Referring to the picture above, this is a composition of a sediment core from on

Question

Referring to the picture above, this is a composition of a sediment core from one place in the deep ocean. It was recovered in a water depth of 4,000m.

1) How can this layering be explained?

2) What are the conditions under which each of the layers would be expected to have been formed?

Brown, olive colored and red Clay Turbidite Upper sequence Calcareous Ooze Brown, olive colored and red Clay This is the composition of a sediment core from one place in the deep ocean. It was recovered in a water depth of 4000 m. How can this layering be explained? What are the conditions under which each of these layers would be expected to have been formed? Recognizing that this location is on a moving plate, what does this tell you about the path (geologic history) of this location of the sea floor at this location? Siliceous (Radiolarian) Ooze Brown, olive colored and red Clay Calcareous Ooze Fractured Basalt

Explanation / Answer

This layering is because of deposition of sediments in chronological order. Sediments cored from the ocean bottom serve as a timeline of events: each year's sediments are stacked on top of the ones from the year before. The deeper the sediment, the older it is.

2)These sediments accumulated about 55 million years ago over a span of about 300,000 years and give clear evidence of a major shift in ocean composition.

Light-colored sediments = Lots of shells

Dark-colored sediments = Few shells

3) This core may be modeled after one taken from the seafloor almost 5 kilometers (3 miles) underwater in the southeastern Atlantic as it is a moving plate.

The ocean is divided into three areas. The continental shelf extends up to a few hundred kilometers into the open ocean and is about 100 to 200 meters deep. Beyond the shelf the continentalslope drops slowly to a depth of about 4,000 meters, where the ocean floor spreads across most of the Atlantic.

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