Wilson Cycle and Ocean Basins

Wilson Cycle

• The Wilson Cycle describes the sequence of events leading to the formation, growth/expansion, destruction/contracting, and eventual elimination of ocean basins.
• The cycle involves stages: embryonic, juvenile, mature, declining, and terminal.
• Each stage has specific characteristics, including uplift, spreading, divergence, convergence, and subduction.
• Modern examples of each stage include East Africa rift valleys (embryonic), the Red Sea (juvenile), the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans (mature), the Pacific Ocean (declining), and the Mediterranean Sea (terminal).

Ocean Basins

• There is one world ocean, but it is divided into five major ocean basins: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern (Antarctic), and Arctic.
• The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest, covering 180,000,000 km².
• The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest, covering 107,000,000 km². Its average depth is 3,310 m.
• The Indian Ocean covers 74,000,000 km², with an average depth of 3,840 m.
• The Southern Ocean, (Antarctic Ocean), covers 20,327,000 km², its average depth is 3,270 m.
• The Arctic Ocean, the smallest, covers 14,056,000 km² and its average depth is 1,038 m.
• Each basin exhibits unique characteristics, such as areal coverage, average depth, sediment input, marginal seas, and the presence of volcanic island systems and trenches.