What is the name of the volcanic rock that makes up the bottom of the oceans? This is basalt. It covers more than three hundred sixty million square kilometers of the area occupied by the reservoirs of our planet.
Bottom surface of the ocean
The relief that forms the volcanic rock that forms the bottom of the oceans is complex and heterogeneous. The bed of the World Ocean and the adjoining deep margins of the continents are directly distinguished.
The submarine margins, which are covered by volcanic rock, which composes the bottom of the oceans in the form of basalt, have an inextricable link with the surrounding continents.
Geologists distinguish the shelf zone , continental slopes and the mainland foot. Most often, ordinary people are faced with the shelf area. It is adjacent to land. Behind it is a volcanic rock that forms the bottom of the oceans.
Shelf
The maximum water depth in the shelf zone hardly exceeds two hundred meters. The relief of this area is characterized by a gentle slope, the angle of which is gradually increasing.
The surface pattern is influenced by previously flooded terraces, coastlines, riverbeds and reservoirs. The width of the shelf territory varies. It can be several hundred meters, and can reach tens of kilometers.
The maximum width of the shelf zone falls on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. A narrow shelf stretches off the coast of the Indian and Pacific Oceans in the region of the American continents.
Continental slope
The continental slope is a rather steep ledge, which can deepen to the level of three thousand meters. The continental foot resembles a plain having a wavy, inhomogeneous surface.
The width of this part of the bottom of the ocean reaches hundreds of kilometers, but the depth is limited to only three kilometers. As for the bed, it is almost completely lined with volcanic rock, which composes the bottom of the oceans and seas. It has a complex morphology. On its surface there are ridges and wastelands, volcanoes, islands and entire mountain ranges.
Deep water troughs
Sometimes underwater gutters are found at the bottom. Their maximum depth reaches six kilometers. Most often, they are parallel to the contours of the continents or repeat the bends of the continents. The largest number of such troughs is concentrated on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Mysterious Guyot
Guyot is another element of the bottom of the oceans. Guyotes are volcanic in nature and are flat mountains towering above the bottom plains.
At one time, such protrusions were located above the water level, but then went to the bottom. In total, there are more than ten thousand of the most diverse mountain peaks of volcanic origin on the surface of the ocean floor.