Get Investigation Of The Surficial Sediment Depths Of - In

ocean sediments may be composed of chemical precipitates such as calcium carbonate or manganese dioxide. ocean sediments may form from the remains of living organisms falling to the ocean floor. ocean sediments include the remains of ancient rocks of cosmic origin.

Deep-sea sediments can be classified as terrigenous, originating from land; as biogenic, consisting largely of the skeletal debris of microorganisms; or as authigenic, formed in place on the seafloor.

There are three kinds of sea floor sediment: terrigenous, pelagic, and hydrogenous. Terrigenous sediment is derived from land and usually deposited on the continental shelf, continental rise, and abyssal plain. It is further contoured by strong currents along the continental rise.

Sediment thickness in the oceans averages about 450 metres (1,500 feet). The sediment cover in the Pacific basin ranges from 300 to 600 metres (about 1,000 to 2,000 feet) thick, and that in the Atlantic is about 1,000 metres (3,300 feet).

Sediments and sedimentary rocks are confined to Earth's crust, which is the thin, light outer solid skin of Earth ranging in thickness from 40–100 kilometres (25 to 62 miles) in the continental blocks to 4–10 kilometres in the ocean basins.

Most surficial deposits are composed of poorly consolidated clay, silt, sand, or gravel-sized particles that are produced chiefly by erosion and are transported by and finally deposited by water, wind, or ice, but are also partly produced by the in-situ weathering of bedrock.

Sediments are classified by particle size, ranging from the finest clays (diameter <0.004 mm) to the largest boulders (> 256 mm)(Figure 12.1. 2). Among other things, grain size represents the conditions under which the sediment was deposited.

It can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a boulder. Sediment moves from one place to another through the process of erosion.

SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS | Contourites Deep-sea sediments may be interpreted as the product of three main processes: gravity-driven downslope resedimentation, alongslope bottom current activity, and slow pelagic settling through the water column.