The Structure and Origin of the Ocean Basins

The water Planet

Shouldn’t our planet be called “Water” rather than “Earth”?
If you look at a world map in an atlas, you will see that there is more water than land.
• The oceans cover about 71% of the earth's surface. They are not distributed
equally with respect to the Equator.
• Southern Hemisphere: ~ 80% is ocean.
• Northern Hemisphere: ~ 61% is ocean.
• Average depth is 3636 m, Greatest (maximum) depth: ~ 11,022 m (Marianas
Trench) (Land: Mt Everest 8,848 m), and 84% > 2000m depth.

Formation of the Oceans

How did water (and eventually oceans)

form on the Earth?
• Gases, including water vapor, were
released by the process of
outgassing1, where gases from the
mantle were vented out of volcanoes
to the earth’s surface.
• The outgassed water vapor remains in
the atmosphere for millions of years.
This is because the earth was too hot
to allow the vapor to condense to form
liquid water.
• Eventually, the earth cooled enough
for water vapor to condense into
clouds in the upper cooler atmosphere.
• Hot rain fell, however, since the
earth's surface was so hot, the hot rains
will boil back into the clouds.
• As this process continued, the surface
cooled enough for water to collect in
basins, forming the earliest oceans.

The world Oceans

The ocean surrounds landmasses known as continents, which constitute the remaining
29% of Earth’s surface.
Today's oceans are traditionally divided by the continents into four major parts or basins:
the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and the Arctic. The continuous body of water that
surrounds Antarctica is called the Southern Ocean.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1 Outgassing is the slow release of a gas that was trapped in some material

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 Table Areas, volumes, mean depths and maximum depths of the four major ocean basins.
Area Volume Mean Maximum
Ocean
(106 km2) (106 km3) Depth (m) Depth (m)
Pacific 181.3 714.4 3940 11022
Atlantic 94.3 337.2 3575 8605
Indian 74.1 284.6 3840 7450
Arctic 12.3 13.7 1117 4600

The oceans and seas of the world

Marginal Seas
Often, where two continents lie close together, a smaller part of an ocean called a sea is
formed. Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Mexico, the Baltic Sea,
North Sea, and South China Sea are examples of these seas.
Owing to their restricted connections with the open ocean, most marginal seas have
unique oceanographic characteristics. For example, the presence of a shallow-water
barrier, or sill (Gibraltar Sill), restricts exchange between the Mediterranean and Atlantic
Ocean. Additionally, the local excess of evaporation relative to precipitation increases
the salinity within the Mediterranean.
These differences in the physical characters (temperature, salinity and consequently
density) between Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean are resulted in dividing the two seas
into two separate entities by means of barrier.
Allah Q has informed us about this barrier in the Nobel Qur’an that:
‫ج ِﻣ ْﻨ ُﻬ َﻤ ﺎ اﻟﻠﱡ ْﺆُﻟ ُﺆ‬
ُ ‫ﺨ ُﺮ‬
ْ ‫ن * َﻳ‬
ِ ‫ي ﺁﻻ ِء َر ﱢﺑ ُﻜ َﻤ ﺎ ُﺗ َﻜ ﱢﺬﺑَﺎ‬
‫ن * َﻓ ِﺒ َﺄ ﱢ‬
ِ ‫خ ﻻ َﻳ ْﺒ ِﻐ َﻴ ﺎ‬
ٌ ‫ن* َﺑ ْﻴ َﻨ ُﻬ َﻤ ﺎ َﺑ ْﺮ َز‬
ِ ‫ﻦ َﻳ ْﻠ َﺘ ِﻘ َﻴ ﺎ‬
ِ ‫ﺤ َﺮ ْﻳ‬
ْ ‫ج ا ْﻟ َﺒ‬
َ ‫} َﻣ َﺮ‬:‫ﻗ ﺎل اﷲ ﺗﻌ ﺎﻟﻰ‬
.[22-19 :‫ن{ ]اﻟﺮﺣﻤﻦ‬ ُ ‫وَا ْﻟ َﻤ ْﺮﺟَﺎ‬
The interpretation of this verse is that; when the water from one sea enters the other sea,
it looses its distinctive characteristics and becomes homogenized with the other water. In
a way, this barrier serves as a transitional homogenizing area for the two waters. This is
an excellent example of the Scientific Inimitability of the Noble Qur'an.

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 Ocean Floor Features
Bathymetry: Measuring the Ocean Depths and mapping of ocean floor features.

How did early scientists recognize the ocean floor features?

Early bathymetric studies were often performed using a weighted line dropped to
measure the depth.

Advances in Bathymetry
Echo sounding
Echo sounding is a method of measuring depth using powerful sound pulses. After the
sound wave hits the bottom, the returning signal, called an echo, is received by a depth
recorder in the ship. The time it takes for the sound pulse to travel to the sea bed and
bounce back is a measure of the depth.
Two pieces of information are needed to calculate the depth—the speed of sound in water
(1454 meters per second) and the time it takes for the signal to reach the bottom. If for
example a signal takes one second (after being sent) to return to the ship, then it takes
one-half second to travel to the bottom. Since sound travels 1454 meters per second
underwater, the depth of the water = 1454 (1/2 × 1) = 727 meters.
Sonar (sound navigation ranging) is a technique or equipment that used to locate objects
underwater by the detection of echoes.
Sonar is also very useful to help ships navigate in shallow waters. For example, a reef
may be located only several meters below the surface -close enough to make ships
cautious when they pass by. Modern fishing boats also use sonar to locate schools of fish.

Echo sounding Multibeam System

Multibeam Systems
Multibeam systems collect data from as many as 121 beams to measure the contours of
the ocean floor.

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Satellite Altimetry (‫)ﻗﻴﺎس اﻹرﺗﻔﺎﻋﺎت‬
Satellite altimetry is an indirect way of measuring depth and detecting sea floor features.
Satellites measure the sea surface height from their orbits (i.e. the distance between the
satellite and the sea surface) by bouncing rapid pulses of radar energy off the ocean
surface. These measurements show that the sea surface is not smooth but undulates by as
much as 100 m above and below a smooth reference sea surface. Sea floor features like
submerged mountains -see figure below- have more mass than sea water. This extra mass
pulls the sea surface into gentle “hills” above the features. Thus we can locate the
features below the surface by measuring the variations in sea surface height.

The sea floor

The sea floor to be subdivided into three distinct regions: continental margins, deep ocean
basins and midoceanic ridges.

Continental Margins: The continental margins represent the submerged ends of the
continents which composed mostly of granite. It represents 7-8% of the total ocean area

Components of Continental margins:

1. Continental shelf (‫)اﻟﺮﻓ ﺮف اﻟﻘ ﺎري‬: a shallow, gently sloping (~1 degree), submerged
edge of the continent. It extends from roughly 10 km to over 300 km from the strand line.
Though they make up only about 8% of the ocean’s surface area, continental shelves are
the biologically richest part of the ocean, with the most life and the best fishing. The
continental shelf ends at the shelf break, where the slope abruptly gets steeper. The shelf
break usually occurs at depths of 100-200 m.
2. Continental slope (‫)اﻟﻤﻨﺤ ﺪر اﻟﻘ ﺎري‬: is the area where the seafloor drops steeply at the
outer edge of the continental shelf.
3. Submarine canyons (‫ )اﻟﻮدﻳﺎن اﻟﺒﺤﺮﻳﺔ‬The continental shelf and continental slope are
usually dissected by a V-shaped depression called submarine canyons that act as
channels for down-slope transport of sediment.
Underwater landslides called turbidity currents commonly flow down submarine
canyons. The debris settles out to build up a fan-shaped sediment called a submarine fan
at the base of the canyon and on deep sea floor.

24
 How did these huge canyons form?
Submarine canyons developed during the last ice age, when the sea level was much
lower. At these times most of the continental shelves were exposed and rivers and
glaciers (A glacier is a mass of moving ice formed on mountains from compacted
snow) flowed across the continental shelves and eroded deep river valleys. When the
sea level rose at the end of the ice age, these valleys were submerged, creating the
submarine canyons.

4. Continental rise (‫)اﻟﻤﺮﺗﻔ ﻊ اﻟﻘ ﺎري‬: A slightly elevated region formed as a result of
accumulations of sediment at the base of the continental slope.

Deep-Sea Floor (‫)ﻗﺮار اﻟﺒﺤﺮ اﻟﻌﻤﻴﻖ‬

The deep sea floor beyond the continental margin; made up of oceanic crust, which is
composed mostly of volcanic basalt. Most of the deep-sea floor lies at a depth of 3,000 to
5,000 m, averaging about 4,000 m
Deep Ocean Province is between the continental margins and the midoceanic ridge and
includes a variety of features such as; Abyssal plain, Abyssal hills, Seamounts, and Deep
sea trenches
Abyssal plain (‫)اﻟﺴ ﻬﻮل اﻟﻤﺤﻴﻄﻴ ﺔ‬: are broad flat areas of ocean floor found between the
continental margins and the mid-ocean ridges, average 4000 m depth and coated by
sediments.
Abyssal hills are small, extinct volcanoes or rock intrusions that poke up through the
sediments coating the abyssal plains.
Seamounts are steep-sided volcanoes that rise up from the sea floor but which do not
stick up above sea level.
Mid-oceanic islands rise up from the deep sea floor to the surface due to hot spots in the
crust (e.g.., Hawaiian Islands)

25
Guyots are flat-topped seamounts. Today they occur far below sea level, but at one time
they were islands that poked up above the surface. They were eroded flat by wave action,
and then gradually sank downward.
Trenches (‫)اﻟﺨﻮاﻧ ﻖ أو اﻟﺨﻨ ﺎدق‬: are the deepest parts of the sea floor and may be over 10000
m deep. They are found at the margins of the crustal plates and formed by subduction,
where one plate descends into the mantle below the other plate. The deepest ocean trench
is the Mariana Trench (11,022 m), located in the western Pacific Ocean.

Two examples of continental margins, showing various topographic features.

Midoceanic ridge (‫ )اﻟﺤﻮاﺟﺰ اﻟﻤﺤﻴﻄﻴﺔ‬systems: A continuous chain of volcanic Submarine

Mountain that encircle the globe, marking the boundaries of several crustal plates and
extends for about 60,000 km around the Earth. These are areas of sea floor spreading
and the formation of new oceanic crust (see the plate tectonic theory).
They rise 2000-4000 meters from the ocean floor, and parts sometimes reach the sea
surface, forming emergent islands (e.g., Iceland).
At the center of the ridge there is a great gap or depression known as the central rift
valley.

26
Hydrothermal Vents
Occur near the axes of oceanic ridges. Cold, dense seawater seeps down through fractures
in the ocean floor and gets heated to very high temperatures by the hot mantle material.
The heated water then forces its way back up through the crust and emerges in
hydrothermal vents, or deep-sea hot springs.

As the hot water seeps through cracks in the earth’s crust, it dissolves a variety of
minerals. When the mineral-laden hot water emerges at the vent, it mixes with the
surrounding cold water and is rapidly cooled.
This causes many of the minerals to solidify, forming mineral deposits around the vents
in chimney-like structures called smokers. The “smoke” is actually a dense cloud of
mineral particles.

Types of Smokers

o White smokers are warm water vents (10-20°C) containing white particles of
barium sulfate
o Black smokers are hot water vents (350°C - 400°C) containing black metal
sulfides

Deep-sea hot springs are of great interest to biologists. One of the most exciting
developments ever in marine biology has been the discovery of unexpectedly rich marine
life around hydrothermal vents.

27
The Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a semi-enclosed basin that extends for 3800 km in an East to
West direction and for 800 km North to South in the widest sections. It covers an area of
2.5 million km2 and contains a volume of 3.7 million km3 of water. The average depth of
the basin is thus 1500 m. Depths over 4000 m are common and the maximum depth is
5121 m off the Southern coast of Greece.
The Mediterranean Sea harbours most of the topographical structures; such as submarine
canyons, seamounts, or deep trenches. The continental shelves are relatively narrow,
cover only 30% of the Mediterranean sea surface. Continental shelves are only extensive
near the major river mouths.
The continental slope is steep dropping rapidly into submarine canyons that lead into
deep basins. This is particularly true in the eastern basin where the continental shelf is not
continuous but dissected by its complex topography.
The Mediterranean Sea is comprised of two major basins, western and eastern, that are
divided by the relatively shallow strait of Sicily which acts as a geographical and
hydrological frontier between them. These two basins are in turn divided into a series of
interacting parts and adjacent seas. The Western Mediterranean covers about 0.85 km2
and the Eastern Mediterranean about 1.65 km2.

Fig. The Mediterranean Sea is formed of various interconnecting but nearly autonomous basins. In the
Western Mediterranean, the Alboran, Balearic, Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Seas can be identified though only
bottom topography, hydrographic or even historical boundaries separate one from the other. In the Eastern
Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Adriatic Seas are clearly separated from the rest of the basin while no
real separations exist between the Ionian and Levantine Seas.

The Mediterranean Sea is connected with (and separated from) the Atlantic by the Strait
of Gibraltar (15 kilometers wide, with an average depth of 290 meters and a maximum of
950 meters), with the Sea of Marmara* by the Dardanelles (between 450 meters and 7.4
kilometers wide and 55 meters deep), and with the Red Sea by the Suez Canal (1200
meters wide and 12 meters deep).

* Marmara
inland sea in north-west Turkey connected to the Black Sea by the Bosporus and connected to the
Aegean by the Dardanelles

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 Plate Tectonics Theory ‫ﻧﻈﺮﻳﺔ ﺗﻜﺘﻮﻧﻴﺔ اﻟﺼﻔﺎﺋﺢ‬

Is the comprehensive theory that tied the ideas of continental drift and seafloor spreading
theories together to explain the horizontal crustal movements.
The concept of the theory is that, the outer part of the earth is split up into a set of rigid,
moving plates. These plates move because of slow convecting currents of hot rock inside
the earth.

The continental drift (‫) زﺣﺰﺣﺔ اﻟﻘﺎرات‬

This theory is proposed by Wegener, a German meteorologist, astronomer, and Arctic
explorer. He proposed the existence of a single supercontinent, he called Pangaea.
Wegener thought that forces arising from the rotation of the earth began Pangaea's
breakup. First, the northern portion composed of North America and Eurasia, which he
called Laurasia, separated from the southern portion formed from Africa, South
America, India, Australia, and Antarctica, for which he retained the earlier name
Gondwanaland. The continents as we know them today then gradually separated and
moved to their present positions.

Wegener based his ideas on the following:

1. The geographic fit of the continents, and the way in which some of their older
mountain ranges and rock formations appeared to relate to each other when the
landmasses were assembled to form Pangaea.
2. He also noted that fossils more than 150 million years old collected on different
continents were remarkably similar, implying the ability of land organisms to move
freely from one landmass to another. Fossils from different places dated after this period
showed quite different forms, suggesting that the continents and their evolving
populations had separated from one another.

29
Wegener's theory however was rejected; because most geologists agreed that it was not
possible to move the continental rock masses through the rigid basaltic crust of the ocean
basins. There was no mechanism to cause the drift. Eventually new technology provided
evidence to support his idea.

Seafloor spreading (‫)اﺗﺴﺎع أرﺿﻴﺔ اﻟﻤﺤﻴﻂ‬

Sea-floor spreading is only part of the story of plate tectonics. The earth’s surface is
covered by a fairly rigid layer composed of the crust and the uppermost part of the
mantle. This layer, approximately 100 km thick, is called the lithosphere( ‫ﺍﻟﻐﻼﻑ ﺍﻟﺼـﺨﺭﻱ‬
‫)ﺍﻟﺼـــﻠﺏ ﻟـــﻸﺭﺽ‬. The
lithosphere is broken into a
number of plates called
lithospheric plates. A
plate can contain
continental crust, oceanic
crust, or both. The
lithospheric plates float on
the rest of the upper
mantle, called the
asthenosphere ( ‫ﺍﻟﻐــﻼﻑ‬
‫ـﻭﺍﻫﻥ‬‫)ﺍﻟـ‬, which is denser
and more plastic.
In the early 1960s H.H.
Hess and Robert Dietz
proposed that within the
earth's mantle there are
currents of low-density
molten material heated by
the earth's natural
radioactivity. When these
upward-moving mantle currents reach the lithosphere, they move along under it, cooling
as they do so until they become cool enough and dense enough to sink down toward the

30
core again. These patterns of moving mantle material are called convection (ّ‫)ﺣَﻤْـﻞٌ ﺣَـﺮَارِي‬
cells or convection currents.

These currents drive the plates apart. As a result, the rocks of the oceanic crust break and
form a crack between the plates. Magma rises through the cracks and seeps out onto the
ocean floor, which then cooled and solidified as it meets the water forming new oceanic
crust. The process continues today. Molten mantle materials continually rise to fill the
cracks formed as the plates move slowly apart from each other. The mid-ocean ridges
form the edges of many of the plates. It is at the ridges that the lithospheric plates move
apart and new sea floor—that is, new oceanic lithosphere—is created by sea-floor
spreading. If the plate includes a block of continental crust, the continent is carried along
with the plate as it moves away from the ridge.
Because new crust is being formed and added to the ocean floor during sea-floor
spreading process at mid ocean ridges, the processes are Constructive ‫ َﺑﻨﱠﺎء‬.
The seafloor spreading at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge causes the North America and South
America plates move westward, while the Eurasian and African plates move eastward.

The major lithospheric plates and their direction of relative movement are shown here. The boundaries between plates correspond to
most of the earth’s earthquakes and volcanoes.

31
Trench formation
If new crust is being produced in the manner described above, a mechanism is needed to
remove old crust since there is no measurable change in the size of the earth.
In fact, as the lithospheric plates diverged at the mid-oceanic ridge it will be converged
with another plate on the other side.
In some places, the movement of the plates causes them to collide with one another.
When this occurs, earthquakes are formed, and the heavier and denser oceanic plates sink
into the hot mantle beneath the lighter continental plates in a process called subduction
‫اﻻﻧﺪﺳ ﺎس‬. The subduction process depresses the sea floor forming a trench. As an oceanic
plate is subducted into the Earth, it is subjected to increased pressure and temperature.
These conditions cause the plate materials to melt. This molten material moves upward
through crustal fractures adjacent to the subduction zone and forms belts of volcanoes
along the trench and above subducted plates. Because old plates are being destroyed
during trench formation, the processes are destructive ‫هﺪﱠام‬.
When volcanoes produced in this way are close to the continent they often causes the
development of continental volcanoes which may form coastal mountain ranges (e.g..
Andes Mtns. along Pacific coast of South America)
When volcanoes are separated from a continent they often form island arc systems ‫اﻷﻗﻮاس‬
‫اﻟﺠُﺰرﻳﺔ‬. Volcanic action of this type form the island arc chains of Japan, Philippines, and
Malaysia.

Plate tectonics in our region

Palestine is located on the Sinai sub-plate (part of the African plate).The Dead Sea Rift
which is part of long fissure in the earth's surface called the Great Rift Valley represents a
key tectonic feature in the eastern Mediterranean region. The Dead Sea Rift is considered
to be a plate boundary between the Arabian plate in the east and the Sinai subplate in the
west.
The tectonic forces on the
Sinai subplate and the
Arabian plate are a
transform fault, where
the adjacent plates grind
past each other. The rate of
displacement across the
fault has been estimated as
1–10 mm/yr. From the
Dead Sea the fault extends
almost due south to the
Red Sea, and almost due
north along the Jordan
River and up into
Lebanon, eventually
wending its way into
southern Turkey.
Earthquakes in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, are associated mainly with the
northward movement of the Arabian plate and its collision with the Eurasian plate.

32
Evidence supporting the theory of plate tectonics:

a. Radiometric dating of rocks revealed that the oceanic crust is not more than about
200 million years old anywhere, while the rocks from the land are much older.
b. Echo sounders revealed the shape of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and trenches.
c. Seismographs revealed that volcanoes and earthquakes occur mostly in narrow belts
or zones on the earth correspond to the edges of tectonic plates (plate boundaries)
and are associated with the mid-ocean ridge.
d. Samples of the sediments that cover the ocean bottom indicated that, sediment age
and thickness were shown to increase with distance from the ocean ridge system.
e. The discovery of magnetic anomalies (‫)اﻟﺤﻴﻮد اﻟﻤﻐﻨﺎﻃﻴﺴﻴﺔ‬

• Scientists discovered that the magnetic properties of rocks on both sides of the
ridge were symmetrical.
• Marine magnetic anomalies always run parallel to mid ocean ridges.
• Magnetic stripes reflect times when Earth's magnetic field is alternatively normal
and reversed polarity.

33