Pteropod Ooze

pteropod ooze

[′ter·ə‚päd ′üz] (geology) A pelagic sediment containing at least 45% calcium carbonate in the form of tests of marine animals, particularly pteropods.

Pteropod Ooze

 

a type of present-day pelagic calcareous-clay silt enriched with the calcareous shells of pteropods, which live as plankton in the sea. Some 60–80 percent of the ooze is CaCO3, and the remainder is clay material. It is found at depths ranging from 700 m to 3,500 m in the warm, usually tropical, parts of oceans, chiefly the Atlantic. Pteropod ooze occupies only about 0.4 percent of the floor of the world ocean.