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1.
The continental-shelf morphology is dominated by glacial erosion and deposition. Erosion is prominent on the near-shore shelf and deposition along the outer shelf edge. The continental slope is characterized by delta-shaped progradations (glaciomarine-sediment fans) seaward of the shelf channels. Canyons cross the continental slope only in the region southeast of Cape Farewell. The continental rise is incised by a number of submarine canyons. Broad sediment ridges on the upper continental rise are probably canyon-eroded remains of extensive Plio-Pleistocene fans. A mid-ocean channel which crosses the continental rise is possibly related to the axis of maximum depth of Denmark Strait. Despite the presence of strong bottom currents, there is no indication of depositional sediment drifts along the continental margin of Greenland between Cape Farewell and Denmark Strait. This may be a function of high current velocity or low sediment load.Sea floor older than 60 m.y. B.P. is present just seaward of the Greenland continental margin implying either downwarped continental material or an early rift formed prior to the separation of Greenland from the European plate. A left lateral offset of anomalies 20 and 21 at 65°N indicates a major fracture zone related to the Greenland continental margin offset nearby.  相似文献   

2.
The nature and regional distributions of various types of bottom echoes recorded on 3.5-kHz echograms from the East Brazilian continental margin (8–30°S) provide valuable information about sedimentary processes which have been active on a regional scale. The ten types of echoes observed fall into two major classes: distinct and indistinct. Indistinct echoes have two sub-classes; prolonged and hyperbolic. A qualitative correlation is observed between three types of distinct and indistinct-prolonged echoes and the relative abundance of coarse, bedded sediment (silt, sand, gravel) in piston cores. Regions returning distinct echoes with continuous parallel sub-bottoms contain little or no coarse sediment; regions returning indistinct very prolonged echoes with no sub-bottoms contain very high concentrations of coarse sediment; and regions returning indistinct semiprolonged echoes with intermittent sub-bottoms contain moderate or intermediate amounts of coarse sediment. Thus the regional distributions of these three echo types reflect the dispersal of coarse terrigenous sediment throughout the region. High concentrations of coarse sediment are restricted to relatively small areas which are generally proximal to large deep-sea channels, whereas very low concentrations occur in distal regions such as the lowermost continental rise and adjacent abyssal plain. Moderate concentrations of coarse sediment occur throughout most of the continental rise. Five of the six types of hyperbolic echoes observed are reflected from erosional/depositional bed forms. Although some of these bed forms (especially on the upper continental rise) have probably been produced by gravity-controlled mass flows (turbidity currents, slumps, etc.) the fact that the most extensive and widespread regions of hyperbolic echoes occur in distal regions beneath the present axis of flow of the Antarctic Bottom Water suggests that most of these bed forms are the result of sediment reworking by the contour-following bottom currents of this water mass.  相似文献   

3.
Several independent sets of field data have been analyzed in order to estimate the frequency of sediment movement on the continental shelf off Washington over an annual period and to identify the major components of the bottom velocity field causing this motion. Sediment motions resulting from: (1) bottom currents caused by surface wind stress and tides, and (2) wave-induced oscillatory bottom currents have been investigated. Analysis of a 260-day current record from 3 m off the seabed at 80 m depth on the continental shelf and a 205-day open-ocean wave record collected on Cobb Seamount 465 km west of the Washington coast suggest that the threshold of sediment motion was exceeded for approximately 22 days per year as a result of mean currents (20 min time averaged) and approximately 53 days per year from wave-induced oscillatory currents. Substantial variations can be expected from year to year, so these values represent order of magnitude estimates.  相似文献   

4.
A sediment study suggests that Washington and Norfolk canyons off the Mid-Atlantic States are not inactive, but have served periodically since the Late Pleistocene as conduits of sediment originating on the adjacent shelf and upper slope. Large quantities of sand occur in the canyon heads as thin beds and laminae, and on the continental slope as mixtures of sand (to >40%), silt and clay that are extensively reworked by burrowing organisms. Sandy turbidites occur in the canyons on the rise. Basinward dispersal, from the outer shelf and uppermost slope, is recorded by heavy mineral suites and bioclastic components, primarily foraminifera of shallow marine origin, in the lower slope and upper continental rise canyon cores. The down-axis movement of material, presumably episodic, in the Holocene to recent results from offshelf spillover into canyon heads, failure on the steep walls bordering canyons on the slope, and resuspension by bottom currents.  相似文献   

5.
A factor analysis of 180 bottom sediment samples from the east-central Bering Sea continental shelf identifies five factors that account for 95% of the variation in the 17 whole ø size classes that were used as variables. Factor I represents coarse sediments that have been bypassed in areas of active water circulation. Factors II and III represent fine and very fine sands that have been hydraulically sorted, reworked, and mixed. Factor IV represents coarse to medium silt that has been segregated from areas of relatively high energy. Factor V represents both the production of sediments finer than medium silt and deposition within the lowest-energy environment in this area.Modern and palimpsest sediments are areally prevalent over this section of the shelf. Relict sediments occur in only a few small areas. The dispersal of sediments is affected by surface and tidal currents as well as wave action. Ice rafting is not an important geological agent. Data from the eastcentral Bering Sea shelf indicate that sediments on subarctic continental shelves are not necessarily characterized by an abundance of rocky sediments or gravel.  相似文献   

6.
The floor of the western equatorial Atlantic Ocean can be divided into several distinct provinces based on detailed characteristics of the bottom echos recorded with short-ping (< msec.) 3.5 and 12 kHz sound sources. Two major types of echos are recorded: (I) distinct echos; and (II) indistinct echos.Indistinct echos can be further sub-divided into (A) continuous prolonged echos; and (B) hyperbolic echos. Each class of echos contains two or more unique echo types. The regional distributions of the various echo types recorded from the continental rise, Amazon Cone, and abyssal plains reveal much information about sedimentary processes.In the western equatorial Atlantic, hyperbolic echos are recorded only from small, isolated portions of the continental rise. This contrasts with the continental rise of the western North Atlantic where previous investigators have shown that hyperbolic echos parallel bathymetric contours along the entire rise and thus reflect shaping of the rise by geostrophic contour currents (Heezen et al., 1966; Hollister, 1967). The fact that regions of hyperbolic echos show little or no relationship to bathymetric contours of the continental rise of the western equatorial Atlantic suggests that contour currents have been unimportant in shaping the rise in this region.The three most widespread echo types recorded from the continental rise, Amazon Cone, and abyssal plains reveal much information about terrigenous sediment dispersal and deposition in the western equatorial Atlantic. Comparison of the thicknesses and frequencies of coarse (silt- to gravel-size), bedded, terrigenous sediment in piston cores with the echo type recorded at each coring site shows a correlation between echo type and the relative amount of coarse, bedded sediment within the upper few meters of the sea floor. The regional distributions of these three echo types indicate that dispersal of coarse terrigenous sediment has been downslope across the continental rise and Amazon Cone to the abyssal plains via gravity-controlled sediment flows. The Amazon River is the major sediment source and most coarse sediment is deposited on the lower Amazon Cone and proximal portions of the Demerara abyssal plain.  相似文献   

7.
J.A. Ewing 《Marine Geology》1973,15(2):M31-M35
Estimates of the wave-induced oscillatory bottom currents available to move sediment on the continental shelf have been made using the Pierson—Moskowitz wave spectrum; the oscillations are substantially stronger than had previously been thought. Near a shelf edge with canyons the wave-induced currents will be locally enhanced by wave refraction by about four times under certain conditions for idealized topography. Local sediment-transport rates will be greater and will occur more frequently than had previously been supposed.  相似文献   

8.
The New Zealand continental terrace is mantled mainly by terrigenous and biogenic sediments associated with subordinate but locally important authigenic, volcanogenic and residual components. Modern terrigenous sands and muds prevail off Westland and Hawkes Bay—Wairarapa where tectonically rising landmasses, several major rivers and few coastal sediment traps ensure deliverance of much sediment to the terrace. Relict terrigenous sands and gravels typically occur in zones where modern sedimentation is low like the middle and outer continental shelf off Otago—Canterbury and Waikato—Taranaki. Relict sediments are commonly associated with biogenic sands and gravels which also dominate the terrigenous-starved shelves around northernmost and southernmost New Zealand, and much of the continental slope. Shelf biogenic components are mainly molluscan, bryozoan and foraminiferal clasts, whereas on the slope foraminifers and calcareous nannoplankton prevail. Both glauconite, the main authigenic component, and residual sediments occur on those shelves and upper slopes receiving little modern terrigenous sediment. Volcanogenic grains are prominent in sediments on the eastern terrace marginal to the Central Volcanic Region of the North Island.Typically, terrigenous shelf sediments off the North Island and northeast South Island have been reworked from older sediments or derived directly from volcanic rocks or both. Around the remainder of the South Island a metamorphic and plutonic-derived assemblage prevails. Sediment dispersal is along the shelf primarily under the influence of storm-driven and tidal currents with semi-permanent ocean currents having little effect. Beyond the shelf, dispersal appears to be mainly downslope, partly through redepositional mechanisms including gravity slumps and turbidity currents.  相似文献   

9.
Multichannel seismic reflection data from the Cosmonaut Sea margin of East Antarctica have been interpreted in terms of depositional processes in the continental slope and rise area. A major sediment lens is present below the upper continental rise along the entire Cosmonaut Sea margin. The lens probably consists of sediments supplied from the shelf and slope, being constantly reworked by westward flowing bottom currents, which redeposited the sediments into a large scale drift deposit prior to the main glaciogenic input along the margin. High-relief semicircular or elongated depositional structures are also found on the upper continental rise stratigraphically above the regional sediment lens, and were deposited by the combined influence of downslope and alongslope sediment transport. On the lower continental rise, large-scale sediment bodies extend perpendicular to the continental margin and were deposited as a result of downslope turbidity transport and westward flowing bottom currents after initiation of glacigenic input to the slope and rise. We compare the seismostratigraphic signatures along the continental margin segments of the adjacent Riiser Larsen Sea, the Weddell Sea and the Prydz Bay/Cooperation Sea, focussing on indications that may be interpreted as a preglacial-glaciomarine transition in the depositional environment. We suggest that earliest glaciogenic input to the continental slope and rise occurred in the Prydz Bay and possibly in the Weddell Sea. At a later stage, an intensification of the oceanic circulation pattern occurred, resulting in the deposition of the regional plastered drift deposit along the Cosmonaut Sea margin, as well as the initiation of large drift deposits in the Cooperation Sea. At an even later stage, possibly in the middle Miocene, glacial advances across the continental shelf were initiated along the Cosmonaut Sea and the Riiser Larsen Sea continental margins.  相似文献   

10.
Sediment and hydrodynamics of the Tauranga entrance to Tauranga harbour   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：0  
To relate the textural characteristics of the bottom sediments of a tidal inlet to hydrodynamics, 45 sediment samples from the Tauranga Entrance to Tauranga Harbour were analysed for textural parameters, and tidal currents and waves were monitored. Tidal currents dominate sediment transport processes near the Tauranga Entrance although swell waves are significant on the ebb tidal delta, and wind waves may influence intertidal sediments within the harbour. The bulk of the sediment is probably derived from marine sand from the Bay of Plenty continental shelf, but tidal currents and waves have changed its textural character. In areas of swift tidal currents, particularly in the inlet channel itself, sediment is coarser, more poorly sorted, and more coarsely skewed than that in areas of slower currents.  相似文献   

11.
近百年来渤、黄、东海陆架冲淤作用强度数值研究   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  
朱玉荣 《海洋科学》2001,25(6):35-38
数值模拟了渤，黄，东海陆架区潮流动力场作用下9种无黏性单粒径泥沙的冲淤作用强度，计算所得渤，黄，东海陆架近百年来的冲淤分布与实测底质类型的分布多数海区相一致，这表明渤，黄，东海陆架的潮流动力场在该区泥沙输运与淤积中起着主导作用，是该区近百年来冲淤作用强度分布格局的主要控制因素。  相似文献   

12.
Multichannel seismic reflection profiles from the continental rise west of the Antarctic Peninsula between 63° and 69°S show the growth of eight very large mound-shaped sedimentary bodies. MCS profiles and long-range side-scan sonar (GLORIA) images show the sea floor between mounds is traversed by channels originating in a dendritic pattern near the base of the continental slope. The mounds are interpreted as sediment drifts, constructed mainly from the fine-grained components of turbidity currents originating on the continental slope, entrained in a nepheloid layer within the ambient southwesterly bottom currents and redeposited downcurrent.  相似文献   

13.
Multibeam bathymetry, high (sleeve airguns) and very high resolution (parametric system-TOPAS-) seismic records were used to define the morphosedimentary features and investigate the depositional architecture of the Cantabrian continental margin. The outer shelf (down to 180–245 m water depth) displays an intensively eroded seafloor surface that truncates consolidated ancient folded and fractured deposits. Recent deposits are only locally present as lowstand shelf-margin deposits and a transparent drape with bedforms. The continental slope is affected by sedimentary processes that have combined to create the morphosedimentary features seen today. The upper (down to 2000 m water depth) and lower (down to 3700–4600 m water depth) slopes are mostly subject to different types of slope failures, such as slides, mass-transport deposits (a mix of slumping and mass-flows), and turbidity currents. The upper slope is also subject to the action of bottom currents (the Mediterranean Water — MW) that interact with the Le Danois Bank favouring the reworking of the sediment and the sculpting of a contourite system. The continental rise is a bypass region of debris flows and turbidity currents where a complex channel-lobe transition zone (CLTZ) of the Cap Ferret Fan develops.The recent architecture depositional model is complex and results from the remaining structural template and the great variability of interconnected sedimentary systems and processes. This margin can be considered as starved due to the great sediment evacuation over a relatively steep entire depositional profile. Sediment is eroded mostly from the Cantabrian and also the Pyrenees mountains (source) and transported by small stream/river mountains to the sea. It bypasses the continental shelf and when sediment arrives at the slope it is transported through a major submarine drainage system (large submarine valleys and mass-movement processes) down to the continental rise and adjacent Biscay Abyssal Plain (sink). Factors controlling this architecture are tectonism and sediment source/dispersal, which are closely interrelated, whereas sea-level changes and oceanography have played a minor role (on a long-term scale).  相似文献   

14.
A set of single- and multi-channel seismic reflection profiles provide insights into the younger Cenozoic sedimentation history of the continental rise in the western Bellingshausen Sea, west and north of Peter I Island. This area has been strongly influenced by glacially controlled sediment supply from the continental shelf, interacting with a westward-flowing bottom current. From south to north, the seismic data show changes in the symmetry and structure of a prominent sediment depocentre. Its southernmost sector provides evidence of sediment drift whereas northwards the data show a large channel-levee complex, with a western levee oriented in the opposite direction to that of the drift in the south. This pattern indicates the northward-decreasing influence of a westward-flowing bottom contour current in the study area. Topographic data suggest the morphologic ridges at Peter I Island to be the main features responsible for variable bottom-current influence, these acting as barrier to the bottom current and entrained sedimentary material. West of Peter I Island, the east-orientated Coriolis force remains effective in deflecting the suspended load of the turbidity currents towards the west, thereby promoting growth of the western channel levee. Calculated sediment accumulation rates based on seismic data reveal Depocentre C to consist of younger Cenozoic material supplied by glacial transport and modified by contour currents in the western Bellingshausen Sea. These findings demonstrate that the shape, structure and distribution of sediment mounds and estimates of sediment accumulation rates can be associated to the influence of bottom currents and their long-term evolution in response to tectonic movements, ice-sheet dynamics and deep-water formation.  相似文献   

15.
Concentrations of minerals on the sea floor around New Zealand occur in a manner which makes them economically significant as future mineral resources.

Three major environments of interest are beaches, the continental shelf, and the adjacent deep‐sea floor. New Zealand's west coast beaches are well known as mineral resources containing large quantities of iron and titanium ores. Similar concentrations representing fossil beaches are also known from the continental shelf. The deep‐sea floor adjacent to the continental shelf is formed around New Zealand by the New Zealand Plateau, an extensive submarine platform in 500–1,500 m. Terrigenous sedimentation is negligible in this environment where, as a result, pure calcareous oozes are common. Vigorous bottom currents and suitable reducing micro‐environments encourage glauconite formation. In the past, possibly from warmer waters of the early and mid Tertiary, phosphates were precipitated from seawater to form phosphorite nodules, a potential resource of phosphates. During late Tertiary or Quaternary, volcanicity at the Antipodes Islands and on the Macquarie Ridge resulted in the formation of manganese deposits. Manganese minerals also occur in bulk on the floor of the Southwestern Pacific Basin away from the New Zealand Plateau.

The origin, bulk, and significance of these deposits are discussed.  相似文献   

16.
Small, steep, uplifting coastal watersheds are prolific sediment producers that contribute significantly to the global marine sediment budget. This study illustrates how sedimentation evolves in one such system where the continental shelf is largely sediment-starved, with most terrestrial sediment bypassing the shelf in favor of deposition in deeper basins. The Santa Barbara–Ventura coast of southern California, USA, is considered a classic area for the study of active tectonics and of Tertiary and Quaternary climatic evolution, interpretations of which depend upon an understanding of sedimentation patterns. High-resolution seismic-reflection data over >570 km2 of this shelf show that sediment production is concentrated in a few drainage basins, with the Ventura and Santa Clara River deltas containing most of the upper Pleistocene to Holocene sediment on the shelf. Away from those deltas, the major factor controlling shelf sedimentation is the interaction of wave energy with coastline geometry. Depocenters containing sediment 5–20 m thick exist opposite broad coastal embayments, whereas relict material (bedrock below a regional unconformity) is exposed at the sea floor in areas of the shelf opposite coastal headlands. Locally, natural hydrocarbon seeps interact with sediment deposition either to produce elevated tar-and-sediment mounds or as gas plumes that hinder sediment settling. As much as 80% of fluvial sediment delivered by the Ventura and Santa Clara Rivers is transported off the shelf (some into the Santa Barbara Basin and some into the Santa Monica Basin via Hueneme Canyon), leaving a shelf with relatively little recent sediment accumulation. Understanding factors that control large-scale sediment dispersal along a rapidly uplifting coast that produces substantial quantities of sediment has implications for interpreting the ancient stratigraphic record of active and transform continental margins, and for inferring the distribution of hydrocarbon resources in relict shelf deposits.  相似文献   

17.
潮流场对渤、黄、东海陆架底质分布的控制作用   总被引：10，自引：0，他引：10  
运用二维潮流数学模型，模拟了渤、黄、东海陆架的M2潮汐、潮流。结果表明，渤、黄、东海陆架的潮流有强弱之分以及往复流和旋转汉之别。在此基础上，计算了8种粒径沙的湖平均悬移输沙率、潮平均推移输沙以及相应的输沙率散度。根据输沙率散度的正负，划分了海底冲刷区与淤积区。根据不同粒径泥沙输沙率散度的相对大小，确定出海底的主要底质类型为砂质沉积、粉砂质泥沉积和以粉砂为主的混合沉积。计算结果表明，海底3种主要底负类型的分布格局与海底的冲淤格局以及与输沙率矢量的发散和聚合状况基本一致。在渤、黄、东海陆架，沙脊主要在强往复流区形成，沙席主要在强或较强的旋转流区形成，泥质沉积主要在弱潮流区形成。砂质沉积、泥质沉积以及混合沉积这3种主要底质类型并非孤立存在，而是受渤、黄、东海陆架潮流场控制而形成的一个完整的潮流沉积体系。渤、黄、东海陆架的砂质沉积与泥质沉积并非残留沉积，而是潮流沉积。在没有冷涡的情况下，黄、东海陆架的典型泥质沉积在弱潮流环境中同样可以形成，因此，认为冷涡并非黄、东海陆架典型泥质沉积形成的必要条件。  相似文献   

18.
A nearly continuous zone of sediment waves is present on the lower continental rise off western Morocco which parallels the regional bathymetric trends. The individual sediment waves within the zone migrate upslope with time and, in general, also trend parallel to the regional bathymetric contours. These observations suggest that geostrophic contour currents are responsible for the formation of sediment waves. Physical oceanographic measurements and sea-floor photographs indicate only a very weak bottom circulation in this region. This suggests either that strong bottom currents are not essential for the formation of sediment waves or that relatively stronger bottom currents flowed along the continental margin of Morocco in the recent past. Turbidity flows may also influence the distribution of these sediment waves.  相似文献   

19.
Concentrations of selected heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) from surface sediments, suspended particulate matter and settling particles in the southern Barcelona continental margin were studied in order to evaluate the environmental impact of the anthropogenic metals discharged by the Llobregat River in this Mediterranean area. The temporal variation of heavy metals discharged by this river onto the continental shelf is clearly related to the river water flow. Part of the fine sediment and associated heavy metals transported by the Llobregat River during periods of low river flow accumulate on the river bed, and they are totally removed and discharged onto the Barcelona continental shelf during sporadic river water flow increases. Metals produce significant anomalies of chromium (×2.5), copper (×3.4) and zinc (×3.7) in the surface sediments of the Llobregat prodelta and tend to be transported along the continental shelf following the mean flow. Metals associated with the finest suspended flocs transferred to the slope are controlled by the shelf-slope density front and are transported along slope by the general geostrophic current, instead of accumulating and becoming concentrated in the slope bottom sediments. Settling particulate matter collected in sediment traps on the Barcelona continental slope offshore of the shelf-slope front shows low heavy metal concentrations except in a few sediment trap samples that are significantly metal-enriched in chromium (×4.5) and zinc (×6.8). This enrichment is associated with very short and sporadic river flow increases and is only recorded inside the Foix submarine canyon, which acts as a preferential conduit for the shelf-slope sediment transfer.  相似文献   

20.
An open ocean shoreface typical of long, wave-dominated sandy coasts has been examined through a combination of extensive field measurements of wave and current patterns with computations of marine bedload transport and sedimentation. Sand transport on the upper shoreface is dominantly controlled by waves with only secondary transport by currents. Sand on the middle and lower shoreface, as well as the inner continental shelf is entrained by storm waves and transported by a complex pattern of bottom boundary layer currents.

Storm events have been studied and modeled for the shoreface off Tiana Beach, Long Island. The dominant effect of coastal frontal storms is to cause significant shore-parallel bedload transport with important shore-normal secondary components. These storms tend to result in net offshore transport of sand removed from the beach and surf zone systems. The bedload transport during a storm is convergent on the shoreface leading to accretion. Most accretion occurs on the upper shoreface with lesser deposits covering the middle and lower shoreface as well as the inner continental shelf. Longer-term equilibrium can be maintained by slow return of sand up the shoreface during non-storm conditions.

Annual and geologic time-scale budgets of shoreface sand transport and sedimentation yield equilibrium, net accretion or net deposition. The annual balance results from an integration of the event-scale bedload transport patterns and morphologic responses. These processes and responses have feedback mechanisms which stabilize the system over longer, but not geologic, time scales. Geologic time scale balances are controlled by relative sea level changes and relative availability of sediment supply with the event-scale shoreface and transporting processes providing the mechanism to produce the changes in long-term morphology and sedimentation patterns. In the area of study, the long-term pattern is one of net shoreface erosion, and the permanent loss of sand to the shelf floor.  相似文献   


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