Map Of The Ocean Floor Features

An international scientific team recently published a new map of the ocean floor based on earth s gravity field and it is a particularly useful tool.

Map of the ocean floor features.

The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. Northwest passage northern sea route. 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. Topographic maps of the sea floor.

This is expensive and time consuming so sonar maps are mostly only made of places where ships spend the most time. 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. 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. In recent years the polar ice pack has thinned allowing for increased navigation through these routes and raising the possibility of future. Map showing the geographic extent of the arctic ocean as a darker blue tint. Typically finely wrought ocean maps have been the result of extensive sonar.

The northwest passage and northern sea route are two important seasonal waterways that connect the atlantic and pacific oceans. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level.