Ocean Floor Features
The shallow, gently sloping part of the ocean floor that extends out from the edge of a continent.
What is the continental shelf?
The regular rise and fall of the ocean's waters, caused mostly by the gravitational pull of the moon.
What are tides?
Organisms like plants and algae that make their own food using sunlight.
What are producers?
The measure of the amount of dissolved salt in water
What is salinity?
True or False: The ocean covers more than 70% of the Earth's surface
True
The steep drop-off that connects the continental shelf to the deep ocean floor.
What is the continental slope?
Large streams of ocean water that move in a continuous path, like a river flowing through the ocean.
What are currents?
Animals that must eat other living things to get energy
What are consumers?
As you go deeper into the ocean, this property decreases drastically, leaving the deep ocean completely black
What is sunlight (or light)?
The ocean is a mix of water, gases, and dissolved Solids. This common kitchen ingredient is the most abundant dissolved solid in ocean water.
Salt
The vast, flat, and muddy area of the deep ocean floor.
What is the abyssal plain?
This movement of water is caused by wind blowing across the surface of the ocean.
What are waves
Microscopic, floating organisms that form the base of almost all ocean food webs.
What is plankton?
As you dive deeper into the ocean, this property increases because of the weight of the water pushing down on you.
What is water pressure
True or False: Plantlike organisms called phytoplankton produce a huge amount of the oxygen we breathe on Earth
True
Deep, narrow canyons in the ocean floor that are the deepest places on Earth
What is an ocean trench?
This famous, warm ocean current flows from the Gulf of Mexico up the east coast of the United States.
What is the Gulf Stream
Tiny consumers (like krill or small fish larvae) that float near the surface and eat phytoplankton.
zooplankton?
As you descend from the surface to the abyssal plain, the temperature of the water does this.
What is decreases (gets colder)?
This powerful underwater event can cause a massive, destructive wave called a tsunami.
Earthquakes
The pile of sediment and sand at the bottom of the continental slope that transitions into the abyssal plain.
What is the continental rise?
These two things are the main causes of deep ocean currents (hint: one makes water heavier, and the other relates to heat).
What are salinity (saltiness) and temperature
These organisms break down dead plants and animals on the ocean floor, returning nutrients to the ecosystem.
What are decomposers
Most marine life is found in this top layer of the ocean because it has the most sunlight and warmth
What is the sunlit (or photic) zone?
Unlike rivers, ocean water is a mixture of water and dissolved solids. Name the primary type of water found in the oceans.
Saltwater