Sea Sediment Types and Their Distribution
For ages mankind has struggled to map the geologic features of its surroundings, scaling tall peaks to measure elevation and traversing deadly deserts to expand the horizons of cartography, but the exploration of land typically ended where the sand met the sea. Although seafaring ships have allowed humanity to navigate the ocean's surface for millennia, the ability to accurately map and analyze the seafloor is a relatively modern innovation. The advent of sonar-aided bathymetric techniques, in the early 20th century, and satellite altimeters today, has allowed scientists and researchers to develop highly accurate, adaptable maps of the seafloor which reflect the shifts in sediment patterns caused by underwater currents. Deep sea exploration through the use of submarine vehicles has also enabled the scientific community to closely analyze the properties and physical makeup of the various strata...
We now know that "seafloor sediments can be classified according to their origin into three broad categories: (1) terrigenous ('derived from land'), (2) biogenous ('derived from organisms'), and (3) hydrogenous ('derived from water')" (Lutgen, Tarbuck & Tasa, 2011), while each type of sediment is distributed across the seafloor due to a confluence of external factors.
The spread of terrigneous sediment throughout the seafloor is caused primarily by weathering and wind, as grains of stone from rocks on land are eroded and carried via wind currents, before being deposited into the sea and sinking to the seafloor. The largest particles of terrigenous sediment, such as sand and gravel, are typically heavy enough to resist ocean currents, settling near the shore to form beaches, while the smaller particles can be distributed…
