On the Ocean Floor with Kakra Kaka
Well, he's back with the kids, teaching them all about the ocean floor!
When Rubik, Ziggy, Niti and Sumit reached the rock on the beach on the second evening, Kakra Kaka was already there. “You’re late,” he growled when he saw them. “ D’you think I have nothing better to do than wait for you?”
“Kakra Kaka,” giggled Ziggy, “under that crustry shell, you’re quite a softy, aren’t you?”
“I have a question for you,” said Kakra Kaka, ignoring Ziggy’s joke. “If you could see the ocean floor, what would you find?”
“A great, big, sandy, beach with lots of shells,” sighed Niti dreamily.
“WRONG!!” Kakra Kaka groaned. “You children are so illiterate! Now listen carefully..
The Ocean Floor is a fantastic and wondrous place.
It begins quite gradually, at the end of the continents as a gentle, sloping plain called the Continental Shelf. At the end of the Continental Shelf is a steep cliff called the Continental Slope which falls about 12000 feet to the ocean floor. Now begins the Abyssal Plain, a huge plain land made up of mud, sand and the remains of dead sea animals and plants.
In the middle of the ocean floor is the Mid-Oceanic Ridge which is a long chain of mountains stretching to about 45000 miles. In the centre of this Ridge is a steep valley called a Rift. Sometimes, molten rock pushes up from this rift.
Next are the sea mounts, mountains built by volcanoes. Sometimes, they rise above the sea and make islands. Often, these islands are pounded by the waves and sink. In some places on the ocean floor, there are long, narrow valleys called trenches. Some trenches are more than 34000 feet deep!
Can you use your imagination to draw a picture of the ocean floor?
Image from:http://animals.timduru.org/dirlist/crab/YellowFiddlerCrab02-OnSandBeach-Closeup.jpg
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