SSP
Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

seafloor

Sediment in the deep ocean. Part 2: thermohaline currents that shape the seafloor

Sediment in the deep ocean. Part 2: thermohaline currents that shape the seafloor

In Part 1 we differentiated between (1) shallow-marine tide-related currents from (2) purely gravitational sediment-laden currents. We could add that the former are periodic, as they are controlled by the effect of the Moon and Sun gravitational fields on the oceanic water as the Earth revolves, while the latter are sort of ‘spontaneous’ currents driven by the Earth gravitation field on sedi ...[Read More]