![]() ![]() But despite their name, these “plains” are not uniformly flat. ![]() They are interrupted by features like hills, valleys, and seamounts (underwater mountains that are also hotspots for biodiversity). ![]() Rising up from the abyssal plain, you would encounter the mid-ocean ridge, an underwater mountain range, over 40,000 miles long, rising to an average depth of 8,000 feet. Tracing their way around the global ocean, this system of underwater volcanoes forms the longest mountain range on Earth. Ocean trenchesĪfter scaling the mid-ocean ridge and traversing hundreds to thousands of miles of abyssal plains, you might encounter an ocean trench. The Mariana Trench, for example, is the deepest place in the ocean at 36,201 feet.įinally, you would ascend tens of thousands of feet back up the continental slope and across the continental shelf. Your journey across an ocean basin would end on the shore of another continent.īathymetry, 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. ![]()
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