DESCRIBING THE STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF OCEAN BASINS

LEARNING COMPETENCY : Describe the structure and evolution of ocean basins. (S11ES-IIg-34)
What is an Oceanic Basin?
Ocean basin is the largest depression of land surface on Earth under an ocean. Tectonic activities such as seafloor spreading and
subduction shape ocean basins.
Seafloor spreading happens along the boundaries of tectonic plates that are moving apart from each other. These areas are called
mid-ocean ridges. New seafloor is then created at the bottom, or rift, of a mid-ocean ridge. Ocean basins that have mid-ocean ridges are
expanding. The Atlantic basin, for instance, is expanding because of seafloor spreading.
Subduction happens along the boundaries of tectonic plates that are crashing into each other. In these subduction zones, the heavier
plate moves underneath, or subducts, the lighter one. Ocean basins that experience subduction, such as the Pacific basin, are shrinking.
Evolution of Ocean Basin
Table 1: Stages in the Evolution of Ocean Basin

Source: http://www.rcastilho.pt/ewExternalFiles/The%20Ocean%20Basins.pdf

Source: https://polarpedia.eu/en/wilson-cycle/
Figure 1: 6 Major Stages of Ocean Basin Evolution – The Wilson Cycle
Characteristic and Topography
Oceanic basin landforms have two main characteristics namely: 1) Ocean basin is a land that exists under an ocean; and 2) It includes all
topographical features.
It is said that ocean basins are not featureless Earth surfaces. Information about ocean basins were gathered using the following technologies:
seismic surveyor, echo sounder, side-scan sonar, and the satellites that measure the height of sea surfaces.
Some dominant topographical features associated with ocean basins are:
Continental shelf
It is a shallow gently sloping part of the continental crust that borders the continents. It has an average depth of 130 m, and its width varies from
tens of meters to a maximum of about 1, 300 km.
Continental slope
It extends from the continental shelf at an average depth of 135 meters. The base is steeply sloping and occurs at a depth of approximately
2000 meters that marks the edge of the continents. The width of the slope varies from 20 to 100 kilometers.
Both continental shelf and continental slope are structurally part of the continents, although they are below the sea surface.
Submarine canyon
The V-shaped canyon that cuts into the continental slope to a depth of up to 1200 meters. It cuts perpendicular to the running direction of the
continental slope.
Continental rise
It is found at the base of the continental slope. The depth ranges from 2000 to 5000 meters deep, and the width is up to 300 kilometers.
Continental rise is created by the merging of accumulated deposit at the mouth of the many submarine canyons.
Abyssal fan
It is the canyon’s thick fan-shaped sedimentary deposits.
Ocean floor
It is found at the base of the continental rise in water, ranging from 4 000 to 6 000 meters deep. Ocean floor accounts for nearly 30 % of the
Earth’s surface, consisting of thin layer of basaltic rock.
Source:
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10p.html
Figure 2.a: Marginal features found at the interface of the continents and the ocean basins

Source:http://officersiasacademy.blogspot.com/2016/04/oceans-submarine-relief.html

Figure 2.b: Ocean Basin Topography

Figure 2.c: Basin Topography

Famous Oceanic Basins and Facts

There are five major ocean basins, coordinating with the major oceans of the world: the Pacific basin, the Atlantic basin, the Indian
basin, the Arctic basin, and the Southern basin. Many smaller basins are often considered oceanic basins, such as the North Aleutian Basin,
between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans.
The Atlantic Ocean Basin covers approximately 29 million square miles of the Earth’s surface, extending from the Arctic Ocean in the
north, to the Southern Ocean above Antarctica. The average depth of the basin is 12,881 feet and the deepest point is the Puerto Rico Trench at
28,231 feet below the water.
The Indian Ocean Basin has 26 million square miles of underwater land surface, bordered by Africa in the west, Australia in the east,
India to the north and the Southern Ocean. The basin has an average depth of 13,800 feet, and the deepest point is 23,812 feet below water in
the Java Trench.
The Southern Ocean was officially designated by the International Hydrographic Organization in the year 2000, but does not have a
true ocean basin. It surrounds the continent of Antarctica and extends northward to 60 degrees of latitude, where it meets the Atlantic, Indian
and Pacific Oceans.
The Arctic Ocean Basin has over 5 million square miles, approximately one third of this is the continental shelves of North America
and Asia. It has an average depth of 4,900 feet and the deepest point is at 17,880 feet below water.
The Pacific Ocean Basin is the largest oceanic basin in the world with an area of 59 million square miles. It is also the deepest, with an
average depth of 14,042 feet. The deepest point found below sea level is the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific, near the Marianas Islands
to the west. In a depression called the Challenger Deep within the trench, a depth of approximately 36,070 feet has been measured, a distance
of almost 7 miles below the surface.
• The oldest ocean-floor rocks are 190 million years old, whereas the oldest continental rocks are 3.8 billion (3800 million) years
old. New ocean floor seems to form at different rates in different ocean basins and over time.
• It is very difficult to get information about landforms of the ocean basin, such as trenches and mid-ocean ridges. These
landforms are thousands of feet below the surface of the water. Few instruments can endure the intense pressure, cold, and
dark at the bottom of ocean basins. Occasionally, researchers themselves explore ocean basins in special submarines called
submersibles.
• Numerous volcanoes populate the floor of the ocean basins. Scientists estimate that there are approximately 10, 000 volcanoes
on the ocean floor.
• Mid-ocean ridge is normally found rising the ocean floor at the center of the ocean basins.

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MOVEMENT OF PLATES
LEARNING COMPETENCY
Explain how the movement of plates leads to the formation of folds, faults, trenches, volcanoes, rift valleys, and mountain ranges. (S11ES- IIg-34)
Alfred Lothar Wegener

German meteorologist and geophysicist who formulated the first complete statement of the
continental drift hypothesis. Alfred Wegener became impressed with the similarity in the coastlines of
eastern South America and western Africa and speculated that those lands had once been joined
together. Wegener’s theory of continental drift won some adherents in the ensuing decade, but his
postulations of the driving forces behind the continents’ movement seemed implausible. The principal
thought of continental drift theory is that the continents are situated on slabs of rock, or plates, and
they have drifted across the surface of the Earth over time; however, originally, they were all joined
together as a huge super continent at one time. In the 1960’s, the theory of continental drift was
combined with the theory of sea-floor spreading to create the,theory of plate tectonics.
Alfred-Wegener
Evidence Supporting Continental Drift Theory
1. Fossils of the same plant (Glossopteris) found in Australia, India, Antarctica and South America.
2. Fossils of same reptile (Mesosaurus) found in Africa and South America. This animal could not have swum across the existing Atlantic
Ocean.
3. Glacial deposits found in current warm climates and warm climate plant fossils found in what is now the Arctic.
4. Nearly identical rock formations found on the east coast of U.S. and the west coast of Europe and eastern South America and western
Africa.
The Earth is made up of three main layers:
1. The Core is at the center of the Earth. It is divided into an inner and outer core.
2. The Mantle is the layer surrounding the core. The upper mantle is partially molten and called the asthenosphere.
3. The Crust, or lithosphere, is the rigid outer- most layer.
Earth’s Sublayers
Lithosphere: This layer combines the rigid crust plus the upper-most mantle.
Asthenosphere: Partially molten part of upper mantle. Tectonic plates are able to move about on top of the softer, partially molten asthenosphere.
The Earth’s crust consists is of about a dozen large slabs of rock, or PLATES, that the continents and oceans rest on. These plates can move
centimeters per year— about as fast as your fingernails grow up to 15cm/year in some places. Tectonic plates consist of lithospheric mantle (upper
part of the upper mantle) overlain by either of two types of crustal material: oceanic crust and continental crust. Average oceanic lithosphere is
typically 100 km thick; its thickness is a function of its age. As time passes, it conductively cools and becomes thicker. Continental lithosphere is
typically ~200 km thick, though this also varies considerably between basins, mountain ranges, and stable cratonic interiors of continents.
Major Continental and Oceanic plates
❖ Eurasian plate ❖ Caribbean plate
❖ Australian-Indian plate ❖ South American plate
❖ Philippine plate, Pacific plate ❖ African plate
❖ Juan de Fuca plate, Nazca plate ❖ Arabian plate
❖ Cocos plate ❖ Antarctic plate
❖ North American plate ❖ Scotia plate
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory which describes the large-scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. Tectonic plates, or lithospheric plates, are
constantly moving, being created, and consumed simultaneously. Today, there are 15 major tectonic plates that move and interact with each
other. Where these plates meet, a plate boundary is formed and geological features unique to the different boundaries can be found. The motion
sometimes results in earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain ranges at the plate boundaries. Plate motion is driven by heat escaping from the
mantle. The constant movement of heat in the mantle leads to circular convection currents. These hot convective cells are similar to the rolling
boil that occurs when water is heated on a stovetop. The flowing mantle has also been compared to a “conveyor belt,” moving the rigid plates in
different directions.
PLATE MOVEMENTS PROCESSES
1. Hot mantle from the two adjacent cells rises at the ridge axis, creating a new ocean crust.
2. The top limb of the convection cell moves horizontally away from the ridge crest, as does the new seafloor.
3. The outer limbs of the convection cells plunge down into the deeper mantle, dragging oceanic crust as well. This takes place at the deep-sea
trenches.
4. The material sinks to the core and moves horizontally.
5. The material heats up and reaches the zone where it rises again.
Types of Plate Boundary
Convergent Plate Boundaries
Convergent plate boundaries are plate boundaries where two plates move toward
each other. This type of boundary deforms the crust on one or both plate edges.
Continental - continental collisions occur when two continental plates collide and
neither will subduct beneath the other (both are composed of less-dense
continental crust). These collisions result in mountain- building, or “orogenies”.
Rocks and debris are warped and folded into rocky outcrops, hills, mountains, and Fig. 3 Continental-Continental Convergence
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entire mountain ranges in the compressing boundaries. Mountains formed are called Fold Mountains. One example are the Himalayas which
resulted from an ongoing continental collision where the Indian and Eurasian plates are coming together. Another is the Appalachian Mountains,
an ancient mountain range that was formed from a continental collision.
Oceanic and continental collision
The more dense oceanic plate subducts beneath the more buoyant continental plate. These plate boundaries are characterized by a
chain of volcanoes inland from the subduction zone. Thrust faulting is common along these plate boundaries, Fig. 3: Oceanic-continental
convergence
and large earthquakes are possible.
. The Cascadia subduction zone and Cascade Mountains are excellent examples of a subduction zone
and associated volcanic chain.
Oceanic - Oceanic convergence
It is a convergence zone where an oceanic plate subducts beneath another oceanic plate, the same as a
continent-ocean subduction zone. An ocean trench marks the location where the plate is pushed down
into the mantle. In this case, the line of volcanoes that grows on the upper oceanic plate is an island arc.
Fig. 4: Oceanic-oceanic Convergence
In the north Pacific, the Pacific Plate is subducting beneath the North American Plate just as it was off of
the coast of the Pacific Northwest. This subduction creates the Aleutian Islands, many of which are currently active

.
Divergent Plate Boundaries mostly
occur as mid-ocean ridges, but some can be rift valleys within continents. Normal faults are commonly
found at mid-ocean ridges and divergent plate boundaries. These normal faults create a series of horsts
and grabens, otherwise known as basins and ranges.

Fig. 5: Divergent plate boundary

Transform Plate Boundary displays horizontal movement. Typically, no land is destroyed or created along
these plate boundaries. This is characterized by strike-slip faulting and earthquakes are a common
occurrence along this type of boundary.

The fracture zone that forms a transform plate boundary is known as a transform fault. Most transform faults
are found in the ocean basin and connect offsets in the mid-ocean ridges.
The San Andreas Fault is an excellent example of a strike-slip fault and a transform plate boundary.
Fig. 6: Transform plate boundary

A Closer Look at Fold Mountain Formation

➢ They are formed at continental-continental plate boundaries.
➢ Compressional force causes the layers of rock to buckle and fold.
➢ The process is called folding.
Key Concepts on Plate Tectonic Movement

• There are three types of plate movement: the converging, diverging or transversing against one another.

• The tectonic movement of the Earth's plates has resulted in the folding and faulting of the Earth's crust.

Folding is a tectonic activity that results in the formation of Fold Mountains, such as the Himalayas, while a Rift Valley, such as the
East African Rift Valley, is formed from faulting.
• Mountain belts are created when two continental crusts collide. The crust thickens, the rocks are folded and faulted, and is forced up
as you can observe in mountains.

• In the converging plates between oceanic and continental, the oceanic plate subducts because it is denser. The subducting oceanic
plate melts in the mantle and forms volcanoes on the surface. Trench is also formed along the subduction zone.

• Divergence of plate boundaries occurs mostly as mid-ocean ridges where normal faults can be found. But divergence within
continental crusts leads to the formation of rift valleys.

• Transform plate boundaries form the strike-slip fault and frequent earthquakes occur.

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