| sedimentary basins | |||||||||||
| Basin classification: Sedimentary basins are regional depressions where sediments, eroded particles from continents and transported by river systems and run-off water, accumulate. Mechanism that can create surface depression are: |
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| • Extension driven by plate boundary forces (passive rifting). • Thermal lithospheric cooling and contraction - thickens mantle lithosphere • Crustal extension driven by buoyancy of relatively thin mantle lithosphere (active rifting) (6 and 2 are competing processes) • Metamorphic reactions (up to ~1km of additional subs.) • Flexure (foreland basins) • Dynamic topography driven by convecting mantle |
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| The physical mechanisms forming these depressions can be divided in 3 categories, each responsible for a particular type of sedimentary basin: |
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| (1) Extension and faulting (rift Basins, continental margins) (2) Flexure of the lithosphere (flexural basin in orogenic forelands, thermal sag flexural basins) (3) Dynamic topography above mantle downwelling |
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