The sheer size of this area, coupled with the challenges of descending to depths where water pressure can reach 600 atmospheres, makes exploration difficult-but by no means impossible. The bottom at these depths accounts for about one-third of the planet’s seafloor. It’s also abundant in minerals frequently used in manufacturing. ![]() The abyss is largely unexplored, but we know it contains animals found nowhere else on earth. When these eruptions persist long enough, mounts continue to grow, extending beyond the abyss into shallower waters, even creating volcanic islands when they break the water’s surface. Repeated eruptions build ever-taller undersea mountains. Sea mounts, individual underwater volcanoes, form when a magma from a hot spot in the mantle below pushes its way up through the crust. Ridges are areas where new oceanic crust is formed by volcanic activity and two plates are moving apart. Trenches occur where one tectonic plate is subducted under another. These features are the result of geologic activity. The seafloor itself consists of large plains broken by trenches, sea mounts, and oceanic ridges. ![]() Sunlight doesn’t penetrate to these depths, so the waters here are extremely dark, and the animals that live here often use bioluminescence to communicate. The seafloor and water column from 3,000 to 6,500 meters (9,842 to 21,325 feet) depth is known as the abyssal zone, or the abyss.
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