Group 2-Stem C

Ocean
Basins
Group 2
Ocean basins are those areas f
ound under the
sea. They can be relatively in
active areas where deposits of
sediment slowly collect or act
ive areas where tectonic plate
s meet.
Portion of ocean floor extendi
ng from the ridge
on one side to a trench or con
tinental margin on the other.
Formation
of
Ocean Basins
Abyssal Plai
n
Abyssal plains are the
flat, sediment-
vast,
covered areas of the deep oce

an floor.
They are the flattest, most f

eatureless areas on the Earth
, and have a slope of less th
an one
foot of elevation difference
for each thousand
feet of distance.
The lack of features is due t

Mid-Ocean Ri
dge
The massive mid-ocean ridge
em is a continuous range of
syst
unde
rwater volcanoes that wraps arou
nd the globe like seams on a bas
eball, stretching nearly 65,000
kilometers.
Mid-ocean ridges occur along div
ergent plate
boundaries, where new ocean floo
r is created as the Earth’s tect
onic plates spread apart. As the
plates separate, molten rock ris
es to the seafloor, producing en
ormous volcanic eruptions of bas
Rift Valley
Rift valleys are not caused b
y erosion but are created by
tectonic activity.
Grabens are another name for
these valleys.
The valleys form when contin

ental crust is pulling apart
allowing the land to drop dow
n
between parallel faults.
These valleys also form when

oceanic plates
Trench
Ocean trenches are natural tecto
nic plate
boundaries between two crustal p
lates.
When a continental plate converg

es with an oceanic plate a subdu
ction zone forms.
The heavier oceanic plate subduc

ts beneath the lighter continent
al plate forming a trench.
Seamount
A seamount is a mountain rising
from the ocean
floor that does not reach to the
water's surface and thus is not
an island, islet or cliff-rock.
Seamounts are typically formed f

rom extinct
volcanoes that rise abruptly.
Guyot
A guyot is a flat-topped submari
ne mountain, or
seamount, that once emerged abov
e sea level as a
volcanic island, and then resubm
erged when
volcanic activity ceased.
Erosion by wave activity during

submergence
creates the characteristic flat-
topped profile of a
guyot.
Atoll
Corals begin to settle and grow
around an
oceanic island forming a fringi
ng reef.
It can take as long as 10,000

years for a
fringing reef to form. Over the
next 100,000
years, if conditions are favora
ble, the reef will
continue to expand. As the reef
expands, the
interior island usually begins
Volcanic Isl
and
Another type of mountain
sea is an island.
in the
It rises from the sea floor, but

reaches above the
ocean’s surface, sometimes just
barely.
An island is a solitary mountain

formed by
volcanic activity. Lava erupting
from the sea floor
builds up on the sea bed over th
ousands, or even
millions of years. The lava cool
Plateau
An oceanic plateau is an elevate
d portion of the seafloor that i
s generally flat and level, simi
lar to a plateau on dry land. A
continental shelf is not a plate
au. However, a plateau can exist
on a continental shelf, raised a
bove the surrounding seafloor.
Evolution
of
Ocean Basins
The Wilson Cycle explains the process of the op
ening (beginning) and the
closing (end) of an ocean.
The processes, is driven by Plate Tectonics
. A simple explanation of the
Wilson cycle includes two phases, the Opening p
hase and a Closing phase.
The Wilson cycle, is named after the Canad
ian geophysicist
J. Tuzo Wilson (1908-1993).
The Wilson cycle is divided into 6 stages.

1. Embryonic Ocean Basin,
2. Juvenile Ocean Basin,
Embryonic St
age
The earliest stage,
involves uplift and crus
tal extension of contine
ntal areas with the form
ation of rift valleys
(e.g. the East African R
ift System).
Juvenile Sta
ge
involves the evolution
of rift
valleys into spreading
centers with thin stri
ps of ocean crust betw
een
the rifted continental
segments. The result i
s a narrow, parallel-s
ided
sea, for example the R
ed Sea that
Mature Stage
exemplified by widenin
g of the
growing basin and its
continued
development into a maj
or ocean
flanked by continental
shelves and with the c
ontinual production of
new, hot, oceanic crus
t along the
ridge system (e.g. Atl
Declining St
Eventually, this expanding sys
age
tem becomes
unstable and, away from the ri
dge, the oldest
oceanic lithosphere sinks back
into the
asthenosphere, forming an ocea
nic trench
subduction system with a Wadat
i-Benioff zone demarking the d
escending plate and associated
island arcs, such as the situa
tion in the western Pacific Oc
ean, or Andean-type volcanism.
Terminal St
Once subduction outpaces
age
the
formation of new crust a
t the
constructive boundary, t
he ocean
begins to contract. Isla
nd arc
complexes, complete with
their
inventory of sedimentary
and volcanic rocks, coll
Suturing Sta
Thege
end stage occurs once a
ll the oceanic
crust between the continent
al masses has
subducted, and the continen
ts converge
along a collision zone char
acterised by an active fold
mountain belt, such as the
Himalayas. Finally the pla
te boundary
becomes inactive, but the s
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Group 2-Stem C

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Ocean

covered areas of the deep oce

They are the flattest, most f

The lack of features is due t

The valleys form when contin

These valleys also form when

When a continental plate converg

The heavier oceanic plate subduc

Seamounts are typically formed f

Erosion by wave activity during

It can take as long as 10,000

It rises from the sea floor, but

An island is a solitary mountain

The Wilson cycle is divided into 6 stages.

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