Earth s deepest areas also make an appearance once all the water is taken away.
Ocean floor without water.
Three fifths of the earth s surface is under the ocean and the ocean floor is as rich in detail as the land surface with which we are familiar.
These sunken mountains are known as mid ocean ridges and form in the areas where tectonic plates butt heads.
Although they appear solid the composition of some ocean floor rocks is up to 15 percent water.
This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level.
The water molecules are actually stuck in the mineral structure of the rock wysession explained.
As scientists continue to find microbes deeper and deeper beneath the ocean floor they are beginning to suspect that the right combination of rocks and water might be enough to sustain life almost anywhere.
The deep ocean floor is a graveyard with much of it made up of the remains of microscopic sea creatures called phytoplankton which thrive in sunlit surface waters.
The deepest part of the earth s ocean the mariana trench is about 10 kilometers deep.
The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.
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This animation simulates a drop in sea level that gradually reveals this detail.
As the sea level drops the continental shelves appear immediately.
Life may have first emerged in pools of water swirling among rocks.
Oceans cover 71 of the earth s surface and contain 97 of the earth s water.
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.