TOPIC: -

OCEAN FLOOR TOPOGRAPHY.

DR. SATYAPRIYA MAHATO

PAPER NAME: - OCENOGRAPHY

SUBJECT: - GEOGRAPHY (HONS.)
SEMESTER: - B.A. –IV
PAPER CODE: - (CCT 401)
UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY,
DR. SHYMA PRASAD MUKHERJEE UNIVERSITY,
RANCHI.
 OCEAN FLOOR TOPOGRAPHY.

INTRODUCTION: -

Seas and Oceans are blue beauties of the planet earth. Oceans are vast body
of saline water occupying the great depressions on the earth. They belong to the
hydrosphere and cover almost 97% of it. Oceans cover 361 million Sq.km of the
earth’s surface. The volume of water is 1.37 billion cubic km. They are extensive,
exhaustive and exploitable marine ecosystems. Very huge masses of water with
varied dimension exist as oceans. On-shore and off-shore marine ecosystems are
characterized by very distinct features with unique fauna and flora. They hold many
marine habitat and contain a lot of natural resources.

When we move towards the seashore, we may see the beaches with splashing tides
and dancing waves. There is a bluish water body seen as a straight flat plane denoting
the sea-level. Waves coming towards the land break while nearing towards the coast
and subsides while touching the beach. The coastline is the boundary between land
and ocean. The surface beneath the oceanic waters is characterized by a lot of relief
features. The structure, configuration and relief features of the oceans also vary from
each other.
All major oceans and seas vary in their sizes, shape, depth, areal extension and in all
other aspects like temperature, density, salinity and chemical composition. The
marine geological, chemical and biological information and data are very vast and
useful for studying and analyzing the oceans.
On the basis of Bathymetry and other studies, the morphology of Ocean basins includes:

1) Continental margins encompassing Continental shelf & Continental slope,

2) Deep ocean basins encompassing the Abyssal plains, abyssal hills,
ocean trenches, Mid- oceanic ridges and deep ocean floor.
OCEAN BASINS: -
Our earth is the only planet in the solar system which has water in abundance,
hence, it is often called a ‘watery Planet’. About 71 % of the earth’s surface
is covered by water. Oceans form a single, large, continuous body of water
encircling all the landmass of the earth. They account for four- fifth of the
Southern Hemisphere and three fifth of the Northern Hemisphere. They
contain 97.2 percent of the world’s total water.
There are four principal oceans in the world which are separated largely on
the basis of their geographical locations. These are the Pacific Ocean, the
Indian ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. All the other seas,
inland seas or the arms of the oceans, are counted within these four main
oceans.

Fig.1: The Oceans and their Percentage Share of the Planet’s total Ocean Area.

THE RELIEF OF THE OCEAN BASINS: -

The ocean water conceals a considerable variety of landscape very similar to its counterpart on
the continents. There are mountains, basins, plateaus, ridges, canyons and trenches beneath the
ocean water too. These relief features found on the ocean floor are called submarine relief. The
Ocean basins are broadly divided into four major sub-divisions. They are:

A. Continental shelf;
B. Continental slope;
C. Abyssal plains and
 D. The ocean deeps.

Fig. 2: The Relief of the Ocean Basins

CONTINENTAL SHELF: -
There is no clear or well-defined line separating oceans from continents. Infact, continents do
not end abruptly at shoreline. They slope seaward from the coast to a point where the slope
becomes very steep. The shallow submerged extension of continent is called the continental
shelf. The depth of this shallow sea water over the continental shelf ranges between 120 to 370
metres. The width of the continental shelf varies greatly ranging between a few kilometres to
more than 100 kilometres. This variation can be seen even in the context of Indian peninsula.
The continental shelf off the eastern coast of India is much wider than that of the western
coast. Similar variations are seen all over the world. Off the coast of West Europe, it extends
to 320 kilometres from the Cape of Land’s End. Off the coast of Florida, the shelf is 240
kilometres wide. They are much narrower or absent in some continents, particularly where fold
mountains run parallel or close to the coast as along the eastern Pacific Ocean. Most of the
continental shelves represent land which has been inundated by a rise in sea level. Many regard
their formation due to the erosional work of waves or due to the extension of land by the
deposition of river borne material on the off-shore terraces. Off the coast regions which were
once covered by ice sheets, they may have developed due to glacial deposits. The continental
shelves are of great importance to man. The shallow water over the shelf enables sunlight to
penetrate through the water to the bottom and encourages growth of microscopic plants and
animals called planktons. These planktons are the food for fishes. Continental shelves are the
source of fishes, mineral including sand and gravel. A large quantity of the world’s petroleum
and natural gas is obtained from these shelves. The Bombay High and the recent discovery of
petroleum in the Godavari basin are examples of on shore drilling on the continental shelf. Coral
reefs and lipoclastic materials are also common on continental shelves. One of the striking
features of the continental shelf is the presence of submarine canyons which extend to the
continental slope. These canyons are ‘steepsided valleys’ cut into the floor of the seas. They
are very similar to the gorges found on the continents. Godavari Canyon in front of the
Godavari river mouth is 502 metres deep.
 Fig.3: Submarine Canyon

One of the reasons for the formation of submarine canyon is underwater

landslide. The sediments collected on the continental shelves get
dislodged by a storm or an earthquake. The force of these moving
sediments erode the slopes as they come down and as a result submarine
canyons are carved out. The continental shelf is generally considered to be
territorial water extent of the nations to which it adjoins.

CONTINENTAL SLOPE: -
The continuously sloping portion of the continental margin, seaward of the continental
shelf and extending down to the deep sea floor of the abyssal plain, is known as continental
slope. It is characterized by gradients of 2.5 degrees. It extends between the depth of 180 to
3600 meters. In some places, for example, off the shore of Philippines, the continental slope
extends to a great depth. Continental slopes, mainly due to their steepness and increasing
distance from the land have very little deposits of sediments on them. Sea life is also far less
here than on the shelf.

Fig. 4: The Continental Shelf and Slope

Along the base of the continental slope is a deposit of sediments. This belt of sedimentary
deposits forms the continental rise. In some regions the rise is very narrow but in others it may
extend up to 600 km in width.

ABYSSAL PLAIN: -
Abyssal plains are extremely flat and featureless plains of the deep- ocean floor. In fact, the
abyssal plains are likely the most level areas on the earth. Abyssal plains covering a major portion
of ocean floor between the depth of 3000m to 6000m. They were once regarded as featureless
plains but modem devices have shown that they are as irregular as the continental plain or
surface. They have extensive submarine plateaus, hills, guyots and seamounts. The floor of the
abyssal plain is covered by sediments. The plains close to the continents are covered mostly by
sediments brought down from the land. But those seas which favour, an abundant growth of
organisms have a thick layer of sediments, formed from the remains of living things. These
sediments are called oozes. Some of the open seas do not support enough life to produce ooze
on the floor. They are covered with a type of sediment called red clay which is of volcanic origin
or made up of tiny particles brought by wind and rivers.
SUBMARINE RIDGES: -
The lofty mountain systems which exist on the continents is also represented beneath the ocean
waters. These oceanic mountains are known as submarine ridges. They are linear belts occurring
near the middle of the oceans and are also called mid-oceanic ridges. All the mid oceanic ridges
constitute a world-wide system which is interconnected from ocean to ocean. These ridges
are intersected by faults. The oceanic ridge is the site of frequent earthquakes. Volcanism is
common in ocean ridges and it produces many relief features. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the
largest continuous submerged mountain ridge which runs from north to south in the Atlantic-
Ocean. It is in the shape of S. At some places, the peaks, rise above the surface of water in the
form of islands. Many of the islands are volcanic in origin. The East Pacific Ridge and Carlsberg
Ridge are some of the important submarine ridges.

Fig .5: The World Wide System of Submarine Ridges and Trenches.

SEAMOUNTS AND GUYOTS: -

Scattered over the entire sea floor are thousands of submerged volcanoes with sharp tops called
seamounts. Sometimes they rise above the sea as isolated Islands. Hawaii and Tahiti Islands are
the exposed tops of volcanoes. Volcano rising above the ocean floor whose top has been
flattened by erosion and is covered by water is called guyot.
 Fig. 6: Seamounts and Guyots.
THE OCEAN DEEPS: -
The ocean deeps are the deepest part of the ocean. They are long, narrow, steep sided and flat-
floored depressions on the ocean floor. They are generally called submarine trenches. These
trenches are not always located in the middle of the ocean basins, as may be generally expected
but are situated very close or parallel to the continents bordered by fold mountains. They are
usually found adjacent to the areas of volcanic and earthquake activity. Great earthquakes and
tsunamis are born in them. They occur in all the major oceans. The Pacific Ocean has the largest
number of trenches. The Mariana Trench in ‘the Pacific Ocean is the deepest known part of the
oceans. This trench is so deep that if we place the highest mountain of the world - the Mt. Everest
in it, even this shall have a few kilometers of water above its summit.
MINOR RELIEF FEATURES: - Apart from the above four major relief features of the ocean
floor. Some minor but significant features are predominating in different parts of the oceans. These
are as follows: -
1. MIDOCENIC/ SUBMARINE RIDGE: -
Mid-ocean ridges are created by the upwelling of basaltic lava and lateral rifting of ocean
crust . They form a rift valley system that encircles the Earth along a total length of over
75,000 km . The mid-ocean spreading ridge covers the largest fraction of abyssal zone in the
Arctic Ocean, where it characterizes 4.76% of the area of abyssal zone, and it is absent from
the Mediterranean and Black Sea. The greatest area of mid-ocean ridges occurs in the South
Pacific Ocean where this feature type covers an area of 1,868,490 km2.The mid-ocean ridges
are the Earth’s largest volcanic system, accounting for more than 75% of all volcanic activity
on the planet. The heat from this volcanism is dispersed by hydrothermal circulation of
seawater. Hot seawater venting from the seafloor supports exotic benthic communities that
have evolved to survive by using the hydrogen sulphide dissolved in the hot fluid (discussed
further below). The mid-ocean ridges are flanked on either side by abyssal hills and
hilly abyssal plains .
 Fig. 7: Mid oceanic Ridge

2. SUBMARINE CANYONS: - These are deep valleys, some compo to the Grand Canyon
of the Colorado river. Ex.- Hudson canyon is the best lagoon submarine canyon in the
world.

3. ATTOL: - Attols are low island found in the tropical oceans consisting of coral reefs
surrounding a central depression. It may be a part of sea logon or sometimes enclosing a
body of fresh, or saline water.

4. ISLAND ARCS: -

Island arcs are curved chain of island arcs are curved chain of volcanic island. They are
generally convex towards the open sea. Due to this nature, they are called as Arcs. They
are hundreds and thousands of extinct volcanoes in the ocean floors. These regions are
seismically active zones. Island arcs are topographically and structurally continuous
features. These are formed when two oceanic plates converge and collide. The melting
of the descending plate rises upwards as an extended magma, to form the islands. Most
of these eruptions are unnoticed. In some localities, especially in islands, one can see
the impacts as mud volcanoes and hot springs. Various features found in the ocean
basins are not permanent. Some parts of the ocean may be closing due to plate
movements and some part may be expanding. This process of opening and closing of
the ocean basin is called as Wilson cycle.
CONCLUSION: -
Water is important for life on the earth. It is required for all life processes, such as, cell
growth, protein formation, photosynthesis and, absorption of material by plants and animals.
There are some living organisms, which can survive without air but none can survive without
water. All the water present on the earth makes up the hydrosphere. The water in its liquid state
as in rivers, lakes, wells, springs, seas and oceans; in its solid state, in the form of ice and snow,
though in its gaseous state the water vapour is a constituent of atmosphere yet it also forms a
part of the hydrosphere. Oceans are the largest water bodies in the hydrosphere. In this lesson
we will study about ocean basins, their relief, causes and effects of circulation of ocean waters
and importance of oceans for man.