The carbonate compensation depth (CCD) is the dominant facies boundary on the deep-sea floor. It separates calcareous from noncalcareous sediments, with the calcareous deposits (“carbonate ooze”) restricted roughly to the shallower half of the deep-sea floor. The link of the ooze boundary to elevation and the fact that deep-sea calcareous sediments are light gray in color, albeit with a buff tint (Figure 1), have invited comparison to the snow line on land. The ooze consists of calcareous skeletal parts and shells of coccolithophorids and foraminifers (or “nannofossils” and foraminifers). Discoasters (symmetrical ray-bearing nannofossils, Figure 1) are extinct.
View of calcareous ooze from Ontong Java Plateau, western equatorial Pacific, in a partially opened box core. Contents of calcareous ooze (nannofossils, planktonic foraminifers) to the right (Sources: SIO (box core photo, coccosphere, foraminifers) and Bukry and Bramlette (1969), Leg 1...
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Berger, W.H. (2016). Calcite Compensation Depth (CCD). In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1_47
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