Exercise 2: The topography of the ocean floor.

The basins of the North Pacific Ocean are all open to the south; but Atlantic Bottom Water has a long way to go to reach them.

Arctic Bottom Water finds it even more difficult to enter the Pacific Ocean; Bering Strait (BS) is only 45 m deep, too shallow under all circumstances. The abyssal circulation is thus very week.

The remarkable features of the North Pacific topography are the many seamounts. If you wish you can have a more detailed look at three examples, the Emperor Seamounts and the Izu Ridge (1), the Hawaiian Ridge (2) and a region in a deep basin with numerous seamounts in a relatively small area (3). Check the location of the item you wish to see and click on it in the map to see an enlargement of a feature.

(Map based on the GEBCO97 database, produced with GEBCO97 software and modified.)