Exam 11: The Ocean Floor

Because the steep sided submarine canyons extend to depths far below the lowest sea level during the last ice age, we cannot attribute their origin to erosion as in exposed stream channels.

Oceanic ridges are lower than the surrounding ocean floor due to the warm, less dense oceanic crust found along the ridges.

Which one of the following would most likely be covered with thick turbidite layers?

Due to the advances in deep-towed echo sounders, we have now mapped the Earth's seabeds more accurately than the Magellan spacecraft was able to map the surface topography of Venus by radar imagery.

Where in the oceans are biologic communities thriving without sunlight?

________ are underlain by about 500 metres of pelagic sediments and turbidites covering tilted and faulted blocks of basalt and gabbro.

Submarine canyons form the deepest parts of the ocean basins.

Why is the newly formed mid-ocean ridge system typically so elevated compared to the older seafloor?

If your ship is out in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean on the edge of the abyssal plain south of the Aleutian trench, how deep is the seabed if it took 6 seconds to get a bottom return from your 3500 kilohertz echo sounder? Use the equation: depth (m)= 0.5 * (1500 m/s * total 2-way travel time in sec)

The chaotic accumulation of deformed sediments and tectonic slices of oceanic crust plastered onto the edge of a continent is called ________.

Valleys that lead from the continental shelf into deeper waters are known as ________.

As a result of the 1831 expedition of the H.M.S.Beagle, ________ proposed the correct theory of how atolls formed.

Name three prominent, landforms found on the floor of the ocean basins.

How do guyots form?

________ contain shallow marine platforms with gentle seaward slopes averaging 0.1°.

How deep is the deepest portion of the ocean floor and what are these regions called?

Which ocean floor sediment type includes calcareous ooze?

How broad an area of seafloor was covered by the 1929 Grand Banks turbidite deposit?

________ consists of diatom and radiolarian remains.

Seamounts ________.