36. DEEP CIRCULATION IN THE SOUTHERN ROCKALL TROUGH—THE OCEANOGRAPHIC SETTING OF SITE 6101

• Main Author: Robert R. Dickson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Feni Ridge; Norwegian Sea; Rockall Trough
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.577.1406; http://www.deepseadrilling.org/94/volume/dsdp94pt2_36.pdf

A review of recently acquired data from the Rockall Trough and from areas of eastern Atlantic immediately to the south shows that two southern sources of bottom water have a major present-day influence over the southern Feni Ridge. One source results from detachment and southward recirculation of water from a slope current, flowing north-ward along the west European continental margin. A second is the northward drift which occupies the deep layer of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain. Transport estimates on the overflow of Norwegian Sea Deep Water (NSDW) into the Rockall Trough suggest that NSDW probably had a lesser influence on the shaping of the Feni Ridge sediment drift, if its mod-ern pattern and behavior pertained through the late Neogene and Quaternary. Analysis of the variability in current strength and direction over the flanks of Feni Drift show that the fine-grained, cohesive sediments which make up the sediment waves at DSDP Site 610 could locally be eroded and transported over much of the year.