Oceanic sedimentation. Lithology and geochemistry / Океаническая седиментация. Литология и геохимия

Although the ocean covers more than two thirds of the Earth's surface, the processes of accumulation of sediments on the seafloor have been insufficiently studied. For many years, the efforts of researchers were concentrated on the study of the continents. By studying sediments in various parts of the oceans in space and in time, I will attempt to establish the processes governing the formation of sediments in the oceans as a whole. The present monograph is my second book on the subject of the formation and accumulation of oceanic deposits. In 1972, a book entitled Sedimentation in the ff/orM Ocean was published in the United States. That volume was devoted to the study of the conditions of oceanic sedimentation, the description of types of oceanic deposits, and problems of the distribution of sedimentary material in the oceans. Particular attention was given to the study of the processes controlling the quantitative distribution of sedimentary material in the oceans at various stages of suspension, in bottom deposits, and in accumulations of the geological past (from up to 150 Ma) obtained from drill cores. The regularities in the distribution of sedimentation rates and thicknesses were determined both for the Recent and for the geological past. In so doing, sedimentary material was considered as a whole, without its division into genetic types (terrigenous, biogenic, volcanogenic, etc.) and without a detailed study of the compositions of the deposits. Nevertheless, it is precisely these data that acquire particular importance for lithological-geochemicalnvestigations, all the more so since the basic processes governing the distribution of materials of various genetic types and compositions may be fundamentally different <...>