Seabed

The seabed (also sea floor, seafloor, or ocean floor) is the bottom of the ocean. The ocean floor has been explored by submarines and to some extent scuba divers.

Seabed Media

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  Common stingray foraging for invertebrates in seafloor sediment.

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  Bathymetry of the ocean floor showing the continental shelves and oceanic plateaus (red), the mid-ocean ridges (yellow-green) and the abyssal plains (blue to purple). Like land terrain, the ocean floor has mountains including volcanoes, ridges, valleys, and plains.
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  The major oceanic divisions

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  Total sediment thickness of the world's oceans and continental margins in meters.

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  Satellite image of wind-blown mineral dust over the Atlantic. Dust may become terrigenous sediment on the seabed.

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  Phytoplankton grow shells which later sink to the seabed to become biogenous sediments. For example, diatoms make silicate shells, which become siliceous ooze.

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  Hydrothermal vent fluids cause chemical reactions that precipitate out minerals that form sediments on the surrounding seafloor.

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  Sediment types from the Southern Ocean showing many different grain sizes: A) gravel and sand, B) gravel, C) bioturbated mud and sand, and D) laminated clays and silts.

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  World map with ocean topography

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  Layers of the pelagic zone

• A video describing the operation and use of an autonomous lander in deep sea research.