The Hunt for Red October - HFRO

Making and Ocean Profile

Imagine you are the sonar crew working with the world famous oceanographer, Captain Jacques Yves Cousteau of the sailing ship Calypso. Your scientific mission is to chart the Atlantic sea floor along 39°N latitude. You set sail from Atlantic City, New Jersey and traverse the mighty ocean to your destination in Lisbon, Portugal. Along the way, you use your sophisticated sonar to probe the unseen depths below. You collect a wealth of data on the depth of the ocean floor, which is in the table on the next page. Now, you will use that data to create a graph and profile of the ocean bottom. Good luck, and may the seas be kind to you...

Set up Your Graph Paper

Take time to make sure that your graph paper is properly set up. A well-designed graph includes the following:

1. A title that identifies your data

2. An x-axis and a y-axis

3. Axis labels including metric units

4. Well-chosen number scales along each axis

Here are some questions to help design your graph:

1. What data and label go along the x-axis?

2. What data and label go along the y-axis?

3. If we are plotting depth below the ocean surface, where should we put zero on the y-axis?

Plot Your Data

Plot each point in the data table on your graph. Once all of the points are plotted, connect the points with straight lines. This will give you a profile of the changing depth of the ocean as you travel along 39°N latitude in the Atlantic Ocean from west to east.

Analyze Your Data

Research ocean floor features in your textbook, in the library, on the Internet, or from your class notes. On your graph, identify and label the following features: Continent, Continental Shelf, Continental Slope, Abyssal Plain, Mid-Ocean Ridge, Island, and Seamount. Note that this traverse does not cross any Trenches.

Answer the Following:

1. What ocean floor structure occurs between 0 and 160 km east of New Jersey?______________

2. What ocean floor structure occurs between 160 and 1050 km east of New Jersey?______

3. What ocean floor structure occurs between 1000 and 2000 km east of New Jersey?_____

4. What ocean floor structure occurs between 2000 and 3000 km east of New Jersey?_____

5. What is the scale of your x-axis? 1 unit =

6. What is the scale of your y-axis? 1 unit =

7. If you wanted to draw your profile to scale, the units and distances along both your x-axis and y-axis would have to be the same. Your profile as it is drawn now is exaggerated. To find the vertical exaggeration, divide your x-axis by your y-axis.

What is the exaggeration?_________________________________________________

8. If you drew your profile to scale, about how long a sheet of paper would you need?_________

Atlantic Ocean Profile Data along 39°N Latitude
Sonar Reading	Distance from New Jersey (km)	Depth to Ocean Floor (m)
1	0	0
2	160	165
3	200	1800
4	500	3500
5	800	4600
6	1050	5450
7	1450	5100
8	1800	5300
9	2000	5600
10	2300	4750
11	2400	3500
12	2600	3100
13	3000	4300
14	3200	3900
15	3450	3400
16	3550	2100
17	3600	1330
18	3700	1275
19	3950	1000
20	4000	0
21	4100	1800
22	4350	3650
23	4500	5100
24	5000	5000
25	5300	4200
26	5450	1800
27	5500	920
28	5600	180
29	5650	75
30	5700	0

Fill in the Blank Name:______________________________ Class: Date:

Fill in the blanks in these sentences with the word that fits.

1. _____________ is a sediment deposited by currents with the large rocks at the bottom and the fine material at the top.

2. Land deposits found in the deep sea are called______________________________________

3. The continental________________is a zone subdivided into shelf, slope, and rise.

4. The sinking of a broad area of crust without much change is___________________________

5. A unit of__________ equal to about 6 feet is fathom.

6. A trench is a narrow,________, ocean valley.

7 _____ _________ooze is produced from the accumulation of diatoms on the sea floor.

8. Soundings are depth____________ of the ocean basin.

9. Gently sloping zone bordering a continent is the ____________shelf.

10. The rounded, layered lumps found on the ocean floor; contains 20% _______with some iron, nickel, and copper.________________

11. A flat topped, submerged seamount is a ______________

12. The steep_______________angle from the shelf break to the abyssal plain.

13. A device that plunges a hollow tube into bottom sediments to remove a verticle sample is a ______________

14. A___________________volcanic peak of more than 1000m is a seamount.

15. An island arc is a chain of islands formed where plates_______________________

16. _________________ are hills of less than 1000m found on the abyssal plain.

17. A transform fault that is___________________ to a ridge or rise.

18. The flat ocean floor is the_____________________________

19.___________ is the transport of sediments such as rocks, sand, and gravel from land matter out to sea by wind, water, and ice.

20. The rise is a gentle slope formed by the_____________________ of sediments at the base of the slope.

Select your answers from the followinq words:

deposit continental measurements Rafting subsidence margin steep-sided abyssal plain Downward length Turbidite perpendicular guyot Abyssal hills pelagic sediments submarine Diatomaceous corer converge manganese

D = 1/2 T x V

Making and Ocean Profile