Ocean Basins the Oldest Oceanic

Ocean Basins

The oldest oceanic crust in the three oceanic plates -- Atlantic, Pacific and Indian -- can be approximated at 200 million years. This is rather intriguing especially in a context in which the land crust is approximated to being as old as 4 billion years (Patchett and Samson, 2003). Based on the disposition in the map, and the adherent coloring, the oldest oceanic crust seems to be belonging to the Pacific Ocean.

San Francisco, California, is located on the western part of the North American continent, bordering the Pacific Ocean along the West Coast. The age of the oceanic crust at this location is a relatively young one, and it can be estimated to be somewhere between one and 30 million years. This youth could be explained by the changes which have impacted the region throughout the recent millennia.

The Pacific Ocean lies between the American continent, on the one hand, and the Australian and Philippine plates on the other hand. The oceanic crust ages from America towards Australia, meaning otherwise that the crust is youngest near the American coastline. It grows older as the ocean spreads, to reach its highest age at its border with the Philippine plate. It can be estimated that this crust is of approximately 180 million years.

4) as it has been previously mentioned, the Pacific oceanic crust is youngest at its border with the American continent, but also towards the south of the American continent, reaching the south of the Australian Plate. Specifically, the crust of the Pacific Ocean is youngest at its border with the Juan de Fuca Plate, and this youth spreads out along the American coastline, at the borders with the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate, the Antarctic Plate and ultimately, the Australian Plate.

5) as it was mentioned throughout the previous paragraphs, the oceanic crust of the Pacific Ocean is oldest at its border with the Philippine Plate and that with the Australian Plate. It is as such youngest at its border with the American coastline. In between the two, the age of the oceanic plate is a medium one, which can be estimated somewhere between 80 and 160 million years. At the American coastline, the estimated age is between 1 and 60 million years. Finally, at the borderline with the Philippine and the Australian Plates, the approximated age is somewhere between 160, up to 180, or even 200 million years.

6) the Atlantic Ocean plate is similar to that of the Pacific Ocean in the meaning that its age differs. Just like with the Pacific crust, the Atlantic crust is younger at one border, to grow older towards the middle of the ocean, and even older as it reaches the opposite border.

7) the spatial pattern of the crustal age is consistent with the theory of the plate tectonics, which argues that -- at one point in time (or even at several times) -- the entire lands on the planet were joined together (Rockhounding Arkansas, 1998). The pattern of the crustal age is consistent with this theory as it reveals a similar construction and composition of the borders along the continents, indicating that those regions -- which are now similar -- could once have been part of the same whole.