1. Seafloor Features
Unit 3

2. Common Features of the Seafloor and Coastline
You need to know the definition of each of these terms as well as what they look like…

3. Abyssal Plain flat regions of the deep ocean floor
among the Earth's flattest and smoothest regions
the least explored
cover approximately 40% of the ocean floor
reach depths between 2,200 and 5,500 m (7,200 and 18,000 ft)

4. Alluvial Fan
A broad, sloping fan -shaped deposit of sediment at the mouth of a river or at the foot of a submarine canyon or a river canyon.
Often found at ground level where a mountain river meets a flat valley or plain.

5. Atoll A ring-shaped coral reef surrounding a lagoon
have low sand islands
rest on submerged volcanic islands

6. Bank
A navigable shallow area of the ocean caused either by elevation of the seafloor or by submergence of a landmass.

7. Bay An inlet of the sea An indentation in the shoreline
An area of water mostly surrounded or otherwise demarcated by land
generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea
due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds

8. Cape A large point or extension of land jutting into a body of water
may be a peninsula or a hook of land

9. Channel A deeper part of a river or harbor that is navigable
sometimes used to name a broad strait
English Channel

10. A very steep or overhanging land feature
Cliff
A very steep or overhanging land feature

11. Coast Where land meets the sea affected by marine waves and wind
(A strip of land bordering the sea)
affected by marine waves and wind

12. Continental Shelf
The land forming the shallow seafloor extending outward from the edges of a continent
Submerged part of a continent extending outward 15 km to 50 km to the continental slope

13. Continental Slope
The sloping front of a continental shelf; the place where the continent ends
long slopes
often 20 to 40 km wide or more
The bottom of the continental slope is the continental rise

14. Continental Rise
The area of the continental shelf between the continental slope and the deep seafloor where sediments from the continent accumulates

15. Delta An alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river
A landform that is created at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea or lake
formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river
Over long periods of time, this deposition builds the characteristic geographic pattern of a river delta

16. Estuary
A river mouth or channel, or the drowned seaward end of a valley where fresh water from land mixes with seawater
River flow in some estuaries continues across the continental shelf, carving out a submarine canyon.