title: Assessment of density variations of marine sediments with ocean and sediment depths.
abstract: We analyze the density distribution of marine sediments using density samples taken from 716 drill sites of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). The samples taken within the upper stratigraphic layer exhibit a prevailing trend of the decreasing density with the increasing ocean depth (at a rate of -0.05 g/cm(3) per 1 km). Our results confirm findings of published studies that the density nonlinearly increases with the increasing sediment depth due to compaction. We further establish a 3D density model of marine sediments and propose theoretical models of the ocean-sediment and sediment-bedrock density contrasts. The sediment density-depth equation approximates density samples with an average uncertainty of about 10% and better represents the density distribution especially at deeper sections of basin sediments than a uniform density model. The analysis of DSDP density data also reveals that the average density of marine sediments is 1.70 g/cm(3) and the average density of the ocean bedrock is 2.9 g/cm(3).
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tenzer
authors.affiliation: International IT University, 34A/8A Manas/Zhandosov Street (Intersection), Almaty 050040, Kazakhstan.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gladkikh
mesh_terms: D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012623:Seawater; D035501:Uncertainty