Biogenic Ooze

biogenic ooze, also called biogenic sediment, any pelagic sediment that contains more than 30 percent skeletal material. These sediments can be made up of either carbonate (or calcareous) ooze or siliceous ooze. The skeletal material in carbonate oozes is calcium carbonate usually in the form of the mineral calcite but sometimes aragonite. The most common contributors to the skeletal debris are such microorganisms as foraminiferans and coccoliths, microscopic carbonate plates that coat certain species of marine algae and protozoa. Siliceous oozes are composed of opal (amorphous, hydrated silica) that forms the skeleton of various microorganisms, including diatoms, radiolarians, siliceous sponges, and silicoflagellates. The distribution of biogenic oozes depends mainly on the supply of skeletal material, dissolution of the skeletons, and dilution by other sediment types, such as turbidites or clays.

Primary productivity, the production of organic substances through photosynthesis and chemosynthesis, in the ocean surface waters controls the supply of material to a large extent. Productivity is high at the Equator and in zones of coastal upwelling and also where oceanic divergences occur near Antarctica. Productivity is lowest in the central areas of the oceans (the gyres) in both hemispheres. Siliceous oozes are more reliable indicators of high productivity than carbonate oozes. This is because silica dissolves quickly in surface waters and carbonate dissolves in deep water; hence, high surface productivity is required to supply siliceous skeletons to the ocean floor. Carbonate oozes dominate the deep Atlantic seafloor, while siliceous oozes are most common in the Pacific; the floor of the Indian Ocean is covered by a combination of the two.

Carbonate oozes cover about half of the world’s seafloor. They are present chiefly above a depth of 4,500 metres (about 14,800 feet); below that they dissolve quickly. This depth is named the Calcite Compensation Depth (or CCD). It represents the level at which the rate of carbonate accumulation equals the rate of carbonate dissolution. In the Atlantic basin the CCD is 500 metres (about 1,600 feet) deeper than in the Pacific basin, reflecting both a high rate of supply and low rate of dissolution in comparison to the Pacific. The input of carbonate to the ocean is through rivers and deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Variation in input, productivity, and dissolution rates in the geologic past have caused the CCD to vary over 2,000 metres (about 6,600 feet). The CCD intersects the flanks of the world’s oceanic ridges, and as a result these are mostly blanketed by carbonate oozes.

Siliceous oozes predominate in two places in the oceans: around Antarctica and a few degrees of latitude north and south of the Equator. At high latitudes the oozes include mostly the shells of diatoms. South of the Antarctic Convergence diatom oozes dominate the seafloor sediment cover and mix with glacial marine sediments closer to the continent. Seventy-five percent of all the oceans’ silica supply is being deposited in the area surrounding Antarctica. Radiolarian oozes are more common near the Equator in the Pacific. Here, both siliceous oozes and calcareous oozes occur, but carbonate deposition dominates the region immediately near the Equator. Siliceous oozes bracket the carbonate belt and blend with pelagic clays farther north and south. Because siliceous skeletons dissolve so quickly in seawater, only the more robust skeletal remains are found in the siliceous oozes. Thus, fossils of this kind are not completely representative of the organisms living in the waters above.