Reading Comprehension

The best known and probably the most common type of ocean-floor valIey can properly
be called the submarine canyon. These formations have an extraordinary resemblance to river-cut
land canyons. In addition to their V-shaped cross sections, their floors slope outward as
continuously as do land canyons. They have many entering tributaries that form the dendritic
(branching) pattern characteristic of land canyons. Their steep walls frequently have rock
outcrops, although a sediment cover is more common than in land canyons, and most of the sea
canyons have similar winding courses.

The vertical dimensions of submarine canyons are surprising. Most of them have
walls .thousands of metres high, and the highest, in the Bahamas, rises almost five kilometres
(three miles) from the canyon floor - dwarfing, by comparison, the walls of the Grand Canyon that
are only about 1.6 kilometres (one mile) high. Some canyons have been traced for slightly more
than 320 kilometres (200 miles) in length, but most extend less than 48 kilometres (30 miles).
Usually they can be traced as far as the base of the steep part of the continental slopes, often more
than 1.6 kilometres in depth. Their width varies in the same manner as that of land valleys. A
narrow gorge off La Jolla, California, is as deep as it is wide, but the'more typical canyons have
widths of many kilometres. A five-kilo metre-deep canyon in the Bahamas, for example is 37
kilometres (23 miles) wide at its deepest point. By comparison, the Grand Canyon is about 19
kilometres (12 miles) wide. In both cases, the average slope is small but photographs show
vertical rock walls in the Bahama Canyon, and the Grand Canyon has vertical walls interspersed
with terraces and pyramidal buttes (flat-topped) and steep-sided hills. The seaward gradients of the
canyon floors are generally steeper than those of land canyons. The average 'floor slope is about
57 metres per kilometre (300 feet per mile), but the numerous canyons that closely approach the
coastline have high gradients at their heads, sometimes as great as 45°. The qradients almost
always decrease in the outer portions.

The appearance of the canyons has been ascertained in recent years both by lowering
cameras to the bottom and by observation from deep-diving vehicles. The dives, which have
penetrated todepths of more than 2,100 metres (roughly 7,000 feet) within a canyon, have been
particularly useful tn describing physical features. They have indicated that vertical oreven
overhanging walls
are commonplace, and that canyon walls often are grooved or polished as if they had been
smoothed by a glacier. The floors, while generally covered with cobbles and other marked
surfaces, have been shown by remote camera pictures to occur at depths of more than three
kilometres (two miles). The floors may vary considerably in gradient,
ranging from a gentle slope to a steep drop-off, with the latter often occurring where boulders,
fallen from the walls, have allowed sediments to build up above this obstruction.

All of the preceding features suggest that canyons are subject to active marine processes
and are
by no means mere remnants of long past erosional processes. Further evidence that conditions are
far from static comes from repeated soundings taken along the same ranqes at the canyon heads. It
has been known since the mid-20th century that the profiles sometimes undergo radical changes.
Apparently depth increases very suddenly, but shoaling occurs at a more gradual pace. This
sudden deepening has broken cables - notably off the Congo, where a canyon extends seaward for
193 kilometres (120 miles). Piers and jetties built into submarine canyon heads have collapsed
from the sudden removal of sediment on
which they were resting.
The nature of the rocks on the canyon walls has been determined by dredging and by observation
from deep diving vehicles. Most of it has proved to be relatively soft and hence rather easily
eroded, but there are some canyons that have been cut through very hard rock, even quartzite.
Granite walls have been found in several places, and one vertical granite cliff was discovered in a
vehicle dive to 1,265 metres(4.150 feet) off the tip of Baja California. There, both walls of the
canyon were granite; in some areas only one of the walls is hard rock, whereas the other wall is
relatively soft
1. The feature more common to submarine canyons than to land canyons is
(1) entering tributaries. (2) V - shaped cross-section.
(3) sediment cover on rock crops. (4) outward sloping floor. (5) branching pattern.
2. Observation by lowering cameras and deep Giving verucies neiped In
(1) ascertaining the appearance of canyons.
(2) describing the physical features of the canyons. (3) counting the dendritic tributaries.
(4) only (1) and (2) statements. (5) none of the above.

3. Steep drop-off of canyon floors often occurs when

(1) sediments accumulate over boulders displaced from the canyon walls.
(2) cobbles of floors are moved away by ocean currents.
(3) overhanging walls give that appearance. (4) terraces are formed. (5) gradients vary.

4. By "active marine processes", the author means those processes influenced by

(1) marine life. (2) active sea flora. (3) only sea fauna.
(4) dynamic forces of ocean. (5) ocean current.

5. The word "shoaling" in this context means

(1) 'swarms of fishes found in the canyons. (2) shallowing of the steep gradient.
(3) shovelling of the canyons. (4) further deepening of the canyon floor. (5) erosion.

6. Dredging and observation from deep diving vehicles indicated that

(1) the walls of the canyons are either grooved or: polished.
(2) the gradient of the canyons floor may vary considerably.
(3) the walls of the canyons are vertical or even overhanging.
(4) the floors may be covered with cobbles. (5) ali the above statements.

7. The collapse of piers and jetties built into the submarine canyon heads indicate that
(1) the dynamic forces of the ocean remove the base on which piers and jetties are built.
(2) the sea water erodes the material of piers and jetties.
(3) the depth of canyon suddenly increases.
(4) these canyons are remnant of previous erosional processes.
(5) conditions are not static.

8. The highest vertical dimension of the canyon wall measures

(1) 6 kms. (2) 1.6 kms. (3) 3 miles. (4) 1 mile. (5) 57 metres.

9.The canyon which is about 19 kms wide at its deepest point is

(1) the canyon in the Congo. (2) the Grand. Canyon.
(3) the canyon in the Bahamas. (4) the Baja California. (5) a submarine canyon.

10.The length to which most of the submarine canyons extend is approximately

(1) 193 kms. (2) 4,150 ft. (3) 48 kms. (4) 200 miles. (5) 12 miles.