Earth Science 101

1. Describe the bathymetry of the ocean seafloor and how the features relate to plate tectonics.

The term bathymetry referred to the ocean’s depth relative to sea level, or the depths and shapes of underwater terrain.

In the same way that topographic maps represent the three-dimensional features of overland terrain, bathymetric maps illustrate the land that lies underwater. Variations in sea-floor relief may be depicted by color and contour lines called depth contours or isobaths.

The ocean floor is not just a vast expanse of flat rock and sand covered with water. In fact, bathymetric features rising from the ocean floor are just as dynamic and diverse as the topography on land. The ocean has mountain ranges, volcanoes, trenches, canyons, and a host of other complex three-dimensional structures.

Just as there are three-dimensional structures and features on the seafloor, there are three-dimensional features in the water column as well. Seafloor bathymetry, along with the Earth’s rotation, winds, and several other factors determine the directions of ocean currents. 

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large-scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The model builds on the concepts of continental drift. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along these plates.

2. The strongest part of an ocean transform fault is in the middle, capable of having the largest earthquakes. What is happening on either side of the transform fault?

Places where plates slide past each other are called transform boundaries. Since the plates on either side of a transform boundary are merely sliding past each other and not tearing or crunching each other, transform boundaries lack the spectacular features found at other types of boundaries. Instead, transform boundaries are marked in some places by valleys along the boundary where rock has been ground up by the sliding. In other places, transform boundaries...