The Pacific Ocean Basin

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 earth's crust. The theory is based on the observation that the earth's 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 …

…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.