OCEAN FLOOR

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ocean floor mean? 

• OCEAN FLOOR (noun)
  The noun OCEAN FLOOR has 1 sense:

1. the bottom of a sea or ocean

  Familiarity information: OCEAN FLOOR used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OCEAN FLOOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The bottom of a sea or ocean

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

Davy Jones; Davy Jones's locker; ocean bottom; ocean floor; sea bottom; sea floor; seabed

Hypernyms ("ocean floor" is a kind of...):

bed; bottom (a depression forming the ground under a body of water)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ocean floor"):

abyssal zone (the deep sea (2000 meters or more) where there is no light)

continental shelf (the relatively shallow (up to 200 meters) seabed surrounding a continent)

bathyal district; bathyal zone; continental slope (the steep descent of the seabed from the continental shelf to the abyssal zone)

neritic zone (the ocean waters from the low tide mark to a depth of about 100 fathoms)

twilight zone (the lowest level of the ocean to which light can reach)

 Context examples 

It's where ocean floor is born and where tectonic plates die.

(Earth's mantle looks like a painting, National Science Foundation)

Hungry zooplankton hundreds of meters below the surface often consume carbon-rich particles sinking toward the ocean floor, interrupting the transport process.

(Research provides new view of the critical role of plankton in marine carbon storage, National Science Foundation)

Layer of seawater containing a high concentration of suspended sediment that may reach heights of several hundred meters above the ocean floor.

(Nepheloid layer, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

In a paper, researchers describe an experiment that turned 20 kilometers of undersea fiber-optic cable into the equivalent of 10,000 seismic stations along the ocean floor.

(Underwater telecom cables make superb seismic network, National Science Foundation)

Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor provide the energy that fuels the reactions.

(New Organic Compounds Found in Enceladus Ice Grains, NASA)

Much of it falls to the ocean floor and helps make up deep-water sediment, or so the thinking has been.

(Microbes in underground aquifers beneath deep-sea Mid-Atlantic Ridge 'chow down' on carbon, National Science Foundation)

Because they can be prevented from drifting further away by high places in the ocean floor, they can in turn prevent land-associated ice masses from becoming detached.

(Scientists describe how 'upside-down rivers' of warm water break Antarctica's ice shelf, Wikinews)

Magnesium sulfate would simply have leached into the ocean from rocks on the ocean floor, but sodium chloride may indicate the ocean floor is hydrothermally active.

(Table Salt Compound Spotted on Europa, NASA)

Lost 52 sailed to the alternative probable location and deployed underwater drones to search the ocean floor using sonar.

(Lost 52 Project announces discovery of wrecked sub near Okinawa, Wikinews)

For three weeks, a titanium-encased hydrophone recorded ambient noise from the ocean floor at a depth of more than 36,000 feet, or 7 miles, in the Challenger Deep trough in the Mariana Trench near Micronesia.

(Seven miles deep, the ocean is still a noisy place, NOAA)