Late Pliocene–early Pleistocene deep-sea basin sedimentation at high-latitudes: mega-scale submarine slides of the north-western Barents Sea margin prior to the shelf-edge glaciations

• Published in: Basin Research
• Main Authors: Safronova, Polina, Laberg, Jan Sverre, Andreassen, Karin, Shlykova, V., Vorren, Tore Ola, Chernikov, S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2015
• Subjects: VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Geofag: 450::Sedimentologi: 456; VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Geosciences: 450::Sedimentology: 456; Andreassen; Barents Sea; Laberg; Norwegian Sea; Storegga; Arctic; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/13712; https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12161

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Safronova, P., Laberg, J.S., Andreassen, K., Shlykova, V., Vorren, T.O. & Chernikov, S. (2015). Late Pliocene–early Pleistocene deep-sea basin sedimentation at high-latitudes: mega-scale submarine slides of the north-western Barents Sea margin prior to the shelf-edge glaciations. Basin Research , 29, 537-555. https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12161, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12161 . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. At high‐latitude continental margins, large‐scale submarine sliding has been an important process for deep‐sea sediment transfer during glacial and interglacial periods. Little is, however, known about the importance of this process prior to the arrival of the ice sheet on the continental shelf. Based on new two‐dimensional seismic data from the NW Barents Sea continental margin, this study documents the presence of thick and regionally extensive submarine slides formed between 2.7 and 2.1 Ma, before shelf‐edge glaciation. The largest submarine slide, located in the northern part of the Storfjorden Trough Mouth Fan (TMF), left a scar and is characterized by an at least 870‐m‐thick interval of chaotic to reflection‐free seismic facies interpreted as debrites. The full extent of this slide debrite 1 is yet unknown but it has a mapped areal distribution of at least 10.7 × 10 3 km 2 and it involved >4.1 × 10 3 km 3 of sediments. It remobilized a larger sediment volume than one of the largest exposed submarine slides in the world – the Storegga Slide in the Norwegian Sea. In the southern part of the Storfjorden TMF and along the Kveithola TMF, the seismic data reveal at least four large‐scale slide debrites, characterized by seismic facies similar to the slide debrite 1. Each of them is ca. 295‐m thick, covers an area of at least 7.04 × 10 3 km 2 and involved 1.1 × 10 3 km 3 of sediments. These five ...