Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.
First map of the ocean floor.
Today we know more about the topography of the moon and mars than we do about our own planet s sea floor.
The publication of heezen and tharp s physiographic map of the north atlantic in 1957 was the first map of the sea floor that enabled the general public to begin to visualize what the ocean floor really looked like.
This is expensive and time consuming so sonar maps are mostly only made of places where ships spend the most time.
We ve come a long way in ocean exploration since the days of the hms challenger launched in 1858.
This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level.
The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.
These early maps based on hundreds of thousands of hand picked depths provided the context for the plate tectonics revolution.
Typically finely wrought ocean maps have been the result of extensive sonar.
Each consist of three sheets a base bathymetric map.
To complete a map of earth s ocean floor you ve got to take to the high seas by boat.
This product is intended to aid fishermen and those needing seafloor features and potential fishing grounds.