Deformation of the Crust

Objectives:
a. I can identify major physiographic
features of ocean basins
b. I can describe the process of seafloor
spreading
c. I can demonstrate an understanding of
the theory of plate tectonics and how
plate tectonic processes lead to
changes in Earth’s surface features
What would the ocean floor
look like if we drain away
all the seawater?
Mauritius
 Important terms:
a. Mid-ocean ridge
- is an underwater mountain range,
formed by plate tectonics. This
uplifting of the ocean floor occurs
when convection currents rise in the
mantle beneath the oceanic crust and
create magma where two tectonic
plates meet at a divergent boundary.
Mid-ocean ridge
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge, a divergent
tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the
Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in
the world.
 Important terms:
b. Abyssal plain
- an underwater plain on the deep ocean
floor, usually found at depths between
3,000 meters and 6,000 metres.
Abyssal Plain
Abyssal Plain
 Important terms:
c. Trench
- a type of excavation or depression in
the ground that is generally deeper
than it is wide, and narrow compared
with its length. In geology, trenches are
created as a result of erosion by rivers
or by geological movement of tectonic
plates.
Trench
Mariana Trench
Mariana Trench
Mariana Trench
 Important terms:
d. Passive margin
- the transition between oceanic and
continental lithosphere that is not an
active plate margin. A passive margin
forms by sedimentation above an
ancient rift, now marked by transitional
lithosphere.
 Important terms:
e. Continental drift
- the theory that the Earth's continents
have moved over geologic time relative
to each other, thus appearing to have
"drifted" across the ocean bed.
 Important terms:
f. Seafloor spreading
- a process that occurs at mid-ocean
ridges, where new oceanic crust is
formed through volcanic activity and
then gradually moves away from the
ridge.
Seafloor Spreading
Seafloor Spreading
 Important terms:
g. Lithosphere - the rigid outer part of the
earth, consisting of the crust and
upper mantle.

h. Asthenosphere - the upper layer of the

earth's mantle, below the lithosphere,
in which there is relatively low
resistance to plastic flow and
convection is thought to occur.
 Important terms:
i. Magnetic anomaly
- a local variation in the Earth's
magnetic field resulting from
variations in the chemistry or
magnetism of the rocks.
 Important terms:
j. Plate tectonics
- the theory that the outer rigid layer of
the earth (the lithosphere) is divided
into a couple of dozen "plates" that
move around across the earth's
surface relative to each other.
Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonics
 Important terms:

k. Plate boundary
- The boundary regions between
plates are aptly called plate
boundaries.
 Important terms:
l. Subduction
- a geological process that takes place
at convergent boundaries of tectonic
plates where one plate moves under
another and is forced to sink due to
gravity into the mantle.
Subduction
 Important terms:
m. Island arc
- long chains of active volcanoes with
intense seismic activity found along
convergent tectonic plate boundaries
(such as the Ring of Fire).
The Ryukyu Islands form an island arc.
 Important terms:
n. Transform fault
- or transform boundary is a plate
boundary where the motion is
predominantly horizontal. It ends
abruptly and is connected to another
transform, a spreading ridge, or a
subduction zone.
 SEAFLOOR
BATHYMETRY
- study of underwater depth of
ocean floors.
Methods of measuring ocean depths:

a. Sounding line – weighted rope

lowered overboard until it touched
the ocean bottom;
- this old method is
time-consuming and inaccurate.
Sounding Line
Sounding Line
Methods of measuring ocean depths:

b. Echo sounding– type of sonar which

measures depth by emitting a burst of
high frequency sound and listening for
the echo from the seafloor.
• Sound is emitted from a source on the
ship and the returning echo is detected
by a receiver on the ship. Deeper water
means longer time for the echo to
return to the receiver.
Echo sounding
Echo sounding
An example of a precision dual frequency
echosounder, the Teledyne Odom MkIII
Methods of measuring ocean depths:

c. Satellite altimetry – profiles the

shape of the sea surface by
measuring the travel time of a
radar pulse from the satellite to
the ocean surface and back to the
satellite receiver.
• The shape of the sea surface
approximates the shape of the sea
floor.
Satellite Altimetry
Satellite Altimetry
Features of the
Ocean Floor
 Features of the Ocean Floor
a. Continental margin – submerged outer
edge of the continent where continental
crust transitions into oceanic crust.

i. Passive or Atlantic type – features a wide,

gently sloping continental shelf (50-200m
depth), a steeper continental slope (3000-
4000m depth), and a flatter continental rise.
ii. Active or Pacific type – characterized by a
narrow shelf and slope that descends into a
trench or trough.
Continental Margin
 Features of the Ocean Floor
b. Abyssal plains and abyssal hills
– abyssal plain is an extremely flat,
sediment-covered stretches of the
ocean floor, interrupted by occasional
volcanoes, mostly extinct, called
seamounts.
• Abyssal hills are elongate hills,
typically 50-300m high and common on
the slopes of mid oceanic ridge.
Abyssal plains
Abyssal plains
Abyssal plains and hills
 Features of the Ocean Floor
c. Mid-ocean ridges
– a submarine mountain chain that
winds for more than 65,000 km
around the globe.
• It has a central rift valley and
rugged topography on its flanks.
Mid-ocean ridge
Mid-ocean ridge
 Features of the Ocean Floor

d. Deep-ocean trenches
- narrow, elongated depressions on
the seafloor many of which are
adjacent to arcs of island with
active volcanoes; deepest features
of the seafloor.
Mariana Trench
Deep-ocean trench
 Features of the Ocean Floor

e. Seamounts and volcanic islands

– submerged volcanoes are called
seamounts while those that rise
above the ocean surface are called
volcanic islands. These features
may be isolated or found in
clusters or chains.
Seamounts
Seamounts
Volcanic island
SEAFLOOR
SPREADING
Evidences that led to the proposal of
seafloor spreading:
a. Distribution of seafloor topographic
features – distribution of mid-ocean ridges
and depth of the seafloor.
b. Sediment thickness – fine layer of sediment
covering much of the seafloor becomes
progressively thicker away from mid-ocean
ridge axis; seafloor sediment not as thick as
previously thought.
c. Composition of oceanic crust – consists
primarily of basalt.
Evidences that led to the proposal of
seafloor spreading:
d. High heat flow along mid-ocean ridge axes –
led scientists to speculate that magma is
rising into the crust just below the mid-ocean
ridge axis.

e. Distribution of submarine earthquakes –

earthquakes do not occur randomly but
define distinct belts (earthquake belts follow
trenches, mid-oceanic ridges, transform
faults).
Seafloor Spreading
VIDEO CLIP