DIASTROPHISM AND THE FORMATIVE PROCESSES. V 

 THE TESTIMONY OF THE DEEP-SEA DEPOSITS 



T. C. CHAMBERLIN 

 University of Chicago 



Deposits laid down immediately after a deformation of the 

 earth-shell adjust themselves more or less closely to the new 

 inequalities of surface. This adjustment takes place at any level 

 at which deposition occurs, shallow or deep. This follows from the 

 nature of the case and needs no discussion. But in the stages that 

 follow the deformation at some interval, when cumulative effects 

 begin to be felt, the shaping of the deposits bears larger evidences 

 of the agencies that work from the general environment and that 

 shape into conformity with themselves the new configurations 

 which the bottoms assume in the process of growth. In the 

 preceding articles we have tried to draw out certain diastrophic sig- 

 nificances from the nature of deposits laid down on shallow bottoms 

 which, in the process of growth, came sufficiently near the water 

 surface to be given shape by its agitation. 



It falls to us now to inquire what diastrophic import there may 

 be in the deposits of the deep sea on which surface agitation has 

 slight effect and to which contributions from the bordering lands 

 are limited. We may then turn to deposits that lie between the 

 deep-sea deposits and the shelf-sea deposits, and that partake meas- 

 urably of the qualities of both without having the distinctive char- 

 acters of either. 



The deep-sea deposits form a distinctive class sharply distin- 

 guished from sea-shelf deposits. They have been made so familiar 

 by the labors of Sir Wyville Thompson, Sir John Murray, and their 

 colleagues of the Challenger Expedition, and by the contributions 

 of Professor Alexander Agassiz, the Prince of Monaco, and others, 

 that we need here dwell only on those features that bear testimony 

 to the nature, extent, and limitations of the diastrophism that has 

 affected them. 



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