Grade 8 Unit A: Water Systems on Earth

3. describe processes that lead to the development of ocean basins and continental drainage
systems

https://www.chegg.com/flashcards/science-questions-chapter-2-76214515-daed-4e2c-be70-
5a04473b21fa/deck
http://stemnorth.nbed.nb.ca/sites/stemnorth.nbed.nb.ca/files/doc/y2015/Nov/
grade_8_water_systems_on_earth_lesson_guide_.pdf
https://www.gov.nl.ca/education/files/
k12_curriculum_guides_science_grade8_unit_1_b_grd8_august_122011.pdf
https://www.whatarethe7continents.com/what-is-the-continental-divide/

What is an ocean basin?

If we stripped earth of water and people and trees and everything else, we would see that the earth’s
crust has high points and low points. The high points are mountain ranges, and the low points are bowl-
like depressions called ocean basins. If we were to then re-introduce water back into the earth – for
example, by making it rain – that water would flow via a Continental Drainage System (basically a
continent-wide river system that moves water efficiently from high to low) and end up in ocean basin.

You can think of ocean basins as large, very deep bowls (4km deep on average, in fact) made out of Con
that have accumulated lots of water over millions of years. The sides of the “bowls” are formed by the
outer edges of the continents, or continental margins; these margins include features called the
continental shelf (you walk on this when you wade in the water) and the continental slope (where the
ocean floor begins a steep descent). Although the world’s oceans are technically all connected

The floors of ocean basins, made of oceanic crust, contain features that are similar to those we see on
land, like high mountains, volcano chains, canyons, valleys and wide plains.

- Insert diagram

Processes that lead to ocean basins

1. Tectonic Activity: In some places, deep cracks in the oceanic crust called trenches cut into the
ocean floor; in others, underwater mountain chains, called oceanic ridges, rise up from the sea
floor. Most of Earth’s ocean basins were formed by two types of plate tectonic activity at these
sites:
a. Seafloor spreading at ocean ridges: new oceanic crust is formed at oceanic ridges,
where two plates are pulling apart. Here, hot and light magma from the mantle bubbles
up from the interior of the Earth and moves outward, cooling and hardening as it does
so and becoming a new part of Earth’s crust. The Atlantic basin is currently expanding
through this process!
 b. Subduction at ocean trenches: old ocean crust is destroyed at ocean trenches, where
two tectonic plates of unequal densities converge. In subduction, the more buoyant
oceanic plate is “forced” to dive beneath a less dense oceanic or continental plate; as it
descends, it melts back into the Earth’s mantle below. This subduction process is causing
the Pacific Ocean to shrink on a geological time scale!

2. Erosion: The continental shelves are shallow areas around the edges of continents. They are
formed mainly of sedimentary deposits of materials that have been eroded off the continents.

3. Volcanic Activity: Volcanic islands (like Hawaii!) are formed in ocean basins by volcanoes that
grow up from the ocean’s floor.

*Note: 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.

What is a continental drainage system?

Imagine a drop of water falls somewhere in British Columbia. Ignoring evaporation, that drop will flow
downhill through a series of streams and rivers and eventually find itself in the Pacific Ocean. If that
drop instead falls in the middle of Saskatchewan, it will make a long journey east and drain into the
Atlantic Ocean. This is due to a Continental Drainage System – a topographic framework that delineates
how water flows across a landmass toward a particular ocean basin. Drainage systems develop in such a
way as to efficiently move water off the land, and are determined by the shape of the landscape; in
particular, Continental Divides are important geological features (usually mountain ranges) that create
two distinct drainage basins – that is, two distinct land areas whose river systems flow into different
oceans.

For example, the Rocky Mountains are North America’s Continental Divide (also known as the Great
Continental Divide), separating river systems that flow to opposite sides of the continent. Water that
rains west of the Rockies will eventually end up flowing into the Pacific Ocean, whereas precipitation
that falls east of the divide will drain into the Atlantic.

*Note: The Great Continental Divide has other significance. By acting as a drainage barrier, it plays a
significant role in determining meteorological patterns and defining ecosystems across the continent. It
has also played an important role in human history. The landscapes around the Great Continental Divide
were inhabited by Indigenous peoples thousands of years ago. Zuni and Acoma tribes in modern New
Mexico built a trail between their pueblos that has been used for a millennium, and their stone bridges
are still used by hikers on the Continental Divide Trail today. The Blackfeet Nation in southern Alberta
and Montana consider the steep mountains of the Divide to be central to the creation story of the
Blackfeet people, naming the mountains “Mistakis” or “the backbone of the world,” Although modern
technology and travel now connect the east and west sides of the continent, the Great Continental
Divide still represents a delineation in the consciousness and cultures of eastern and western Canadians
due to the drastically different conditions that earlier inhabitants would have experienced.

Think: How do eastern Canadians differ from western Canadians culturally? Consciously?

Processes that lead to continental drainage systems

1. Tectonic Activity: The same forces that shape the ocean basins also build the continental divides
and thus determine continental drainage systems. At the edge of the continent, two plates meet
and push against each other, which cause wrinkles to form in the continents’ surface and pushes
the crust upward to form mountains. When mountains form and change through tectonic
activity, so do the shapes and locations of streams and rivers, thus changing the continental
drainage system.
2. Glaciation
As glaciers move through valleys between mountain peaks or across the land, they carve out the
land and set drainage patterns. For example, pieces of rock embedded in the ice gouge out chunks of
land as the glacier moves; glaciers also leave behind rocks, soil and large boulders as they melt (or
retreat); in both cases, they create special glacial features that change the flow of water across a
landscape.
3. Erosion
The natural process of weathering and erosion by all agents (including glaciers) contributes to
forming drainage basins.

Volcanic action: Scientists theorize that volcanic action may have contributed to the formation of early
oceans, in addition to water from comets that crashed to the earth and melted. Volcanic eruptions
spewed water vapor into the atmosphere - much like steam escaping from a kettle. As the planet
cooled, the water vapour condensed and fell to the Earth’s surface as precipitation. Because gravity
causes water to flow downhill, the vast amounts of water that fell began collecting in the lowest parts of
Earth’s surface – the ocean basins – possibly creating the earth’s first oceans.
Plate tectonics: The following plate tectonic activities have contributed to the development of ocean
basins and continental drainage systems:

1. Continental drift: the slow movement of tectonic plates determines the positions of ocean
basins and continents over geological time.
2. Plate convergence: mountain chains are formed by the collision of two plates, and function
as Continental Divides that separate a landmass into two water drainage systems: the land
on one side of the divide drains into one ocean or sea, and the land on the other side drains
into another ocean or sea.
3. Seafloor spreading at ocean ridges: new oceanic crust is formed at oceanic ridges, where
two plates are pulling apart. Here, hot and light magma from the mantle bubbles up from
the interior of the Earth and moves outward, cooling and hardening as it does so and
becoming a new part of Earth’s crust. The Atlantic basin is currently expanding through this
process!
4. Subduction at ocean trenches: old ocean crust is destroyed at ocean trenches, where two
tectonic plates of unequal densities converge. In subduction, the more buoyant oceanic
plate is “forced” to dive beneath a less dense oceanic or continental plate; as it descends, it
melts back into the Earth’s mantle below. This subduction process is causing the Pacific
Ocean to shrink on a geological time scale!

Erosion: Erosion of continental crust by all elements (e.g. water, wind, ice) has aided in the development
and continuous change of Continental Drainage Systems as material is worn away from the land surface
and deposited into ocean basins. This natural process of weathering changes the shapes of mountains,
streams, rivers, and continental shelves, thus changing how water flows toward ocean basins.
Continental shelves – the “lips” of ocean basins – are formed mainly of sedimentary deposits of
materials that have been eroded off the continents.

Glaciation: As glaciers move through valleys between mountain peaks or across the land, they carve out
the land and change drainage patterns. For example, pieces of rock embedded in the ice gouge out
chunks of land as the glacier moves; glaciers also leave behind rocks, soil and large boulders as they melt
(or retreat); in both cases, they create special glacial features that change the flow of water across a
landscape and contribute to erosion that impacts a continent’s drainage system.

Ocean Basins Continental Drainage Systems

Plate tectonics
Volcanic Activity
Erosion Continental shelves and abyssal The weathering of land surfaces by water,
plains are formed by sedimentary wind and ice changes the shapes of
deposits of materials eroded off mountains, valleys, streams and rivers.
the continents.
Glaciation See above. As glaciers melt or retreat, they carve out
valleys and leave behind large boulders and
soil, changing drainage patterns as they do so.