Submarine Geomorphology - Sidescan Sonar

Abstract

Abstract Our knowledge of submarine geomorphology has developed over the past century or more as new technologies, in particular sonar, have been developed and deployed. The resulting geophysical views have revealed a seabed that is shaped by volcanic, tectonic, and sedimentary depositional and erosional processes, as is the surface of the Earth above sea level, but that shaping takes a different form in places. The following explores the morphology and origins of features from mid-ocean ridges, where the ocean floors were largely created, to seamounts, volcanic islands, continental slopes, and coastal seas and much in between.