EVOLUTION OF

Ocean Basins
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Tectonic Activities

Seafloor Spreading Subduction

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What are Ocean Basins?

• A consequence of plate motion
• Subducting slabs pull on their plates leading
to spreading and divergent plate boundaries
• Partially bounded by continents but they’re
interconnected
• Ocean Basins make up more than 70% of the
total land of Earth
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The Major Ocean Basins

Pacific Basin
• Largest and deepest ocean in the
world; 1/3 of the Earth’s surface
• Home to the lowest point on
Earth and the deepest part of the
Ocean known as the Mariana
Trench
• An ocean bordering Asia,
Northeastern Australia,
Antarctica, and Western North
and South America
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The Major Ocean Basins

Atlantic Basin
• Second largest ocean basin; covers
approximately 1/5 of the entire global
ocean
• The deepest part is the Puerto Rico
trench
• An ocean bordering western Europe,
western Africa, Antarctica, and
Eastern North and South America
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The Major Ocean Basins

Indian Basin
• Third largest ocean
basin; approximately
20% of the Earth’s water
surface
• An ocean bordering
Eastern Africa, southern
Asia, Western Australia,
and Antarctica
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The Major Ocean Basins

Southern (Antarctic) Basin
• Fourth-largest body of
water
• An ocean bordering
Antarctica and
extending from 60
degrees south latitude
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The Major Ocean Basins

Arctic Basin
• Lies at the top of the
world
• An ocean around the
north pole, bordering
northern Europe, Asia,
and north America
• Smallest Ocean Basin
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Map of the North Atlantic

By: Bruce Heezen, 1959
Ocean
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THE STRUCTURE OF OCEAN BASINS

The CONTINENTAL MARGIN of major features of the ocean floor are:

• Continental Shelf (less than 150 meters of water depth)

• Continental Slope (depth up to 1200 meters)
• Continental Rise (at the base of the continental slope)
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THE STRUCTURE OF OCEAN BASINS

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THE STRUCTURE OF OCEAN BASINS

Types of Continental Margin

1. Passive
• (hundreds of kilometer wide)
• Inactive surface is slow to
change and does little more
than collect sediment
2. Active
• (less than 1 kilometer wide)
• Active ocean basins have a lot
of new structure being created
and shaped
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THE STRUCTURE OF OCEAN BASINS

Mid-Oceanic Ridge
• Above the ocean floor
• At the center of the
ocean basins
• 23% of the Earth’s
surface
• Long linear mountain
chain in all oceans and
bound basins
• Fracture zones are
perpendicular to ridges
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THE STRUCTURE OF OCEAN BASINS

Deep Ocean Basins
• Greater than 4000m in
water depth, typically
flat or subdued
photography
• Regularly cut by long
fracture zones
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THE STRUCTURE OF OCEAN BASINS

Ocean Trenches
• Long, narrow, and steep
sided depressions found
on the ocean floor that
contain the greatest
depths in the ocean
• Mark the transition
between continents and
ocean basins (especially
in the Pacific basin)
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THE STRUCTURE OF OCEAN BASINS

Ocean Rises
• Seamounts: guyots,
atolls, all forms of
submarine volcanoes,
submarine plateaus
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HOW DID OCEAN

BASINS EVOLVE?
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WILSON CYCLE:
Stages of Ocean Basin
Evolution
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1. Embryonic
• First stage of ocean basin evolution
• A stable continent (Craton) with a hot spot
underneath which can lead to the beginning of a
new ocean
• The rift valley is formed while the continent begins
to split; continental rifting plays a key role in the
formation of an ocean
• New basin will become part of the eventual
continental shelf-slope-rise zone
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1. Embryonic
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1. Embryonic
• Example: Great Rift Valley in Eastern Africa
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2. Juvenile
• Seafloor basalts begin forming as continental sections diverge
• Initially the young marine basin is fairly shallow, if repeated
influxes of sea water become wholly or partly evaporated, salt
deposits will accumulate on the new sea floor. Thus, a normal
marine sedimentation of muds, sands, and limestones depending
on local conditions occur.
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2. Juvenile
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2. Juvenile
• Example: The red sea
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3. Mature
• Ocean basin becomes
broad as it widens
• Fairly shallow
• Trenches develop and
subduction begins
• Abyssal plains form
• Full-developed shelf-
slope-rise zone
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3. Mature
• Example: Atlantic Ocean
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4. Declining
• Subduction
eliminates much
of sea floor and
oceanic ridge
• Dominant
motions are
spreading and
shrinking
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4. Declining
• Example: Pacific Ocean
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5. Terminal
• Dominant motions are uplift and converge.
Oceanic crust and Continental crust converge,
this occurrence leads to the ocean basin to
become narrow and shallow
• Existence of young mountains in the ocean basin
is a key determinant to know if an ocean is in the
terminal stage
• African plate being consumed under the
European plate
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5. Terminal
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5. Terminal
• Example: Mediterranean
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6. Suturing
• Also called “Continental
collision, or “relict scar”
• Shrinking and uplifting of
young mountains.
• Continuous collision of
continents leads to the
growth of young mountains
to mature mountains
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6. Relict Star
• Example: Indus Structure in Himalayas