Deep Marine Environments 1. What are the typical sediments deposited on the deep
ID: 297119 • Letter: D
Question
Deep Marine Environments 1. What are the typical sediments deposited on the deepest section of the Pacific Ocean? 2. Under which circumstances could igneous rocks be found in this setting? Continental Shelf Environments 3. Compare and contrast the North America Eastern and Western seaboard. How does the morphology of the two shelves differ? What geologic processes characterize each side? 4. Sketch an East-West topographic/cross section profile, showing the shape and the plate boundaries on each side. 5. What type of sediments-in terms of textural maturity-will be deposited on either side of North America? What is the role of rivers in shaping the depositional environments of the continental shelves? 6. CHAPTER 2 Sedimentary Rocks and Sedimentary Structures 2-15Explanation / Answer
Answer 1:
In the deep Pacific ocean, you can find sediments that were introduced into the sea by rivers and wind that have eroded sediments from the land surface and carried them to meet the vast ocean. These types of sediments are called Terrigenous sediments and even though their sizes can vary, at the deep end of the ocean where the water is calm you can mostly find fine-grained sedimentary rocks like shale that are formed in calm waters where there is enough resting time.
Another type of sediments found here are Pelagic sediments which are extremely fine-grained sediments that are formed by particles settling on the surface of the deep sea far from its parent rock. These include fine grained sedimentary rocks like kaolinite, illite and a variety of other brown and red clays. These kinds of sediments are in a way, a derivate of the Terrigenous sediments and can thus include minor of amounts of volcanic ash that has eroded from the land.
The third type of sediments formed here are the Biogenic sediments which include skeleton remains of marine creatures and organisms and calcareous and siliceous ooze which are produced by these very organisms.
What is unique about the Pacific Ocean is that it has the Ring of Fire which is formed by subduction zone and a ridge system caused by the collision of three crustal plates. Coupled with parts of the ring that have divergent plate boundaries (that form new crust), you can also find Authigenic sediments which are formed at the sea floor itself. These sediments are derived from rocks formed by the rapid cooling of magma on the sea floor and are rich in iron, manganese, copper and chromium along with minor amounts of copper, cobalt and nickel.
Answer 2:
As explained above, there are divergent plate boundaries along with subduction zones present in a deep sea environment. The magma that erupts from the volcanoes and the ridges on the sea floor, rapidly cools to form nodules and rocks which are rich in iron, manganese and copper along with trace amounts of nickel, copper and cobalt. The igneous rock sediments are thus introduced to the deep sea floor.
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