Abstract
The continents are very old: they contain rocks aged thousands of millions of years. Ultimately, they are the product of selective accumulation of low density mantle material. Because of this low density they float on the mantle. The ocean floor, on the other hand, is geologically young, as we have seen. The basaltic rock which forms the ocean floor basement is rather close in composition to the mantle rock it came from. It is slightly heavier than continental rock (largely due to its high iron content, Appendix A6). The light-weight continental mass protrudes above the surrounding sea floor (Fig. 2.1a). Thick sediment piles accumulate at the boundary between continent and ocean, which build the actual margin (Fig. 2.1c). These sediments may be well layered or strongly deformed, depending on the tectonic forces active at the margin.
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Further Reading
Shepard FP, Dill RF (1966) Submarine canyons and other sea valleys. Rand McNally, Chicago
Burk CA, Drake CL (eds) (1974) The geology of continental margins. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Dickinson WR, Yarborough H (1981) Plate tectonics and hydrocarbon accumulation. Am Assoc Petrol Geol, Continuing Education Ser 1, revised edn. Tulsa, Okla
Watkins JS, Drake CL (eds) (1983) Studies in Continental Margin Geology. AAPG Mem, 34. Am Assoc Petrol Geol, Tulsa, Okla
Bally AW (1981) Geology of passive and continental margins: history, structure and sedimentological record. Am Assoc Petrol Geol, Education Course Note Ser 19
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Seibold, E., Berger, W.H. (1993). Origin and Morphology of Ocean Margins. In: The Sea Floor. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-22519-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-22519-6_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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