Passive Margin

A passive margin is the transition between oceanic and continental crust which is not an active plate margin. It is constructed by sedimentation above an ancient rift, now marked by transitional crust. Continental rifting creates new ocean basins. Eventually the continental rift forms a mid-oceanic ridge and the locus of extension moves away from the continent-ocean boundary. The transition between the continental and oceanic crust that was originally created by rifting is known as a passive margin.

Read more about Passive Margin:  Global Distribution, Subsidence Mechanisms, Classification of Passive Margins, Formation, Economic Significance, Law of The Sea

Famous quotes containing the words passive and/or margin:

    The best emotions to write out of are anger and fear or dread.... The least energizing emotion to write out of is admiration. It is very difficult to write out of because the basic feeling that goes with admiration is a passive contemplative mood.
    Susan Sontag (b. 1933)

    Everything that explains the world has in fact explained a world that does not exist, a world in which men are at the center of the human enterprise and women are at the margin “helping” them. Such a world does not exist—never has.
    Gerda Lerner (b. 1920)