ocean floor features & creating bathymetric charts
DESCRIPTION
Ocean Floor Features & Creating Bathymetric Charts. Oceans cover 2/3 of the Earth ’ s surface. Arctic Ocean. Baltic Sea. Persian Gulf. Bay of Fundy. Atlantic Ocean. Pacific Ocean. Indian Ocean. Antarctic Ocean. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Ocean Floor Features&
Creating Bathymetric Charts
Arctic Ocean Baltic
Sea
Bay of Fundy
Persian Gulf
Atlantic Ocean
Pacific Ocean
Indian Ocean
Antarctic Ocean
Oceans cover 2/3 of the Earth’s surface.
Topography more varied with larger elevation changes than on the Earth’s continents.
Most Dramatic…• Mid-oceanic ridges• Trenches• Island arcs• Hot spots
How is the bathymetry determined?
Sonar: measuring the time sound waves take to return to ship
Known facts: •travel time to bottom and back•Speed of sound in sea water
The distance is determined by plugging these values into a simple formula
Geosat satellite• Launched in 1985• Orbits the Earth in
about 14 hours• The Earth rotates• Satellite map of the
Earth’s topography, 1.5 years
Satellite altimetry • Dips and bumps are due
to variations in gravitational force
• Sea surface copies the ocean floor surface
• Differences are measured using the time radar signals take to travel through the atmosphere, hit the ocean’s surface, and bounce back to the satellite
For every increase of 1000 meters on the seafloor, there is 1 meter increase in height of water.
Geosat image of the ocean floor
Bathymetric Chart of the Sea Floor
Physiographic Map of the Sea Floor
Bathymetry of Crater Lake• Depth from the surface• Lines of equal depth = contours• Contour Interval = every 100 ft• Tight contours = steep slopes• Wide contour spaces = flat
Creating your own Bathymetric Chart• Materials
– Covered model– 2 Bamboo
skewers– 2 rulers– 1 piece of graph
paper per person– Colored pencils
• Procedure– Mark N-S-E-W on the surface of the
model and on your graph paper– Use your rulers to measure out a point-
grid on the “sea-surface” and on your graph paper (3cm x 3cm is good)
– Mark centimeters on the bamboo skewers with 0 at the pointed end
– At the points you have chosen, poke the skewers through the blue paper (“sea-surface”)
– Note the depth from the skewers and record these on the graph paper
– Create a bathymetric chart by contouring the points. Use a countour interval of 1 cm.
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Continental marginsAtlantic Ocean: plate boundary is in the center of the
ocean basin, away from the continental margin
Passive margin: without a plate boundary
Active margin: contains a plate boundary