Ocean Floor Vocabulary

A shallow underwater ledge found at the edge of a continent

• Continental Shelf
• Trenches
• Oceanic Ridge
• Continental Slope

A deep slope between a continental shelf and sea floor.

• Trench

• Continental Rise

• Continental Slope

• Guyot

Separates continental slope from the ocean bottom

• Continental Rise

• Mid-Ocean Ridge

An opening on the ocean floor where mineral rich water escapes.

• Hydrothermal Vent

• Rift Valley

A large flat area in the ocean floor

• Abyssal Plain

• Trench

An opening in the oceanic crust where magma escapes and makes a new crust. It can be a mile deeper than the surrounding ridge.

• Seamount

• Rift Valley

A wide ocean mountain range with steep valleys at the center found in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Mid-Ocean Ridge

• Guyot

Narrow channels more than two miles deep found along the margins of continents.

• Trench

• Abyssal Plain

Underwater mountain that number in the thousands and formed from volcanoes.

• Seamount

• Hydrothermal Vent

The flat topped underwater mountains.

• Continental Shelf

• Guyot