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An example of an erosional avulsion is the 2006 avulsion of the Suncook River in New Hampshire, in which heavy rains caused flow levels to rise. The river level backed up behind an old mill dam, which produced a shallowly-sloping pool that overtopped a sand and gravel quarry, connected with a downstream section of channel, and cut a new shorter ...
Beach evolution is a natural process occurring along shorelines where sea, lake or river water erodes the land. Beaches form as sand accumulates over centuries through recurrent processes that erode rocky and sedimentary material into sand deposits.
During the Permian-Triassic extinction, the largest extinction event in the Earth's history, the global sea level fell 250 m (820 ft). [ 3 ] A major regression could cause marine organisms in shallow seas to go extinct, but mass extinctions tend to involve both terrestrial and aquatic species, and it is harder to see how a marine regression ...
The opposite of transgression is regression where the sea level falls relative to the land and exposes the former sea bottom. During the Pleistocene Ice Age, so much water was removed from the oceans and stored on land as year-round glaciers that the ocean regressed 120 m, exposing the Bering land bridge between Alaska and Asia.
The surface expressions of subduction zones are arc-trench complexes. On the ocean side of the complex, where the subducting plate first approaches the subduction zone, there is often an outer trench high or outer trench swell. Here the plate shallows slightly before plunging downwards, as a consequence of the rigidity of the plate. [18]
The continental shelf is the relatively shallow water area found in proximity to continents; it is the portion of the continental margin that transitions from the shore out towards to ocean. Continental shelves are believed to make up 7% of the sea floor. [3] The width of continental shelves worldwide varies in the range of 0.03–1500 km. [4]
A volcanic arc is part of an arc-trench complex, which is the part of a subduction zone that is visible at the Earth's surface. A subduction zone is where a tectonic plate composed of relatively thin, dense oceanic lithosphere sinks into the Earth's mantle beneath a less dense overriding plate. The overriding plate may be either another oceanic ...
The idea is that Earth's most outer layer, known as the lithosphere, that is made up of the crust and mantle is divided into extensive plates of rock. [8] [26] These plates sit on top of partially molten layer of rock known as the asthenosphere and move relative to each other due to convection between the asthenosphere and lithosphere. [26]