Ocean Floor Facts
The ocean floor covers 70 of the earth s surface.
Ocean floor facts. On average oceanic crust is only 6 to 7km thick compared to 35 to 40km for con tinental crust. 44 facts about the ocean in no particular order earth is mostly water. Man has been searching for wonders that lay on the ocean floor for centuries. We know very little about the deep ocean floor and the life it holds due to the depth and the difficulties this creates for scientists.
Here are 15 crazy facts about the ocean floor. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. The ocean basins are characterized not only by lying in deep water the ocean floor averages about 4km below sea level but also by being underlain by a thin layer of crust. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.
There are many amazing and fun facts about the ocean floor you may not know. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. Sonar has revealed features such as seamounts submerged volcanic peaks which rise 1 000 m 3 300 ft from the sea floor and guyots flat topped seamounts. Three quarters of this planet is covered by water bodies with the biggests ones being the five oceans the atlantic pacific southern indian and arctic oceans.
The research ship directs sound waves at the bottom and charts the echoes that bounce back to create a detailed map.