Floor Of An Ocean Basin

Together they contain the overwhelming majority of all water on the planet and have an average depth of almost 4 km about 2 5 miles.

Floor of an ocean basin. Sediment thickness in the oceans averages about 450 metres 1 500 feet. Sunlight does not penetrate to the sea floor making these deep dark ecosystems less productive than those along. Ocean basin any of several vast submarine regions that collectively cover nearly three quarters of earth s surface. Ocean basin floor the ocean floor in those parts of the oceans that are more than 2000 m deep.

Ocean basin ocean basin deep sea sediments. At depths of over 10 000 feet and covering 70 of the ocean floor abyssal plains are the largest habitat on earth. Deep ocean drilling and radiometric dating in the late 1960s gave an accurate stratigraphy and precise date of the ocean floor. More modern sources e g floyd 1991 regard the ocean basins more as basaltic plains than as sedimentary depositories since most sedimentation occurs on the continental shelves.

From studying the oxygen isotopes of the shells of microfossils in these cores scientists were able to begin studying the earth s past climates in a study known as paleoclimatology. During the opening of the atlantic ocean sea level was so high that a western interior seaway formed across north america from the gulf of mexico to the arctic ocean. Oceanographers also recognize the southern ocean which encircles antarctica and includes the southernmost parts of the pacific. Older references e g littlehales 1930 consider the oceanic basins to be the complement to the continents with erosion dominating the latter and the sediments so derived ending up in the ocean basins.

It occupies approximately one third of the atlantic and indian ocean floors and three quarters of the pacific ocean floor. Continuing your journey across the ocean basin you would descend the steep continental slope to the abyssal plain. About 70 of the planet s surface is made up of ocean basins which are the regions that are below sea level these areas hold the majority of the planet s water. The ocean basin floor is everywhere covered by sediments of different types and origins.

The only exception are the crests of the spreading centres where new ocean floor has not existed long enough to accumulate a sediment cover. The ocean basins are partially bounded by the continents but they are interconnected which is why marine scientists refer to a single world ocean the world ocean is divided into the north and south pacific north and south atlantic indian and arctic oceans.