Oceanic basin - wikipedia Oceanic basin This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( April 2012 ) Diagrammatic cross-section of an ocean basin, showing the various geographic features In hydrology, an oceanic basin may be anywhere on Earth that is covered by seawater but geologically ocean basins are large geologic basins that are below sea level. Geologically, there are other undersea geomorphological features such as the continental shelves, the deep ocean trenches, and the undersea mountain ranges ( for example, the mid-Atlantic ridge and the Emperor Seamounts ) which are not considered to be part of the ocean basins ; while hydrologically, oceanic basins include the flanking continental shelves and shallow, epeiric seas. Contents 1 History 2 See also 3 Notes 4 Further reading 5 External links History Older references ( e.g., Littlehales 1930 ) consider the oceanic basins to be the complement to the continents, with erosion dominating the latter, and the sediments so derived ending up in the ocean basins. More modern sources ( e.g., Floyd 1991 ) regard the ocean basins more as basaltic plains, than as sedimentary depositories, since most sedimentation occurs on the continental shelves and not in the geologically - defined ocean basins. Hydrologically some geologic basins are both above and below sea level, such as the Maracaibo Basin in Venezuela, although geologically it is not considered an oceanic basin because it is on the continental shelf and underlain by continental crust. Earth is the only known planet in the solar system where hypsography is characterized by different kinds of crust, oceanic crust and continental crust. Oceans cover 70 % of the Earth 's surface. Because oceans lie lower than continents, the former serve as sedimentary basins that collect sediment eroded from the continents, known as clastic sediments, as well as precipitation sediments. Ocean basins also serve as repositories for the skeletons of carbonate - and silica - secreting organisms such as coral reefs, diatoms, radiolarians, and foraminifera. Geologically, an oceanic basin may be actively changing size or may be relatively, tectonically inactive, depending on whether there is a moving plate tectonic boundary associated with it. The elements of an active - and growing - oceanic basin include an elevated mid-ocean ridge, flanking abyssal hills leading down to abyssal plains. The elements of an active oceanic basin often include the oceanic trench associated with a subduction zone. The Atlantic ocean and the Arctic ocean are good examples of active, growing oceanic basins, whereas the Mediterranean Sea is shrinking. The Pacific Ocean is also an active, shrinking oceanic basin, even though it has both spreading ridge and oceanic trenches. Perhaps the best example of an inactive oceanic basin is the Gulf of Mexico, which formed in Jurassic times and has been doing nothing but collecting sediments since then. The Aleutian Basin is another example of a relatively inactive oceanic basin. The Japan Basin in the Sea of Japan which formed in the Miocene, is still tectonically active although recent changes have been relatively mild. See also List of abyssal plains and oceanic basins List of oceanic landforms Solid Earth Notes Jump up ^ Littlehales, G.W. ( 1930 ) The configuration of the oceanic basins Graficas Reunidas, Madrid, Spain, OCLC 8506548 Jump up ^ Floyd, P.A. ( 1991 ) Oceanic basalts Blackie, Glasgow, Scotland, ISBN 978 - 0 - 216 - 92697 - 4 Jump up ^ Biju - Duval, Bernard ( 2002 ) Sedimentary geology : sedimentary basins, depositional environments, petroleum formation Editions Technip, Paris, ISBN 978 - 2 - 7108 - 0802 - 2 Jump up ^ Ebeling, Werner and Feistel, Rainer ( 2002 ) Physics of Self - Organization and Evolution Wiley - VCH, Weinheim, Germany, page 141, ISBN 978 - 3 - 527 - 40963 - 1 Jump up ^ Huerta, Audrey D. and Harry, Dennis L. ( 2012 ) `` Wilson cycles, tectonic inheritance, and rifting of the North American Gulf of Mexico continental margin '' Geosphere 8 ( 2 ) : pp. 374 -- 385, first published on March 6, 2012, doi : 10.1130 / GES00725. 1 Jump up ^ Verzhbitsky, E.V. ; M.V. Kononov ; V.D. Kotelkin ( 5 February 2007 ). `` Plate Tectonics of the Northern Part of the Pacific Ocean ''. Oceanology ( in translation from Okeanologiya ). 47 ( 5 ) : 705 -- 717. Bibcode : 2007Ocgy... 47... 705V. doi : 10.1134 / S000143700705013X. Jump up ^ Clift, Peter D. ( 2004 ) Continent - Ocean Interactions Within East Asian Marginal Seas American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C., pages 102 -- 103, ISBN 978 - 0 - 87590 - 414 - 6 Further reading Wright, John ; et al. ( January 26, 1998 ). The Ocean Basins : Their Structure and Evolution ( Second ed. ). Oxford, England : Open University, Butterworth - Heinemann. ISBN 978 - 0 - 08 - 053793 - 1. CS1 maint : Explicit use of et al. ( link ) External links Global Solid Earth Topography Physical oceanography Waves Airy wave theory Ballantine scale Benjamin -- Feir instability Boussinesq approximation Breaking wave Clapotis Cnoidal wave Cross sea Dispersion Edge wave Equatorial waves Fetch Gravity wave Green 's law Infragravity wave Internal wave Iribarren number Kelvin wave Kinematic wave Longshore drift Luke 's variational principle Mild - slope equation Radiation stress Rogue wave Rossby wave Rossby - gravity waves Sea state Seiche Significant wave height Soliton Stokes boundary layer Stokes drift Stokes wave Swell Trochoidal wave Tsunami megatsunami Undertow Ursell number Wave action Wave base Wave height Wave power Wave radar Wave setup Wave shoaling Wave turbulence Wave -- current interaction Waves and shallow water one - dimensional Saint - Venant equations shallow water equations Wind wave model Circulation Atmospheric circulation Baroclinity Boundary current Coriolis force Coriolis -- Stokes force Craik -- Leibovich vortex force Downwelling Eddy Ekman layer Ekman spiral Ekman transport El Niño -- Southern Oscillation General circulation model Geochemical Ocean Sections Study Geostrophic current Global Ocean Data Analysis Project Gulf Stream Halothermal circulation Humboldt Current Hydrothermal circulation Langmuir circulation Longshore drift Loop Current Modular Ocean Model Ocean dynamics Ocean gyre Princeton ocean model Rip current Subsurface currents Sverdrup balance Thermohaline circulation shutdown Upwelling Whirlpool World Ocean Circulation Experiment Tides Amphidromic point Earth tide Head of tide Internal tide Lunitidal interval Perigean spring tide Rip tide Rule of twelfths Slack water Tidal bore Tidal force Tidal power Tidal race Tidal range Tidal resonance Tide gauge Tideline Landforms Abyssal fan Abyssal plain Atoll Bathymetric chart Coastal geography Cold seep Continental margin Continental rise Continental shelf Contourite Guyot Hydrography Oceanic basin Oceanic plateau Oceanic trench Passive margin Seabed Seamount Submarine canyon Submarine volcano Plate tectonics Convergent boundary Divergent boundary Fracture zone Hydrothermal vent Marine geology Mid-ocean ridge Mohorovičić discontinuity Vine -- Matthews -- Morley hypothesis Oceanic crust Outer trench swell Ridge push Seafloor spreading Slab pull Slab suction Slab window Subduction Transform fault Volcanic arc Ocean zones Benthic Deep ocean water Deep sea Littoral Mesopelagic Oceanic Pelagic Photic Surf Swash Sea level Deep - ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis Future sea level Global Sea Level Observing System North West Shelf Operational Oceanographic System Sea - level curve Sea level rise World Geodetic System Acoustics Deep scattering layer Hydroacoustics Ocean acoustic tomography Sofar bomb SOFAR channel Underwater acoustics Satellites Jason - 1 Jason - 2 ( Ocean Surface Topography Mission ) Jason - 3 Related Argo Benthic lander Color of water DSV Alvin Marginal sea Marine energy Marine pollution Mooring National Oceanographic Data Center Ocean Ocean exploration Ocean observations Ocean reanalysis Ocean surface topography Ocean thermal energy conversion Oceanography Pelagic sediment Sea surface microlayer Sea surface temperature Seawater Science On a Sphere Thermocline Underwater glider Water column World Ocean Atlas Commons Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oceanic_basin&oldid=835455493 '' Categories : Physical oceanography Marine geology Coastal and oceanic landforms Oceanic basins Oceanographical terminology Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from April 2012 All articles needing additional references CS1 maint : Explicit use of et al. 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Question: what is the deepest part of the ocean basin
Answer: abyssal plains