Topography

Topography By: Nicole Giannuario

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Topography is the study or description of structures or features of an area. Ocean topography is the description of the structures and features of the ocean. In the early days of ocean topography, long ropes and other simpler devices were used. Modern ocean topography began to emerge in 1807. Oceanography advanced in 1843 when Sir James Clark performed the first sounding, or measurement, of the sea. This discovered evidence of the continental shelf break and slope through soundings. Topographical features form in a variety of different ways. The outer layers of    earth are always colliding and moving apart. These features include the continental shelf, continental slope, guyot, seamounts, trench, abyssal plain, mid-ocean ridge, and coral reefs, volcanic islands, and shorelines. These features were formed through plate tectonics. Many new islands are formed because of plate tectonics and ocean features. When molten lava is pushed through the surface over and over, this creates many islands. The Hawaiian Islands were formed this way. When two plates collide, move apart, or    slide beneath one another, plate tectonics is occurring. Rift valleys are created when lates move apart and the molten lava rises to the ocean floor. Trenches are created when two plates slide underneath each other. The continental shelf is land that extends from the shoreline to the continental slope. The continental slope is a steep slope that goes down until the ocean floor. Sea mounts are volcanic peaks that rise above the surface. Trenches are deep narrow depressions on the ocean floor. The Mid-Ocean Ridge is a spreading ridge at a divergent plate boundary. Ocean topography mainly is about the features of the underwater world. Our world above the sea is very similar. A few of the things that are similar are trenches, mid- ocean ridges, and abyssal plains. Trenches are like valleys; they are low deep depressions on the ground. Mid-Ocean ridges are like mountains; they are raised above the ground. Abyssal plains are like plains; they are flat areas of land. Sea mounts are like islands, and they are formed by volcanoes. These are just some of the many similarities that are between land and the underwater world. The ocean floor is like the land because it is land just full of water. The ocean and its features are just a reminder of how the ocean and the land are so similar, and that they have the same features.