Shores and Shallow Seas
Seas, oceans and lakes accumulate sediment over time. The sediment could consist of terrigenous material, which originates on land, but may be deposited in either terrestrial, marine, or lacustrine (lake) environments; or of sediments (often biological) originating in the body of water. Terrigenous material is often supplied by nearby rivers and streams or reworked marine sediment (e.g. sand). In the mid-ocean, living organisms are primarily responsible for the sediment accumulation, their shells sinking to the ocean floor upon death.
Deposited sediments are the source of sedimentary rocks, which can contain fossils of the inhabitants of the body of water that were, upon death, covered by accumulating sediment. Lake bed sediments that have not solidified into rock can be used to determine past climatic conditions.
Read more about this topic: Sediment
Famous quotes containing the words shores, shallow and/or seas:
“Who ordered, that their longing’s fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cooled?
Who renders vain their deep desire?—
A God, a God their severance ruled!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumbed, salt, estranging sea.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“On shallow slates the pigeons shift together,
Backing against a thin rain from the west....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“open thou thy manly mouth, and say that thou wilt come;
Whereby my heart may think, although I see not thee,
That thou wilt come, thy word so sware, if thou a livesman be.”
—Unknown. The Lady Prayeth the Return of Her Lover Abiding on the Seas (l. 4–6)