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OCN 201: Deep-Sea Sediments
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Sediment at the seafloor
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~21% ~87%
• Continental Margins: 87% (covers ~21% of ocean area)
• Deep-ocean floor: 13%
Where is the Sediment?
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Sediment Thickness
Mississippi Ganges
Brahmaputra
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Rates of sediment accumulation are highest
a) in the deep sea, far from land
b) beneath the equator
c) near the mouths of large rivers
d) near the edge of glaciers
e) along the mid-ocean ridge
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• Terrigenous Deposits
– Ala Wai Canal ~3 mo
– Near large rivers 1-10 yr
– Continental Shelf 30 yr
– Continental Rise 100 yr
• Pelagic Deposits
– Biogenic sediment 200-1000 yr
– Abyssal Clay 2000-10000 yr
– Mn nodules/crusts >1 M year
Sediment Deposition Rates(time to deposit 1 cm on seafloor)
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“Bird’s-Foot” delta
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Sediment classification by:
• Mode of formation:
chemical vs detrital (particles)
• Location (and source)
• Degree of lithification
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Types of Detrital Sediments
• Terrigenous: from land and transported by…
– rivers
– turbidity currents (= mudslides: graded deposits)
– wind
– floating ice (“ice rafted”: poorly sorted)
• Biogenic: from organisms
• Volcanogenic: from volcanoes (esp. ash)
• Cosmogenic: from outer space
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Sediment from Rivers
Three rivers account for most of
sediment input to Atlantic Ocean:
Amazon, Congo, Mississippi
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Turbidity Currents• Density-driven mudslides off
continental shelf; essentially
“undersea avalanches”
• Usually triggered by earthquakes
• Fast moving, travel long distances
• Produce submarine canyons, fans,
and graded deposits
Hudson Canyon
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Sediment Carried by Wind
Natural rate of erosion: ~20 m/million years
Present rates, post-agriculture: ~600 m/m.y. 30 times faster!
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Ice Rafted Sediment
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Biogenic Sediments
• From organisms:
calcareous (CaCO3)
and siliceous (SiO2)
Forams and Radiolaria (animals) Foraminifer (animal)
Coccolithophore (plant)
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Other Detrital Sediments
• Cosmogenic: From space (dust, tektites, Fe-Ni spherules)
• Volcanogenic: From volcanoes (note that these are also terrigenous)
Pinatubo, Philippines, 1991
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Chemically Derived Sediments
• Authigenic: formed in place, within sediment
• Hydrogenous: precipitated directly from seawater (Fe-Mn nodules, Crusts, Evaporites)
• Hydrothermal: precipitated from hot water (polymetallic sulfides, metalliferous Fe-rich sediments)
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Classification by Degree of
Lithification
• Ooze: calcareous (CaCO3)
or siliceous (SiO2)
• Chalk: calcareous
• Limestone: calcareous
• Chert: siliceous
The White Cliffs of Dover:
Cretaceous Chalk
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Most of the sediment in the oceans
a) lies in the deep sea, far from land
b) lies in the deep sea and was delivered by turbidity currents
c) lies along continental margins and was delivered by wind
d) lies along continental margins and was delivered by rivers
e) lies along the margins of ice sheets and was delivered by
glaciers
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Deep-Sea Sediment: Sampling
• Grab sampling
• Gravity coring
• Piston coring
• Drilling
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Deep-Ocean Drilling • International deep-sea sampling program
• Oil-drilling technology/ships
• DSDP, then ODP, now IODP
• Key to confirmation of plate tectonics
• Recovered 1000’s of meters of sediment
and seafloor rock
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Re-entering a hole (after
changing the drill bit)
was the key to drilling
deeply into the seafloor:
•Re-entry cone and
sonar beacon on seafloor
•14 Computer-driven
thrusters on ship, with
variable-pitch propellers
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Distribution of Deep-Sea Sediment
•Mean thickness
–Atlantic: 1000 m, from river input
–Pacific: <500m; starved because of mountains,
narrow continental margins, and marginal seas
•Nearly all deep-sea sediments are
mixtures, with three dominant
components.
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Deep-Sea Sediment Components
1) Calcareous Ooze 48%
– Foraminifera (protozoa)
– Nannofossils (algae)
– Pteropods
(planktonic mollusks)
2) Abyssal Clay 38% by vol.
3) Siliceous Ooze 14%
– Radiolaria (protozoa,
common near equator)
– Diatoms (algae,
common near Antarctica)
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Factors Affecting Sediment
Composition
Nearly all sediments are mixtures, depending on:
• Supply
• Dissolution
• Dilution (especially by terrigenous component)
• Alteration after deposition
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Carbonate Compensation Depth• CaCO3 is more soluble in deeper colder water.
• At the CCD, for calcareous sediment:
– rate of supply = rate of dissolution
– CaCO3 dissolves as fast as it is supplied.
– None accumulates in sediment at or below this depth.
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Carbonate Compensation Depth: II• Previously deposited calcareous sediment
transported below the CCD can survive if
buried by other (e.g., siliceous) sediment.
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Supply vs DissolutionSupply (flux) of particles is important to accumulation.
Areas of high productivity (equatorial, polar) have large
particle fluxes that lead to accumulation.
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Sediment at the seafloor