Marine Provinces

What is the shape of the ocean basins and why do they look that way?
The fruits of plate tectonics…..
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Sea Floor Investigation
 Originally believed deepest parts of the
the ocean were in the middle

 Estimates of depths (soundings) go

back centuries, but details of seafloor
didn’t arise until the late 19th century
with the laying of transatlantic telegraph
lines

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Measuring bathymetry
 Bathymetry (bathos = depth, metry =
measurement) - ocean depths and topography of
ocean floor (topo = place, graphy = description)

 Sounding
 Rope/wire with heavy weight
 Known length

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 How deep is the ocean?
1st recorded attempt by Posidonius in
the Mediterranean Sea in 85 BC

For the next 2000 years, voyagers

1 fathom = 6 ft = 2 yards = 1.8 m used the sounding line
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 (3.5 yr voyage)

Comprehensive scientific expedition

Ship refitted with laboratories, winches,
and sounding scope
Circumnavigation (logged 111,840km)
- Discovered the Marianas Trench
361 sounding stations (deepest is 8180m or
26,850ft)
Collected deep-sea water samples
Investigated deep-water motion
Temperature measurements at all depths
Thousands of biological and sea-bottom
samples
Produced 50 volume Report (took another 20
yrs)
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Measuring bathymetry
 Bathymetry (bathos = depth, metry = measurement)
- ocean depths and topography of ocean floor
(topo = place, graphy = description)
Fathom = 1.8m or 6ft

 Sounding
 Rope/wire with heavy weight
 Known length

 Echo sounder (invented 1920)

 Reflection of sound signals (pings)
 1925 German ship Meteor

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(invented in 1900s)

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If you measure how long it takes from time sound was
released and when it returns, and you know the speed
of sound, then you will know the depth:

Depth = V x (T / 2)

Speed of sound Time

(1507 meters per sec)

Question: If it takes 2 sec for the sound to get back to the ship, how deep
is the water column?
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East Coast of US offshore region. It shows provinces of the
seafloor. The scattering layer probably represents a
concentration of marine organisms.

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Echo sounder – invented in early 1900s. In 1925, Meteor used echo
sounding to identify underwater mountain range
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 (resolution of 1m)

using PDR

and plate tectonics

Echo sounders could detect submarines. In WWII, great

improvement with development of PDR.

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Hull mounted multibeam instruments
emit multiple beams of sound waves,
which are reflected off the ocean floor.

From data, can determine the depth,

shape, and whether bottom is rock,
sand or mud. Can produce detailed
image of sea floor bathymetry

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Volcano with summit crater ~2km in
diameter in Pacific Ocean

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shipwreck
Sidescan Sonar
Images

Sunken plane

Sonar makes picture with sound

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 Deep-Tow Sonar

Thurman
and
Burton

Deep-tow gets close to seafloor so it can image with higher resolution

Trade off is slower, more limited coverage
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Sea floor mapping with satellites
 Don’t directly measure the seafloor

 Measures small differences in surface

elevation due to gravitational differences
caused by sea-floor objects; use microwave
beams

 Bigger the object, the bigger the mass, the

bigger the gravity. So big objects Iike
seamounts) exert extra gravitational pull;
trenches have lower gravitation attraction
TOPEX/Poseidon 19
The result is that
the surface roughly
reflects the bottom
topography

Mountains and other

seafloor features have a
lot of mass, so they exert
a gravitational pull on the
water above and around
them, they pull more
water toward their center
of mass. This causes
water to pile up in small
but measurable bumps
on the sea surface.

Satellites use
microwave beams to
measure sea level to
an accuracy of 4 cm.
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Satellite Bathymetry Map

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Measuring bathymetry

Seismic Profiling – good for determining subsurface properties;

application in mineral and petroleum exploration 24
Seismic reflection profile of the West Mediterranean, showing
location of JOIDES Resolution Drill Site 977. Bottom is an
interpretation of seismic profile showing faults (black lines).
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Marine Provinces
Getting to Know What’s Under the Water

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Ocean provinces
 3 major provinces
 Continental margins
 Shallow-water areas close to shore
 Deep-ocean basins
 Deep-water areas farther from land
 Mid-ocean ridge
 Submarine mountain range

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03_05

 3 zones:
 Continental margins
 Ocean basins
 Mid-Oceanic Ridges 28
Features of the Earth’s solid surface as percentages of
the planet’s total surface

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Continental Margins

 Includes: Shelf, Slope and Rise

 Make up ~ 21% of ocean floor
 2 major types:
 Passive (Atlantic) - relatively little earthquakes/volcanic activities ; facing
the edges of diverging plates
 Active (Pacific) - much movement; near the edges of converging plates or
where plates are slipping past each other; coincide with plate boundaries
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Continental
Margin

 Continental shelf – shallow submerged extension of a continent;

more similar to the continent than the deep-ocean floor; varying
widths depending on proximity to plate boundary (active or passive
margin) and currents and sea level
 Continental slope – transition between gently descending
continental shelf and deep ocean floor; formed of sediments that
reach the edge of shelf and transported over the side; at shelf break
(~ 140 m)
 Submarine canyons – due to underwater “avalanche”
 Continental rise – mainly along passive margins; base of slope
covered by an apron of accumulated sediment (100-1000km width)
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Ocean Basins
 Make up more than
half of Earth’s
surface
 Includes
 Abyssal plains and
hills
 Volcanic peaks
 Trenches

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OCEAN
TRENCHES

Majority of ocean trenches are along the margins of the Pacific Ocean, where plates are being
subducted. Most of the world’s large earthquakes and active volcanoes occur around the Pacific
Rim (Pacific Rim of Fire)

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Abyssal plains
 Very flat depositional surfaces starting from base of
continental rise
 4500 – 6000 meters deep
 Next to trenches they are the deepest parts of the
ocean
 Suspension settling of very fine particles
 Sediments cover ocean crust irregularities so it
looks flat…like snow
 Well-developed in Atlantic and Indian oceans

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Volcanic peaks
 Poke through sediment cover
 Below sea level:
 Abyssal hills are less than 1 km
 Seamounts, tablemounts or guyots at
least 1 km above seafloor
 Above sea level:
 Volcanic islands

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Seamounts:
Volcanoes that don’t
rise above sea
surface;

Guyots: if they rose

above sea level in
the past and eroded
to a flat top by waves

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Diagram depicting atoll formation

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Oceanic Trenches: arc-
shaped depression in deep-
ocean floor; subduction zone;
Linear, narrow, steep-sided;
Deepest parts of the ocean
(Challenger Deep area of
Marianas Trench (11 km)

Volcanic arcs: landward side

of ocean trench

-island arcs are curving

chains of volcanic islands and
seamounts parallel to trench
edges formed due to
subduction activities (islands
of Japan)

- continental arcs are volcanic

mountain ranges (Andes
Mountains)
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Ocean island arc and Continental volcanic arc

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 Mid-Oceanic
Ridges
broad undersea
mountain chains;
location of diverging
plates;
-Oceanic ridge
Features:
-Central rift valley, faults and fissures -Oceanic rise
-Pillow basalts - volcanic igneous rock that forms when lava
of basaltic composition is erupted underwater, rapidly cooled w/
seawater
-Hydrothermal vents

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Hydrothermal Vents

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Benham Rise is a 13-million-hectare underwater plateau located near Aurora. It is larger than Luzon
and is considered part of the Philippines' continental shelf.
It is potentially a rich source of natural gas and other resources such as heavy metals. It is about
2,000 to 5,000 meters deep.
In 2012, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Contintental Shelf (UNCLCS) confirmed
Benham Rise as part of the Philippines' continental shelf. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the
Sea (UNCLOS), the continental shelf comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas 200
nautical miles (NM), or 370 kilometers, from a state's baselines or “edges.”
According to scientific data based on seismic, magnetic, other geological features, the Benham Rise
region is an extension of the Philippines’ continental shelf. 49
Benham Rise is a seamount.

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The END

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