Which of the following ocean floor features represents the steep-sided, flat-bottomed deep-sea depressions that form due to tectonic plate subduction and deep-mantle downwelling?

💡 Solution & Explanation

Oceanic trenches are long, narrow, and extremely deep depressions on the seafloor created at convergent plate boundaries where an oceanic plate subducts beneath another plate. Abyssal plains are vast flat regions covered by thick sediment layers lying at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 meters. Mid-ocean ridges are divergent underwater mountain ranges formed by seafloor spreading, whereas continental rises consist of thick sediment wedges deposited at the base of continental slopes. Trenches host the deepest points on Earth.