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Ocean Sediment Diversity and Formation Processes

Explore marine sediments: their sizes, origins, and formation through weathering, giving insights into Earth's history. Learn about terrigenous, biogenous, hydrogenous, and cosmogenous sediment types.

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Ocean Sediment Diversity and Formation Processes

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  1. Sediment

  2. Ocean sediment thickness

  3. Which sediment class contains the smallest particle sizes? • Granule • Clay • Very Fine Sand • Pebble

  4. What types of sediments cover the largest percentage of the area of the ocean floor? • Cosmogenous • Terrigenous • Hydrogenous • Biogenous

  5. Ocean sediment deposits

  6. Sea Floor Spreading and Sediment Accumulation

  7. What are Marine sediments? • Eroded rock particles and fragments • Transported to ocean • Deposit by settling through water column • Oceanographers decipher Earth history through studying sediments

  8. Two types of Weathering…… Break down of rocks, soils and minerals through direct contact with the planet's atmosphere. • Physical Weathering heat, water, ice and pressure….

  9. Physical Weathering Physical breakdown of rock: makes small chunks and surface area

  10. 2. Chemical Weathering soil pH, temperature, precipitation, mineral composition of rock…

  11. CO2 CO2 CO2 Respiration H2O + CO2 H2CO3

  12. Chemical Weathering

  13. Chemical Weathering Congruent Weathering--Results in onlydissolved ions. Incongruent Weathering--Results in newly made clay minerals and dissolved ions.

  14. Congruent Weathering • Limestone weathering CaCO3 + H2O + CO2 --> Ca2+ + 2HCO3- Calcite water carbon calcium ion bicarbonate ion dioxide Note: H2O + CO2 --> H2CO3 (called “carbonic acid”)

  15. Florida sinkholes produced by dissolution of limestone by carbonic acid

  16. Incongruent Weathering 2NaAlSi3O8 + 11H2O + 2CO2 --> Feldsparwater carbon dioxide 2Na+ + 2HCO3- + 4H4SiO4 + Al2Si2O5(OH)4 sodium ion bicarbonate ion silica kaolinite (clay)

  17. Classify sediments by size: • Grain size • Proportional to energy of transportation and deposition

  18. Why does the deep sea have all this fine grained material?

  19. Classify sediments by origin: • Terrigenous or Lithogenous • Biogenous • Hydrogenous • (AKA Authigenic) • Cosmogenous • Volcanogenous

  20. Terrigenous sediments • Most lithogenous sediments at continental margins • Coarser sediments closer to shore • Finer sediments farther from shore. • Mainly mineral quartz (SiO2).

  21. Terrigenous sediments • Eroded rock fragments from land • Reflect composition of rock from which derived • Agents of Transport • Water (e.g., river-transported sediment) • Wind (e.g., windblown dust) - aolian transport • Ice (e.g., ice-rafted rocks) • Gravity (e.g., turbidity currents)

  22. Water

  23. Windcan be an important agent of erosion Seawifs image showing dust (product of wind erosion) being carried out to sea from California

  24. Relationship of fine-grained quartz and prevailing winds ~ fine grained clay particles from wind can make up about 38% of deep sea sediment

  25. Turbidites Turbidity currents – deposit material further from coast than would be expected “underwater” landslide…..

  26. Biogenous marine sediments • Shells, bones, teeth - Macroscopic (large remains) - Microscopic (small remains) Tiny shells or tests settle through water column Biogenic ooze (30% or more tests) Mainly algae and protozoans • Hard remains of once-living organisms

  27. Biogenous marine sediments • Commonly either calcium carbonate (CaCO3); Calcite • orsilica(SiO2 or SiO2·nH2O) • Usually planktonic (free-floating)

  28. Silica in biogenic sediments • Diatoms (algae) • Photosynthetic • Diatomaceous earth • Radiolarians (protozoans) • Siliceous ooze If 30% or more of sediment is made up of biogenic material –we call it ooze!

  29. Calcium carbonate in biogenous sediments • Foraminifera (protozoans) • Calcareous ooze

  30. Calcium carbonate in biogenous sediments • Coccolithophores (algae) • Photosynthetic • Coccoliths(nano-plankton) • Rock chalk

  31. White Cliffs of Dover

  32. Factors controlling distributionbiogenous sediments • Productivity • Number of organisms in surface water above ocean floor • Destruction • Skeletal remains (tests) dissolve in seawater at depth • Dilution • Deposition of other sediments decreases percentage of biogenous sediments

  33. Pelagic Deposits

  34. Cosmogenous marine sediments • Macroscopic meteor debris • Overall, insignificant proportion of marine sediments Space dust!

  35. Calcareous Ooze • CCD – Calcite compensation depth • Depth where CaCO3 readily dissolves • Rate of supply = rate at which the shells dissolve • Warm, shallow ocean saturated with calcium carbonate • Scarce calcareous ooze below 5000 meters (16,400 feet) in modern ocean • Ancient calcareous oozes at greater depths if moved by sea floor spreading

  36. Volcanogenous marine sediments • Comes from volcanoes…ash distributed in the marine realm by wind, streams, submarine gravity flows, ocean currents, and sea ice.

  37. Hydrogenous(derived from water) Also known as Authigenic Near hydrothermal vents, lots of metal ions are released into the water, and these ions oxidize or combine with silica and precipitate out as dark, metal-rich sediment.  less common than lithogenous or biogenous sediments. They are almost never the dominant sediment type.

  38. Cross-section of the Ocean Neritic Pelagic

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