Seamounts Are Deep Cuts In The Ocean Floor

Details of the seamount survey are published in the journal deep sea research part 1.

Seamounts are deep cuts in the ocean floor. The rest of the ocean floor varies in depth. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. The deepest part of the ocean floor is the marianas trench near the philippines in the pacific ocean.

Smaller submarine volcanoes are called sea knolls and flat topped seamounts are called guyots. They are distinct from the plate boundary volcanic system of the mid ocean ridges because seamounts tend to be circular or conical. The ocean floors contain dramatic landscapes volcanic ridges.

It is almost seven miles deep or about 35 000 feet. Seamount large submarine volcanic mountain rising at least 1 000 m 3 300 feet above the surrounding deep sea floor. Seamounts and knolls are important and little studied habitats for marine life say the survey s scientists.

About 15 000 seamounts ocean floor volcanoes too short to breach the sea surface have been revealed in a new topographic map of the earth s oceans. They are defined by oceanographers as independent. The deepest part of the ocean floor is the marianas trench near the philippines in the pacific ocean.

Great meteor tablemount in the northeast atlantic standing more than 4 000 m 13 120 feet above the surrounding terrain with a basal diameter of up to 110 km 70 miles. Some features like canyons and seamounts might look familiar while others such as hydrothermal vents and methane seeps are unique to the deep. Thanks to a new synthesis of seafloor topography released through google earth you can now see detailed views of deep ocean floor.

Seamounts alone make up a habitat equivalent in size to russia or all the world s tropical dry forest. A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor but that does not reach to the water s surface and thus is not an island islet or cliff rock seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the seafloor to 1 000 4 000 m 3 300 13 100 ft in height.