Sedimentation and Natural Disasters

Hi Ram44,

Sediments can take quite a long time to consolidate after settling.

Really depends on how shallow the region is and, how close it is to the nearest coast, which will effect how much and the type of wave action that can move a whole lot of sediment around. There is Continental shelf 'landslides' that also shape the depth at which sediment is built up.

I am not sure how much detail you want but, try this site and possible links. It tends to be more generic to begin with.

To get any idea of sedimentary action, you really have to look at it over several hundred if not thousands of years. There has to be an average or a qualitative number for the action but I have not found it yet.

The "dumping" as you put it, of soil by wave and river action is not a cause of seismic action.The wave action and dispersal of sediments must be caused at least in part by seismic activity.

The seismic plates have boundaries which follow very roughly the coastal plains of the land masses. This is very obvious with the Pacific Plate who's edges conform almost exactly to there coasts of the Eastern US and the Western European Coasts. There is 8 Major plate and several other smaller ones. It get pretty mixed up around the Islands which form Indonesia and Polynesia and, all the other Countries to the North and NW of Australia, but the edges of the plates do roughly follow the coastal land masses for the most part. They do however also cut across Continents and the obvious one here, is the plate that is pushing India 'up' and building the Himalaya's.

With regard to Climate Change, I cannot see this could have an effect on how the Plates move, and/or, how this effects climate in any way other than over millions of years. Though the climate in certain 'hot-spots' where two edges are either pushing or pulling the Earths Crust apart, like Hawaii there is great change in the forming and disappearance of islands, and so in this respect the tectonic plates effect local as well as pan-continental areas.

Major_plates

http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Oc-Po/Ocean-Floor-Sediments.html

http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/structure/dynamicearth/plates/seisglobal/index.htm

http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/mun/Holland/Physiography.pdf

http://www.eu-hermes.net/open_slopes.html

Take care. Sorry if this is too long.