocean floor.
 2. Side-scanning sonar - uses computers to translate the multiple echoes into detailed three
dimensional images of the seafloor features.

Claims to the Ocean

 Nations considered the ocean open to everyone (Freedom of the sea).
 Ocean resources were available on a first come, first served basis.
 In an effort to find fuel, food and minerals to be used by 6 billion people, 40% of the ocean have been
claimed.
 The claimed regions are called Zones.
 Coastal nations claimed a territorial zone or sea of 3 nautical mile from shore.
-They had full control of the zone but allowed nonmilitary commercial ships to pass through.
 Many nations claim 12 nautical miles. This was complicated by straits.
 1958 – United nations agreed upon a “Law of the Sea” which provided for passage provisions for
ships, subs and airplanes
 Today we have “Exclusive Economic Zones”.
-Nations claim sovereign rights to all resources, living or nonliving up to 200 nautical miles from shore.
-The U.S. made their claim in 1958.
The U.S EEZ is larger than the land area of the U.S
 BY 1990 The two federal agencies, the U.S Geological Survey and the National oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, planned to complete swath mapping and assessment of the living and
nonliving resources of the US EEZ
 In 1982 the new Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) was written by the United Nations
-Acknowledged the 12 mile territorial sea, making provisions for international straits and allow for 200
mile EEZ.
-All waters beyond the EEZ’s of nations are the High Seas and the seabed and subsoil beneath are
called “the Area”.
-LOSC proposes that the UN, administer the High Seas and the Area and that all nations share their
ocean technologies and the wealth obtained from those technologies.

Importance of Accurate Maps

 Detailed, accurate maps and models of geological features are used by scientist to explain how the
features of the earth form and how they chance over time.

Bathymetric Maps
 Data typically comes from a sonar mounted beneath or over the side of a boat, pinging” a beam of
sound downward at the seafloor.
 The amount of time I takes for the sound or light to travel through the water, bounce off the seafloor,
and return to the sounder tells the equipment what the distance to the seafloor is.
 Data is supplied on the elevations and depressions of the ocean floor
 By drawing contour lines connecting points of equal depth, oceanographers have found that;
-the floor of the ocean has features like land-form features, which is the undersea mountains, ridges
and other masses.

Contour Maps
 Use colors to represent different elevations
 Features above sea level are positive numbers
 Features below sea level are negative numbers

Three-Dimensional Maps
 The most realistic maps are contour
 Use shades of blue to show changes in depth
 Maps and three-dimensional raised relief maps.
 Both use colors and shades to convey information about features
 Landform models can also be sculpted to show the effects of erosion, etc.
Lesson II- Getting our Bearing

Latitude and Longitude

 Lines of latitude and longitude are imaginary lines that encircle the Earth in either an East- West
direction or in a North-South direction.
 Together they form a grid which can be used to identify locations on the Earth’s surface.
 When using these lines to find a location the coordinates are always given latitude first and then
longitude.

Latitude
 Is the name for a group of imaginary lines that run parallel to the equator
 The equator is the 0 degree line and splits the earth into two equal halves – northern and southern
hemispheres
 Each hemisphere is divided into 90 degrees, from the equator to the pole
 Line of the latituted get as they get further north becxause the distance around the earth decreases
 At the pole the latitude is 90 degree and the circular distance is 0km, each pole being just a single
point.
One degree of latitude is divided into 60 minutes (‘). One minute of latitute is equals to one neutical miles,
which is equal to 1.15 land miles (1.85km). each minute of latitude id further divided into 60 second (“). So
trsditionally positions have been expressed as degrees/minutes/ seconds. E.g 360 15’32” N. however, with
modern digital technology, positions are increasingly expressed as decimals, such as 360 15.25 N, or
36.25970N. A line of equal latitud are always the same distance apart, and so they are called Parallel of
latitude.
Latidude of point on the earths surface is determined by the angle between the point and the equators,
passing through earth center (Peter Mecator).
 In early mariners used an instrument called an astrolabe to calculate the angle. Later the sextant was
devepoled.

Longitude
 Line of Longitude run north-south around the planets
 They begin at the prime meridian and split the earth east and west hemispheres
 There are 180 degrees in each hemisphere
 When locating a point in the eastern hemisphere the longitude is given as (X) degree E.
 For the point in the western hemisphere the longitude would be (x0 Degree w
 All line of longitude are the same length
 There is only one important line of longitude other than prime meridian
 An international dated line
Measures the distance east or west of an reference point, the prime meridian (00), which defined
as line passing through Greenwich, England (although throughout history the prime meridian has also
been located in Rome, Paris, Philadelphia, the canary islands and Jerusalem. And also a line of
longitude are called meridians of longitudes or great circles.
 Measuring longitude requires accurate time at your current location, and also the time at
some distant point like a home point at the same distant. Because the earth takes 24 hours for a
complete 3600 rotations. So in one hour, the earth rotates 1/24 of 3600 or 150.
Today we use GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to determine latitude and longitude,
and even the smallest smart phones and smarts watches can use GPS to calculate position. PS works
through a system of orbiting satellites that constantly emit signals containing the time and their position.

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE FINDING LOCATION

 To use latitude and longitude to find a location you simply follow the line until they meet at the point
you are looking for
 Not all point are located neatly at the points where the lines intersect
 To find locations between the point each degree is split into 60 smaller section called minute
 The coordinated and the mean that the village is located 43 degrees and 59 minutes north of the
equator and 78 degrees and 36 minutes west of the prime meridian
 If you are using a GPS device there will be an additional set of the number for each coordinate called
seconds.
 Second subdivided the minutes into even smaller section and provide additional accuracy.

MEASUREMENT OF SPEED AND HUMIDITY

 Speed – (Linear –is the speed with which the body moves in the linear path…Speed is the Scalar
quantity.
 It is how fast an object is moving
 It doesn’t have a direction
 Units for linear speed-the SI unit for speed are m/s (meter per second) in everyday usage, kilometer per
hours or miles per hour are the common units of speed. At sea, knot or nautical miles per hour is
common speed
 Rotational Speed- Rotational speed or angular speed is the number of revolution over a unit of time for
an object travelling in a circular path.
 The angular speed of a rotating objective usually expressed in radiant per second (rad/s) or revolution
per minutes (rpm)