Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Plate Tectonics Ocean Basins - 530 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

Plate Tectonics is theory of global tectonics (geologic structural deformations) that has served as a master key in modern geology for understanding the structure, history, and dynamics of the earths crust. The theory is based on the observation that the earths solid crust is broken up into about a dozen semirigid plates. The boundaries of these plates are zones of tectonic activity, where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions tend to occur. Plate Tectonics also are the cause of major features that exist in the World ocean today such as ocean basins. The Pacific is the oldest of the existing ocean basins, its oldest rocks having been dated at about 200 million years.

The major features of the basin and rim have been shaped by the phenomena associated with plate tectonics. The coastal shelf, which extends to depths of about 180 m (about 600 ft), is narrow along North and South America but is relatively wide along Asia and Australia. The East Pacific Rise, a submarine ridge-and-trough system, extends some 9650 km (about 6000 mi) from Antarctica to the Gulf of California, and rises an average of about 2130 m (about 7000 ft) above the ocean floor. Along the East Pacific Rise molten rock upwell's from the earths mantle adding crust to the Pacific and Nazca plates on both sides of the rise. These plates, which are huge segments of the earths surface, are thus forced apart, causing them to collide with the continental plates adjacent to their outer edges. Under this tremendous pressure, the continental plates fold into mountains, and the oceanic plates down buckle, forming deep trenches (subduction zones) from which crust is carried back into the mantle.

Following the early rifting of a continent, narrow basins or primordial oceans such as the Red Sea are formed by incipient seafloor spreading. Having formed from a dome or arch, the lips of the basin may still be uplifted, thus preventing fluvial runoff and deposition of terrigenous clastic debris. Given the right climate, carbonate reefs and evaporites will form. As the ocean widens, arkose's, sandstones, and shales may accumulate in clastic wedges along the continental margin, and marine limestone's may be deposited. The successions on the coasts of Brazil and West Africa record symmetrically the change from non marine clastic sandstones and shales, via evaporites (about 120 million to 110 million years old), to marine sandstones and limestone's. This sequence records the incoming of seawater into a continental rift valley, widened via a Red Sea-type narrow ocean into a mature ocean.

The mid-oceanic ridge, in the youngest part of a growing ocean basin, is usually free of sediment. Passing off the ridge, calcareous sedimentation, caused by microorganisms, is found. Clays and chert (silica rock) occur in deeper parts. On the continental margins of mature oceans, the basal clastic wedge may be succeeded, if the climate is appropriate, by a carbonate platform, such as the Bahama Banks off the eastern United States and the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia.

Turbidity currents flow down the continental slope and deposit terrigenous sediments in the deeper water of the continental rise. River deltas locally add great thicknesses of clastic sediments to the trailing continental margin.


Free research essays on topics related to: million years, plate tectonics, red sea, continental, ocean basins

Research essay sample on Plate Tectonics Ocean Basins

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com