Marine geology

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The Marine Geology (ger .: Marine Geology ) deals with geological , geophysical, geochemical, sedimentological and paleontological studies of the seabed and coastal areas. It is closely linked to physical oceanography and plate tectonics .

The marine geology findings made it possible, among other things, to prove the theories of ocean floor spreading and plate tectonics in the post-war years . The deep-sea floor is one of the least explored areas on earth, and detailed maps are particularly important to the military (submarines) and the economy (oil and ore mining).

The Ring of Fire is its high density of active volcanoes and seismic activity a great danger in the form of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. In order to develop possible early warning signs of these natural disasters, further research in the field of marine geology have coastal and island arcs are operated.

Studies of littoral and deep sea sedimentation and the rates of precipitation and dissolution of calcium carbonates in the various marine environments have a major influence on global climate change.

Other important research fields were and are the discovery and further exploration of the volcanoes and hydrothermal springs of the mid- ocean ridge, which were carried out first in the Red Sea and then along the east-pacific ridge and the mid-Atlantic ridge. The discovery of extremophilic organisms living in and around these hydrothermal systems helped to better understand life on earth.

Deep sea gullies are mostly elongated but relatively narrow depressions in the sea floor. The deepest deep sea channel is the Mariana Trench , a subduction zone where the Pacific plate slides under the Philippine plate . The Mariana Trench is deeper than Mount Everest is high.

Standard marine geology devices for taking sediment samples from the seabed include a. the gravity corer , the multicorer and the box gripper . More recently, deep-sea robots ( ROVs ) have been increasingly used for targeted sampling.

literature

  • Jon Erickson: Marine Geology. Undersea Landforms and Life Forms. Facts on File Inc, New York NY 1996, ISBN 0-8160-3354-4 .
  • Eugen Seibold : The seabed. Results and problems of marine geology. Springer, Berlin et al. 1974, ISBN 3-540-06868-6 (also: E. Seibold; WH Berger: The sea floor. An introduction to marine geology. 3rd edition. Springer, Heidelberg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-540-60191- 0 ).

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