Oceanography

An Invitation to Marine Science,

Tom Garrison

Chapter 4:
Ocean Basins
 Topics to be Discussed

 The Ocean Floor Is Mapped by Bathymetry

 Ocean-Floor Topography Varies with Location
 Continental Margins May Be Active or Passive
 The Topology of Deep-Ocean Basins Differs from That of Continental Margin
 The Grand Tour
 Chapter 4
Main Concepts
 Tectonics forces shape the seabed.
 The ocean floor is divided into continental margins and deep-ocean basins. The
continental margins are seaward extensions of the adjacent continents and are
usually underlain by granite; the deep seabeds have different features and are
usually underlain by basalt.
 Continental margins may be active (earthquakes, volcanoes) or passive,
depending on the local sense of plate movement.
 The mid-ocean ridge system is perhaps Earth’s most prominent feature. Most of
the water of the world ocean circulates through hot oceanic crust in the ridges
about every 10 million years.
 Using remote sensing methods, oceanographers have mapped the world ocean
floor in surprising detail.
The Ocean Floor Is Mapped by
Bathymetry
The discovery and study of
ocean floor contours is called
Bathymetry.

An illustration from the Challenger

Report (1880): Seamen handling the
steam winch aboard HMS Challenger
used to lower a weight on the end of a
line to the seabed to find ocean depth.
 The Ocean Floor Is Mapped by
Bathymetry
• How did early scientists study the ocean floor?
• Early bathymetric studies were often performed using a
weighted line to measure the depth of the ocean floor.
• Advances in Bathymetry
– Echo sounding
– Multi-beam Systems
– Satellite Altimetry
Echo Sounders Bounce Sound off
the Seabed

Echo sounding is a method of

measuring seafloor depth using
powerful sound pulses.
The pulses of sound energy, or
“pings,” from the sounder spread out
in a narrow cone as they travel from
the ship.
When depth is great, the sounds
reflect from a large area of seabed.
Because the first sound of the
returning echo is used to sense depth,
measurements over deep depressions
are often inaccurate.
Beam of sound waves
travels to bottom and
is reflected back to ship

T
—
Depth = V 2( )

Stepped Art
Figure 4-2a p115
 Multi-beam Systems Combine
Many Echo Sounders

Multi-beam systems provide

more accurate measurements
than echo sounders. Multi-
beam systems collect data from
up to 121 beams to measure the
contours of the ocean floor.
 Satellites Can Be Used to Map
Seabed Contours
Satellite altimetry measures the sea surface height from orbit. Satellites can
bounce 1,000 pulses of radar energy off the ocean surface every second.

With satellite altimetry, sea surface levels can be

measured more accurately because the precise
position of the satellite can be calculated.
Distortion of the sea surface above a seabed
feature occurs when the extra gravitational
attraction of the feature “pulls” water toward it,
forming a mound of water over itself.

Geosat, a U.S. Navy satellite operated from 1985 through

1990, provided measurements of sea surface height from
orbit. Height accuracy was within 0.03 meters (1 inch)!
Ocean-Floor Topography Varies
with Location
Cross section of the Atlantic
ocean basin and the
continental United States,
showing the range of
elevations. The vertical
exaggeration is 100:1.

Although ocean depth is

clearly greater than the
average height of the
continent, the general range
of contours is similar.
 Ocean-Floor Topography Varies
with Location

This graph shows the distribution of elevations and depths on Earth. It is not a land-to-sea profile of
Earth, but rather a plot of the area of Earth’s surface above any given elevation or depth below sea
level.

Note that more than half of Earth’s solid surface is at least 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) below sea
level. The average depth of the ocean (12,430 feet) is much greater than the average elevation of
the continents (2,760 feet).
 Ocean-Floor Topography Varies
with Location
There are two primary classifications of ocean floor
• Continental Margins = the submerged outer edge of a
continent
• Ocean Basin = the deep seafloor beyond the continental
margin
Ocean-Floor Topography Varies
with Location

Features of Earth’s solid

surface shown as percentages
of the earth’s total surface.
Continental Margins May
Be
Active or Passive

There are two types of continental margins

• Passive margins face the edges of diverging tectonic plates. Very little volcanic or earthquake
activity is associated with passive margins.
• Active margins are located near the edges of converging plates. Active margins are the site of
volcanic and earthquake activity.
Continental Margins May
Be
Active or Passive
Components of Continental margins:

• Continental shelf – the shallow, submerged edge of the

continent.
• Continental slope – the transition between the continental
shelf and the deep-ocean floor.
• Shelf break – the abrupt transition from continental shelf to
the continental slope.
• Continental rise – accumulated sediment found at the base
of the continental slope.
Continental Margins May
Be
Active or Passive

(a) Vertical exaggeration 50:1 (b) No vertical exaggeration

 Submarine Canyons

Submarine canyons are a feature of some continental margins. They cut into the
continental shelf and slope, often terminating on the deep-sea floor in a fan-shaped
wedge of sediment.
 Submarine Canyons

Turbidity currents,
occur when turbulence
mixes sediments into
water above a sloping
bottom.

Most geologists believe

that the canyons have
been formed by abrasive
turbidity currents
plunging down the
canyons.
(ABOVE) A turbidity current flowing down a
submerged slope off the island of Jamaica. The
propeller of a submarine caused the turbidity
current by disturbing sediment along the slope.
The Topology of Deep-Ocean Basins Differs from
That of the Continental Margin

Features of the deep-ocean floor

• Oceanic Ridges
• Hydrothermal Vents
• Abyssal Plains and Abyssal Hills
• Seamounts and Guyots
• Trenches and Island Arcs
Oceanic Ridges Circle the World

An oceanic ridge is a mountainous chain of young, basaltic rock at an active spreading center of an ocean. If the ocean evaporated, the ridge system
would be Earth’s most remarkable and obvious feature.

The thickness of the red lines indicate the rate of spreading for some of the most rapidly spreading sections, and the numbers give spreading rates in
centimeters per year. The East Pacific Rise typically spreads about six times faster than the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Oceanic Ridges Circle the World

Hand-drawn map of a portion of the Atlantic Ocean floor showing some major oceanic
features: mid-ocean ridge, transform faults, fracture zones, submarine canyons, seamounts,
continental rises, trenches, and abyssal plains. The map is vertically exaggerated.
Oceanic Ridges Circle the World

Transform faults and fracture zones along an oceanic ridge

Because the ocean floor cannot expand evenly on the surface of a sphere, plate
divergence on the spherical Earth can only be irregular and asymmetrical, and
transform faults and fracture zones result.
Hydrothermal Vents Are Hot Springs on
Active Oceanic Ridges

Hydrothermal vents are sites where superheated water containing dissolved minerals
and gases escapes through fissures, or vents. Cool water (blue arrows) is heated as it
descends toward the hot magma chamber, leaching sulfur, iron, copper, zinc, and other
materials from the surrounding rocks. The heated water (red arrows) returning to the
surface carries these elements upward, discharging them at hydrothermal springs on the
seafloor.
Abyssal Plains and Abyssal
Hills Cover Most of Earth’s
Surface

Abyssal plains are flat areas of sediment-covered ocean floor

found between the continental margins and oceanic ridges.
Abyssal hills are small, extinct volcanoes or rock intrusions near
the oceanic ridges.

(ABOVE) The deep, smooth sediments of the Atlantic’s Northern Madeira Abyssal Plain bury
100- million-year-old mountains. Note the one lonesome seamount emerging from the muck. This
image was generated by a powerful echo sounder.
Volcanic Seamounts and Guyots Project
above the Seabed

Seamounts are volcanic projections from the ocean floor that do

not rise above sea level. Flat-topped seamounts eroded by wave
action are called guyots.
Trenches and Island Arcs Form in
Subduction Zones
Trenches are arc-shaped depressions in the ocean floor caused by the
subduction of a converging ocean plate. Most trenches are around the edges of
the active Pacific. Trenches are the deepest places in Earth’s crust.
Trenches and Island Arcs Form in
Subduction Zones
The Mariana Trench

(a) Comparing the Challenger

Deep and Mount Everest
at the same scale shows
that the deepest part of
the Mariana Trench is
about 20% deeper than
the mountain is high.

(b) The Mariana Trench

shown without vertical
exaggeration.
Chapter 4 in Perspective
In this chapter you learned how difficult it has been to discover the shape of the
seabed. Even today, the surface contours of Mars are better known than those of our
ocean floor.

We now know that seafloor features result from a combination of tectonic activity and
the processes of erosion and deposition. The ocean floor can be divided into two regions:
continental margins and deep-ocean basins.

The continental margin, the relatively shallow ocean floor nearest the shore, consists of
the continental shelf and the continental slope. The continental margin shares the
structure of the adjacent continents, but the deep ocean floor away from land has a much
different origin and history.

Prominent features of the deep ocean basins include rugged oceanic ridges, flat abyssal
plains, occasional deep trenches, and curving chains of volcanic islands. The processes
of plate tectonics, erosion, and sediment deposition have shaped the continental margins
and ocean basins.