Map Of The Ocean Floor Features

Typically finely wrought ocean maps have been the result of extensive sonar.

Map of the ocean floor features.

Northwest passage northern sea route. Map showing the geographic extent of the arctic ocean as a darker blue tint. Topographic maps of the sea floor. In recent years the polar ice pack has thinned allowing for increased navigation through these routes and raising the possibility of future.

The northwest passage and northern sea route are two important seasonal waterways that connect the atlantic and pacific oceans. The under water topography maps have been developed by the study of ocean floor topography. Ocean floor topography involves the study of ocean bottom features including the outer continental shelf continental slopes and ocean waves desktops. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.

This is expensive and time consuming so sonar maps are mostly only made of places where ships spend the most time. This study is extensive and it has been established that the ocean floor has similar features of mountains and valleys as on the earth. Detailed depth contours provide the size shape and distribution of underwater features. Among the new features they re now able to detect sandwell says are thousands of previously unknown seamounts between 1000 and 2000 meters tall dotting the ocean floor.

The map serves as a tool for performing scientific engineering marine geophysical and environmental studies that are required in the development of energy and marine resources. The maps were created through computer analysis and modeling of new satellite data from esa s cryosat 2 and from the nasa cnes jason 1 as well as older data from missions flown in the 1980s and 90s.