Young Ocean Basin

A young ocean basin is a newly formed sea created at the start of the Wilson cycle, where continental rifting has progressed to organized seafloor spreading and the first oceanic crust. It has a narrow, axial mid-ocean ridge, a thin sediment cover because little time has passed for deposition, and steep, fault-bounded margins inherited from the rift. The Red Sea is the type example, opening between Africa and Arabia at a few cm/yr with new basaltic crust along its axial trough; the Gulf of California is another. With continued spreading a young basin matures into a wide ocean with passive margins, as the Atlantic did.