Seafloor Topography, Sediments, and Paleoenvironments

Abstract

This chapter and the next review and synthesize the geology and geophysics of the Nordic Seas. This first chapter’s central topic is sedimentation, and the chapter relates it to seafloor spreading (an aspect of plate tectonics, explained in the appendix section of this chapter) and paleoclimate. An introductory topic is the seafloor topography (Figs. 1 2, and 3). Also considered are the processes that have created and modified the topography, and discussed in particular is the interrelationships of topography and currents. The topography discussion also provides a background for the next chapter, which relates geophysical signatures of the Nordic Seas to seafloor spreading and to the structure and composition of the igneous/metamorphic crust. A treatment of the composition of the sediments on the crust, however, is part of the present chapter. (The crust, also an aspect of plate tectonics, is defined in this chapter’s appendix section.)