Ocean Floor Mapping Definition

From this mapping you d be able to see the canyons abysses and slopes of the ocean floor.

Ocean floor mapping definition. The process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor is seafloor spreading and the continental slope. He searched for treasure on the ocean bed continental shelf the. Ocean floor the bottom of a sea or ocean davy jones davy jones s locker ocean bottom sea bottom sea floor seabed abyssal zone the deep sea 2000 meters or more where there is no light bed bottom a depression forming the ground under a body of water. Plate tectonics and the ocean floor.

Ocean crust is the most dynamic part of the solid earth encompassing 70 of earth s surface area and has been formed entirely in the last 5 percent of. By the 1920s the coast and geodetic survey an ancestor of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration s national ocean service was using sonar to map deep water. The surface area of the earth as a whole is dominated by the ocean basins. That means that vast expanses of the ocean floor which covers roughly 70 percent of the planet remain virtually uncharted.

Landscape of the ocean floor these canyons abysses and slopes make up the landscape of the ocean floor. Swath bathymetric map of the bransfield strait antarctica showing subsea volcanic features. Switch to new thesaurus noun 1. The many uses of seafloor mapping for economic and strategic applications however as well as in engineering salvage and conservation operations offer plenty of reasons to keep pushing the boundaries.

The first modern breakthrough in sea floor mapping came with the use of underwater sound projectors called sonar which was first used in world war i. Bathymetry the shape of the ocean floor is largely a result of a process called plate tectonics the outer rocky layer of the earth includes about a dozen large sections called tectonic plates that are arranged like a spherical jig saw puzzle floating on top of the earth s hot flowing mantle. By conducting a multibeam sonar survey similar to a medical ultrasound scientists are able to image the sea bottom. Huge trenches walls flatlands and seamounts fill the seascape and have a direct impact on the water bodies above them.

In recent years satellite images show a very clear mapping of the seabed and are used extensively in the study and exploration of the ocean floor. The ocean s floor is as complex as it is deep.