Just as the division of continents, from the point of view of climate, vegetation, population, economics and even politics is based on the natural topographic divisions, so the topography of the sea floor provides natural divisions for water masses, marine populations, sediment movement and even parishes for the work of sea-going geophysicists. The study of the shape and structure of these features of the sea bed has a bearing on most marine sciences and the topography must be considered as an important environmental factor in all fields. Thus regions of upwelling may be caused by a current impinging on the continental slope, giving rise therefore to an area rich in nutrients where a fishing industry may flourish. Or else turbidity currents may transport sediments from one side of a basin to another producing anomalous stratification in the sedimentary sequence. These are both controlled by the topography.
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