Figure 43. Evolution of Outer Basins. The upper panel depicts a relatively deep area of seafloor shortly after glaciers have left, and the ocean level is 80 m deeper than today. Glacial-marine mud mantles most of the seafloor. In the middle panel, the seafloor has isostatically rebounded following melting of the ice, and sea level is up to 60 m shallower than the present time. This location (greater than the lowstand depth of 60 m) remains, however, under shallow water. Mud eroded from shallower locations collects here during the late Pleistocene. In the lower panel, sea level has risen to its present position and this area is deep once again. During the most recent submergence, erosive processes again removed mud from shallower areas and deposited modern, Holocene mud in deeper places like this.

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Last updated on October 6, 2005

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