Scientists have seen much of the ocean floor by using submersibles, sonar and satellite mapping. Five specific features of oceans are . . . . . Make a profile drawing on the board of the ocean floor, labeling the 5 points. The continental shelf is the part or area of the floor that you first walk out on from the shore. It gently slopes.
Water is very shallow here.
Continue out and the deeper slope and steep drop into the water is the continental slope. Here you will find little valleys or canyons cut by mud or currents moving across the ocean bottom. The very bottom of the ocean is the plain. Trenches are like very deep ditches in the ocean floor. The deepest trench is deeper than the tallest mountain on land.