The relief of the bottom of the oceans interests manyresearchers taking into account the fact that this aspect is still not fully understood. In any case, there are secrets and inexplicable from the point of view of science phenomena, which the Pacific Ocean hides in itself. The relief of the bottom of this part of the World Ocean is of great interest to scientists from all over the world, therefore, studies of a similar topic are conducted with an enviable frequency. It was scientific expeditions studying the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that obtained results that at one time completely changed the human idea not only about the very bottom, but also about the geological structure of the Earth in general.
Ocean platforms
Peculiarities of the relief of the bottom of the Pacific Ocean surprise many researchers. But if you talk in order, you should start with the concept of "oceanic platforms."
"Ring of Fire"
What is the so-called"Ring of fire"? In fact, the Pacific Ocean is in its very center, and it is precisely by this that it is significantly different from its relatives. For your information, approximately 600 volcanoes are currently registered on land, but 418 of them are on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
There are volcanoes that do not stop their turbulentactivities even in our time. This applies primarily to the famous Fuji, as well as Klyuchevskaya Sopka. There are volcanoes, which for a sufficiently long period remain visible calm, but at one moment can suddenly turn into fire-breathing monsters. For example, this refers to a volcano like Bandai-San in Japan. As a result of his awakening, several villages suffered.
Scientists even registered a volcano at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Awakened volcanoes "ring of fire"
In addition to the famous and famous around the worldBandai-San Awakened Volcano, many more such incidents have been reported. For example, the Nameless volcano located in one of the regions of Kamchatka in the 1950s declared itself to the whole world. When he woke up from centuries of sleep, seismologists could register about 150-200 earthquakes per day.
Its eruption has shocked manyResearchers, some of them in the future could state with confidence that this was one of the most violent volcanic paroxysms of the last century. The only thing that pleases is the absence of settlements and people in the area of the eruption.
And here is another "monster" - the Ruiz volcano in Colombia. His awakening killed more than 20 thousand people.
Hawaiian Islands
In fact, what we see is totalonly the tip of the iceberg that hides the Pacific Ocean. Its relief features consist mainly in the fact that a sufficiently long chain of volcanoes stretches along the center. And it is the Hawaiian Islands that are the top of the underwater Hawaiian Range, which is considered a large volcanic cluster with a length of more than 2000 kilometers.
The Hawaiian range stretches right up to the Midoll Atolls, as well as Kure, which are located in the north-west.
Hawaii themselves consist of five actingclosed volcanoes, the height of some of them may exceed four kilometers. This applies primarily to the volcanoes of Mauna Kea, as well as Mauna Loa. The most interesting thing is that if you measure the height of the Maun Loa volcano from the very foot, which is located on the ocean floor, it turns out that its height is more than ten kilometers.
Pacific Cavity
The most entertaining ocean, as well as hiding many secrets, is the Pacific Ocean. The relief of the bottom surprises with its diversity and is a ground for reflection for many learned minds.
To a greater extent this concerns the trough of the Pacificocean, which has a depth of up to 4300 meters, with such formations are the most remarkable element for scientific research. The most famous around the world - Challenger, Galatea, Emden, Cape Johnson, Planet, Snellius, Tuscarora, Ramalo. For example, the Challenger has a depth of 11 thousand 33 meters, Galatea is already following him with its depth of 10 thousand 539 meters. The depth of Emden is 10 thousand 399 meters, while Cape Johnson has a depth of 10 thousand 497 meters. The Tuscarora depression with its maximum along the entire length of 8 thousand 513 meters in depth is considered the most “shallow”.
Seamounts
If you are ever asked to:“Describe the relief of the bottom of the Pacific Ocean,” you can immediately start talking about seamounts, because this is something that will immediately interest your interlocutor. At the bottom of this wonderful ocean there are many seamounts, which are called “guyots”. They are characterized by their flat tops, and at the same time they can be at a depth of approximately 1.5 kilometers, and then, perhaps, much deeper.
The main theory of scientists says thatseamounts were active volcanoes that rose above sea level. In the future, they were blurred and were under water. By the way, the latter fact is alarming for researchers, because it may also indicate that earlier this part of the cortex had experienced a kind of “sagging”.
Bed of the Pacific
Earlier in this direction manyresearch, was sent a lot of scientific expeditions in order to better consider the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Photos indicate that the bed of this amazing ocean is predominantly composed of red clay. To a lesser extent can be found at the bottom of the blue silt or crushed fragments of coral.
It is noteworthy that large areas of the bottom of the Pacificoceans are often also covered with diatom, globigerin, radiolarium, and pteropod sludge. Another interesting fact is that in various bottom sediments one can quite often meet shark teeth or manganese nodules.
General data on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean
On the formation of the bottom of the Pacific haveexposure factors such as exogenous as well as endogenous. The latter are internal and tectonic - they appear in the form of various underwater earthquakes, the slow movement of the earth's crust, and volcanic eruptions. This is what makes the Pacific Ocean interesting. The bottom relief is constantly changing due to the presence of a huge number of volcanoes both on its coast and deep under water. Exogenous factors include various currents, waves of the sea, and turbid flows. Such flows are characterized by the fact that they are saturated with solid particles that do not dissolve in water, which at the same time move with great speed and along a slope. Also significantly changes the relief of the bottom and the vital activity of marine organisms.
Many scientists are very interested in the Pacific Ocean.The bottom relief is conventionally divided into several forms. Namely: the underwater margin of the continents, the transition zone, the ocean floor, as well as the mid-ocean ridges. Of 73 million square meters. km 10% of the submarine falls exactly on the Pacific Ocean.
Mainland slope is a part of the bottom,which has a slope of 3 or 6 degrees, and also it is located at the outer edge of the submarine shelf. It is noteworthy that off the coast of volcanic or coral islands, on which the Pacific Ocean is rich, the slope can reach 40 or 50 degrees.
The transition zone is characterized by the presence of secondaryforms that will be arranged in a strict order. Namely - at first, the basin of the marginal sea adjoins the continental foot, and from the ocean it will be limited by the steep slopes of mountain ranges. This is quite typical for the Japanese, East China, Mariana, Aleutian transition zones, which are located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean.
