Imaging the recent sediment dynamics of the Galicia Bank region (Atlantic, NW Iberian Peninsula)

• Published in: Marine Geophysical Research
• Main Authors: Ercilla, Gemma, Iglesias, Jorge, Juan, Carmen, Estrada, Ferran, Farran, Marcel-lí, García, Marga
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2011
• Subjects: Geomorphology; Sediment dynamics; Mass-movements; Contourites and bottom current circulation; Hemi-pelagic processes; Galicia Bank; Ercilla; Labrador Sea; North Atlantic Deep Water; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/46130; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-011-9129-x

Gemma Ercilla . et al. -- 28 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables Multibeam bathymetry, high resolution multi-channel, and very high resolution single-channel (3.5 kHz) seismic records were used to depict the complex geomorphology that defines the Galicia Bank region (Atlantic, NW Iberian Peninsula). This region (≈620–5,000 m water depth) is characterized by a great variety of features: structural features (scarps, highs, valleys, fold bulges), fluid dynamics-related features (structural undulations and collapse craters), mass-movement features (gullies, channels, mass-flow deposits, slope-lobe complexes, and mass-transport deposits), bottom-current features (moats, furrows, abraded surface, sediment waves, and drifts), (hemi)pelagic features, mixed features (abraded surfaces associated to mixed sediments) and bioconstructions. These features represent architectural elements of four sedimentary systems: slope apron, contouritic, current-controlled (hemi)pelagic, and (hemi)pelagic. These systems are a reflection of different sedimentary processes: downslope (mass transport, mass flows, turbidity flows), alongslope (bottom currents of Mediterranean Outflow Water, Labrador Sea Water, North Atlantic Deep Water, and Lower Deep Water), vertical settling, and the interplay between them. The architectural and sediment dynamic complexities, for their part, are conditioned by the morphostructural complexity of the region, whose structures (exposed scarps and highs) favor multiple submarine sediment sources, affect the type and evolution of the mass-movement processes, and interact with different water masses. This region and similar sedimentary environments far from the continental sediment sources, as seamounts, are ideal zones for carrying out submarine source-to-sink studies, and can represent areas subject to hazards, both geologic and oceanographic in origin The research was supported by the Projects ERGAP (Ref. VEM 2003-20093-CO3), CONTOURIBER (Ref. CTM2008-06399-MAR), and MONTERA (CTM-14157-C02), of the Spanish Science ...