Rylee Merwin_Ocean Floor Assignment
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EGEO 131 Oceanography
Name:
Rylee Merwin
Fall 2022
The Ocean Floor
Due to Dropbox on Wednesday Sept. 7
th
at 9 am
Physiographic Chart of the Seafloor
Part I.
Answer the following questions and upload your completed assignment without a
copy of your map to the Dropbox.
1.
Use the following to answer the following questions on oceanic ridges.
https://divediscover.whoi.edu/expeditions/
(found under deeper discover)
a.
Define mid ocean ridge and describe Earth processes that occur at a ridge.
You may use a well labeled sketch to describe processes if you prefer.
i.
A mid-ocean ridge is a continuous chain of volcanoes on the ocean
floor in which processes including lava eruptions and the
formation of the Earth’s crust occur. Almost every day at some
point along the mid-ocean ridge, the eruption of lava or intrusion
of magma that forms the ocean crust is likely to occur.
b.
Does life exist here and if so, what type?
i.
Yes, some life does exist here. Examples include Zoarcid Fish,
Tube Worms and Anemone.
c.
Do oceanic ridges spread apart at the same rate?
Where in the world is
spreading the fastest and slowest?
i.
They do not spread apart at the same rate. They have different
shapes (morphology) that depend on the speed at which they
spread, how active they are magmatically and volcanically and
how much tectonic stretching and faulting is taking place. Faster
spreading ridges occur at the northern and southern East Pacific
Rise. Slower spreading occurs at the northern Mid-Atlantic ridge.
d.
How fast is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge spreading rate?
i.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge spreading rate is about 2 to 5 cm per year.
2.
Use the following map to answer the following questions.
https://ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images/g01167-pos-a0001.pdf
a.
Describe where the oldest rocks on the seafloor are found? What is the
name of the ocean basin and where in that basin?
i.
The oldest rocks on the seafloor look to be found off the left of the
Pacific Plate and by the Philippine Plate. There also appears to be
some found on the edges of the South American Plate. The name
of the ocean basin with the oldest rocks is the Pacific and it
extends from the Antarctic region in the south to the Artic in the
north.
b.
Describe where the youngest rocks on the seafloor are found? What is the
name of the ocean basin and where in that basin?
i.
The youngest rocks on the seafloor look to be found in lines
cutting through the middle of the ocean between South America
and Africa, between South America and Australia and between
Southern Africa and Australia. The name of the ocean basin is the
Atlantic Ocean, but there are also some younger ones in the Indian
Ocean as well. The youngest rocks on the seafloor are located at
the mid-ocean ridges within the ocean such as the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge.
3.
Use the following to answer the following question.
http://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/trenches
a.
What are oceanic trenches and how are they formed?
i.
Ocean trenches are steep depressions in the deepest parts of the
ocean where old ocean crust from one tectonic plate is pushed
beneath another plate, creating mountains. They are formed by
subduction.
b.
What is the name of the deepest trench?
i.
The Mariana Trench which is home to the Challenger Deep (at
10,911 meters).
Part II. “
Touring the Ocean Bottom
” (runtime 1:34 minutes):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxFazy_vDhE
1.
Within the first 25 seconds of the video, a profile or cross-section of the Atlantic Ocean is shown.
The image below shows a similar profile view. Use the information from the video to label
diagram (a) with the following features: continental shelf, continental slope, abyssal plain, mid-
ocean ridge, seamount
.
Key:
Continental Shelf – A
Abyssal Plain – C
Continental Slope – B
Mid-Ocean Ridge – D
Seamount - E
E
D
B
C
A
E
D
C
A
B
2.
The video tour traces the mid-ocean ridge system from the Atlantic Ocean through the
world’s ocean basins. The total length of the mid-ocean ridge system shown is
6
kilometers
.
3.
The RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg in April 1912, sinking to a watery
grave that was not located until 1985. The Titanic rests at a depth of
3.8 km,
sitting at the base of what oceanic feature?
4.
Watch the video on the Mariana Trench
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ZbnFIpyisq4
and answer the
following questions.
a.
Name one species that was discovered to live in the deep oceans at the
Mariana Trench.
a.
The Anglerfish.
b.
What was the name of the first manned mission to the deepest part of the
ocean and in what year did they complete this mission?
a.
1960 – the men descended in a naval bathyscape named the “Trieste”.
c.
What is one interesting fact that you learned about the deep oceans after
watching this video?
a.
I found it interesting that if Mount Everest were to be planted inside of
the Mariana Trench, its peak would still be more than a mile under the
water. Being that the depth of the deepest parts of the oceans is
unfathomable and hard to imagine, the comparison of Mount Everest
to it blew my mind! I did not imagine it to be that deep.
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