OCEAN SEDIMENTS – Volcanic, Carbonate & Siliceous Oozes

Sediment is naturally-occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering

and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water,
or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself.

There are 4 types of Oceanic Sediments:

Biogenous, Lithogenous, Hydrogenous, Cosmogenous.

1) Biogenous
- biological remains from organisms that cannot be broken down (bones, teeth,
other skeletal material, and plant material)

2) Lithogenous
- erosion from rocks above the water and below (not much is found in the ocean
though, mostly river beds)
- caused by chemical and physical weathering
- red clay is a combination of terrestrial material and volcanic ash (carried by
currents and wind and settles on the deep ocean floors)

3) Hydrogenous
- precipitate formed by the oceans minerals through chemical reactions between the
water and sediments on the ocean floor
- when water evaporates, ions in the water remain causing the water to become
saturated and forms minerals such as salt

4) Cosmogenous
- rain of material from the atmosphere that has burned up and falls to earth

In-Depth Description:

Biogenic Ooze
- Siliceous
o skeletal remain of small organisms such as diatoms (shell made ut of
opalline silica) and radiolaria (large group of marine protists) that live in
the pelagic zone of the ocean, and when they die their skeletons sink to the
bottom of the ocean.
o Water around volcanic islands tend to have higher concentration of silica
dissolved in solution therefore has greater preservation in sediments.
o High amount of this sediment in biologically productive waters such as
around the equator and Antarctica.
o Forms quartz-related rocks.
 - Carbonate
o Calcareous plates from phytoplankton
o Makes up the most widespread shell deposits
o This type of sediment covers about half of the worlds sea floor
o The depth at which carbonate dissolves (approx, 4500m) is called the
Calcite Compensation Depth (varies in different parts of the ocean)
 Carbonate precipitates out of the water until it reaches the CCD,
then below the CCD the carbonate dissolves.
o High in upwelling zones because the pelagic organisms can thrive more
there.
o When they are around long enough, limestone is formed.

Lithogenous
- Volcanic
o Debris erodes from the volcano above the water into the ocean basin OR
deep-sea deposits and sediments are scraped off the descending plate of
the volcano (beneath water)
- Weathering
o Some come from Asia and North Africa from the dust storms

Approximately 70% of the world is covered by water and sediment.

Diagram of different distributions of sediment:

By Jessica Osmond & Zach Morse