What Types of Soil

Are in the Ocean?

  The Ocean Floor
     
The ocean floor is made up of mountains,
valleys, plains, plateaus, islands, ridges and
volcanoes. The Earth's floor below the ocean is
very similar the that above the ocean.
Calcareous Ooze


   Calcareous ooze is the most common of the

three soils and covers approximately 48
percent of the ocean floor. It is composed of
the shells of foraminifera, coccolithophores and
pteropods, which are tiny organisms living in
the ocean.
Red Clay


 Red clay covers approximately 38 percent of

the ocean floor and is brown. It is made up of
quartz, clay minerals and micrometeorites,
which are rocks that weigh less than a gram
and have fallen to Earth from outer space.
Siliceous Ooze


Siliceous ooze is the least common of the three

soils, covering approximately 15 percent of the
ocean floor. It is composed of plankton debris
and silica shells.
The Ocean Climate

  The average temperature
of all oceans is about 39
degrees F (3.8 degrees C). But
the oceans in different parts of
the world can have very
different climates!
 Tropical oceans, which are near the equator, are
warm and clear on the surface. The equator is
an imaginary belt which circles the earth and
divides it into two halves. The areas of land and
water which are near this belt are called the
tropics, and are always warm.


But in the cold polar regions of the far north



and far south, the ocean is so cold that its'

surface is frozen! Huge blocks of ice called
ICEBERGS drift in these seas.


 The sun's heat warms only the surface

of the water. Deep down, oceans
everywhere are cold, dark, and still.