Ocean Floor Features

What is the ocean floor like?

• Flat and featureless

• Full of mountains and valleys

• Covered in sediment

• Similar to the surface of the moon

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

How do scientists gather information about the ocean floor?

• By traveling to the ocean floor in specialized vessels

• By using radio and infrared telescopes

• By reflecting sound waves off the bottom of the ocean

• By studying underwater volcanoes

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

What causes the topography of the ocean floor to change?

• Earthquakes

• Plate tectonics

• Underwater volcanoes

• Tsunamis

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-2

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

What is formed when two ocean plates move away from each other?

• A ridge

• A trench

• A seamount

• A hot spot

What is the Mariana Trench?

• A deep crack in the ocean floor

• A ridge formed by plate movement

• A volcano formed at a subduction zone

• The deepest part of the ocean

Where do hot spots occur?

• At divergent plate boundaries

• At subduction zones

• At the edge of the continental shelf

• In the middle of tectonic plates

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS2-3

What are seamounts?

• Underwater mountains formed by plate movement

• Flat regions of the ocean floor

• Volcanoes that form away from plate boundaries

• Underwater trenches formed by subduction

What is the continental shelf?

• A large flat region of the ocean floor

• The site of sediment build-up

• The portion of the continent underwater

• The beginning of the continental rise

What is the continental slope?

• A sudden increase in depth at the edge of the continental shelf

• A large flat region of the ocean floor

• The site of sediment build-up

• The beginning of the continental rise