FEATURES OF THE OCEAN FLOOR

You would probably think that the ocean floor is flat, but it's actually a variety of shapes and sizes, like the continents shapes. Mountain ranges, valleys, flat plains, canyons and volcanoes are also included on the ocean floor. The Rocky Mountain, the Andes and the Himalayas are the longest mountains in the world. The ocean floor has two particular parts: the ocean basin and the continental margins. The ocean floor is built according to the lands shapes and sizes which is called the tectonic processes. The land of the Earth is made out of large rocks called tectonic plates. The two tectonic plates are called oceanic plates( rocks which are already under the ocean) and continental plates( rocks that are below the continents). Tectonic plates are rocks which are built up of the Earth. The rocks have extremely hot magma underneath them which causes them to separate. When the two rocks separate, the magma forms in between them which makes a mid-ocean ridge. One example of a mid ocean ridge is when the Atlantic Ocean was trying to separate North America and Europe. The mid-ocean ridges can reach up to more than 1000 km. When the continental plate and oceanic plate come together, the oceanic plate moves under the continental plate because the oceanic plate is denser than the continental plate. When the oceanic plate moves under the continental plate it is called subduction. When subduction happens, an ocean trench shapes into the land. An ocean trench is shaped like a v shaped line which separates the continental plate between the oceanic plate. The flat parts in the center of the mid-ocean ridge and the trenches are called abyssal plains.