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1.
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   

2.
In recent years significant interest has emerged regarding bottom currents and sediment dispersal over continental shelves and shallow marine waters. Although many papers have been written on sediment dispersal mechanisms, they include relatively few long-term observations of bottom currents and/or sediment transport. Lack of observational data is related to the hostile nature of the environment, and the difficulty associated with placing and retrieving instruments on the floor of the continental shelf during some seasons and environmental conditions.This paper describes an instrumentation system designed for use on the floor of the continental shelf. It can remain submerged for periods of one month continuously recording water speed and direction 1 m from the sea bed, differential pressure, and bed nature by means of half-hourly photographs. Four of these systems are presently in use in arrays across the continental shelf of Washington.  相似文献   

3.
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   

4.
A simulation of suspended sediment movement relating to tidal and wave forcing during a winter monsoon in November 1983 in the Huanghai and East China Seas continental shelf is attempted by using the model describing the cohesive/non-cohesive sediment resuspension generated by interactions between currents and waves.model simulation showed that sediment concentration was increased by resuspension at shallow depths during the strong storm conditions due to high bottom stress interacted between currents and waves. This result is in general agreement with observations in horizontal distribution of suspended sediment distribution.At three current meter mooring positions off the southern Shandong Peninsula resuspension occurred only at a depth of 22m,nearest coastal position and at deeper parts at depths of 51 and 80m wave-current interaction effects were not significant. It has shown that the present model simulation demonstrated the capability of reproduction of suspended sediment movement under wintertime extreme event reasonably well.  相似文献   

5.
《Marine Geology》2003,193(1-2):93-127
This study is based on detailed investigation of sediment cores and high resolution seismics. We identified and describe five lithofacies on the Vøring Plateau and eight on the mid-Norwegian continental slope. The various lithofacies are mainly related to the fluctuations of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet and the varying intensity of bottom currents and inflow of Atlantic water masses. Ocean circulation was highly variable between 40 and 22 14C ka BP, being vigorous during interstadials and sluggish during stadials. Between ca 22 and 15 14C ka BP the sedimentary environment was significantly influenced by fluctuations of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, repeatedly reaching the outermost shelf. These fluctuations are reflected in the sedimentary record as ice-rafted debris (IRD) accumulation peaks, deposition of stratified diamicton, and glacigenic debris flows on the continental slope. During this period the sediment accumulation rate increased, bottom currents influenced the sedimentary pattern, and surface waters were seasonally ice-free, indicating inflow of Atlantic waters. Subsequent to ca 15 14C ka BP the glacier influence decreased as the margin of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet retreated to reach the coast before 12.5 14C ka BP. The modern sedimentary environment is characterised by relatively strong bottom current action, causing winnowing or non-deposition down to approximately 1000 m water depth.  相似文献   

6.
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   

7.
The geographical distribution of coal particles that fell during nine years to the sea bottom from the open sea coal terminal off Hadera, Israel, shows a consistent northerly transport path, and it is inconceivable that the sand at that location would move in an opposite direction. Semicircular, current-scoured moats associated with small mounds found at the edge of the continental shelf off Ashdod and Haifa, Israel, also suggest a general northward-directed sediment transport. The northward sediment flow on the Israeli continental shelf inferred from this evidence therefore supports the model of Emery and Neev about general sand transport patterns along the Israeli coastline and continental shelf.  相似文献   

8.
We discussed the detailed current structures over the continental shelf off the San'in Coast in June 1988 and June 1989, using ADCP (acoustic Doppler current profiler) data, which were taken by the quadrireciprocal method (Katoh, 1988) for removing tidal currents from observed currents. In waters northwest of Hagi (Yamaguchi Pref.) and Hamada (Shimane Pref.), two mainly northeastward current cores were observed on each of transects. The offshore current core is baroclinic in relation to the bottom cold water with temperature below 10°C, and has velocities mostly between 0.5 and 0.8kt (26 and 41 cm s–1) at 20 m depth. The onshore current core, which is barotropic, has velocities between 0.3 and 0.5 kt (15 and 26 cm s–1) at 20 m depth. In waters northwest of Izumo (Shimane Pref.), where the width of the continental shelf is narrow, it is difficult to distinguish between the two current cores, because the offshore core tends to join the onshore one. Estimating the magnitude of each term in the diurnally averaged equation of motion for about 3.3 nautical miles (6.1 km), we found that the orders of the inertia term and the gradient of tidal stress were 10–4 cm s–2, and the order of the Coriolis force was 10–3 cm s–2. Near the bottom northwest of Hagi and Hamada, two bands of countercurrents were found; one was slightly offshore of the intersection between the continental shelf and permanent thermocline, and the other was in the water colder than 5°C ridging on the continental shelf.  相似文献   

9.
Abstract

The improvement of sensors such as various high‐resolution seismic and navigational systems and side‐scan sonar, of offshore shallow‐water drilling techniques, and of laboratory analyses has allowed the marine geologist to make more accurate identifications and maps of the distribution of numerous types of marine sediment instabilities, as well as to determine the mechanisms responsible for their occurrence. A large number of data on the continental shelf and upper continental slope off the modern delta of the Mississippi river have been compiled; these data will be used to document the major types of slope instabilities. The continental shelf and slope off the modern Mississippi river delta display various types of sediment instability. High rates of sedimentation (up to 80 m per century), weak, high‐water‐content clays, and differential weighting of clay sediments characterize this region. The major types of sediment instabilities that have been documented include (a) Peripheral slumping, with dimensions of slumps ranging from 200 to 1000 m; slumping often occurring in multiple stairstep arrangement; and downslope movement as high as 700 m per year. (b) Shallow diapiric intrusions, ranging in size from a few hundred meters to 2 km in diameter; vertical displacement ranging from 200 to 500 m; rate of sediment movement several meters per year; and intrusions caused by differential sediment loading, (c) Radial graben (tensional faulting), with widths from 50 to 500 m and lengths of several kilometers; both vertical and downslope lateral movements occurring; and downslope movements of surface material as much as 5 m per year common. (d) Circular collapse depressions, with diameters of depressions ranging from 50 to 500 m; topography of depression interiors, hummocky; and depressions possibly caused by dewatering or degassing of sediments under the influence of cyclic wave loading. (e) Surface mudflows, thick (often more than 35 m) masses of surface sediment flowage; often bounded by abrupt seaward slope; mudflows often extending laterally for distances in excess of 100 km; movement sporadic and lobate and rates of movement as much as several hundred meters per year; often being associated with extremely hummocky topography and mud volcanoes; and with extrusion of sediments the possible mechanism. (f) Shelf‐edge arcuate slumps, with large arcuate slumps displacing several hundred meters of sediment; slippage planes are commonly concave. Finally, (g) Various deep‐seated faults, with faults extending from deep horizons up to modern sediment surface; commonly being associated with abrupt scarps on the seafloor; numerous contemporaneous faults; and local slumping associated with fault scarps.  相似文献   

10.
Hydrodynamic and sediment transport measurements from instrumentation deployed during a 54-day winter period at two sites on the Louisiana inner shelf are presented. Strong extratropical storms, with wind speeds of 7.8 to 15.1 m s-1, were the dominant forcing mechanism during the study. These typically caused mean oscillatory flows and shear velocities about 33% higher than fair weather (averaging 12.3 and 3.2 cm s-1 at the landward site, and 11.4 and 2.7 cm s-1 at the seaward site, respectively). These responses were coupled with mean near-bottom currents more than twice as strong as during fair weather (10.3 and 7.5 cm s-1 at the landward and seaward sites, respectively). These flowed in approximately the same direction as the veering wind, causing a net offshore transport of fine sand. Weak storms were responsible for little sediment transport whereas during fair weather, onshore sand transport of approximately 25-75% of the storm values appears to have occurred. This contradicts previous predictions of negligible fair-weather sediment movement on this inner shelf.  相似文献   

11.
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   

12.
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   

13.
The input of river-borne sediments to the New Zealand continental shelf has been calculated for all the major rivers and basins in New Zealand. South Island yields 284 ± 40 × 106 tonnes per year of sediment from a land area of 152 977 km2 and North Island yields 105 ± 9·4 × 106 tonnes per year from a land area of 114 621 km2. Particularly high discharges are noted off the west coast of South Island and east coast of North Island and result in higher offshore sedimentation there. The data are compatible with measured sedimentation rates on the New Zealand continental shelf. The specific sediment yield from South Island is amongst the highest previously recorded.  相似文献   

14.
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   

15.
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   

16.
Hornblende is the least stable, and most diagnostic, mineral of the sediment blanketing the continental shelf off Georgia, U.S.A. Recent work by others has shown that the probable sources of hornblende-rich sands on the shelf are the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, both of which originate in the southern Appalachian piedmont. Rivers with drainage basins confined to the coastal plain carry stable, low-hornblende heavy-mineral assemblages and contribute sediment to the shelf only during episodes of regression or transgression. Distribution of hornblende on the continental shelf reveals the importance of the Altamaha and Savannah Rivers, especially the Savannah, as sources of sediment. It is postulated that original point concentrations of hornblende-rich sand associated with Late Pleistocene deltas or estuaries of the Savannah River have been modified by southwest currents, possibly during winter storms. The resulting configuration is a series of northeast-trending, linear high-hornblende anomalies. The origin of the hornblende-distribution anomalies probably is identical to the origin of linear shoals that also trend northeast across the continental shelf.  相似文献   

17.
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   

18.
A regional correlation of Neogene stratigraphy has been attempted along and across the NW European Atlantic continental margin, between Mid-Norway and SW Ireland. Two unconformity-bounded successions are recognised. These are referred to as the lower and upper Neogene successions, and have been dated as Miocene–early Pliocene and early Pliocene–Holocene, respectively, in age. Their development is interpreted to reflect plate-wide, tectonically driven changes in the sedimentary, oceanographic and latterly climatic evolution of the NE Atlantic region. The lower Neogene succession mainly preserves a record of deep-water sedimentation that indicates an expansion of contourite sediment drifts above submarine unconformities, within this succession, on both sides of the eastern Greenland–Scotland Ridge from the mid-Miocene. This is interpreted to record enhanced deep-water exchange through the Faroe Conduit (deepest part of the Southern Gateway), and can be linked to compressive inversion of the Wyville–Thomson Ridge Complex. Thus, a pervasive, interconnected Arctic–North Atlantic deep-water circulation system is a Neogene phenomenon. The upper Neogene succession records a regional change, at about 4 Ma, in the patterns of contourite sedimentation (submarine erosion, new depocentres) coeval with the onset of rapid seaward-progradation of the continental margin by up to 100 km. This build-out of the shelf and slope is inferred to record a marked increase in sediment supply in response to uplift and tilting of the continental margin. Associated changes in deep-water circulation may be part of an Atlantic-wide reorganisation of ocean bottom currents. Glacial sediments form a major component of the prograding shelf margin (shelf-slope) sediment wedges, but stratigraphic data indicate that the onset of progradation pre-dates significant high-latitude glaciation by at least 1 Ma, and expansive Northern Hemisphere glaciation by at least 3 Ma.  相似文献   

19.
Matched-field inversion is used to, estimate geoacoustic properties from data obtained in an experiment with a vertical line array (VLA). The experiment was carried out using broad-band sources (shots) in water depths of about 200 m on the continental shelf off Vancouver Island. The data were processed to obtain spectral components of the field for frequencies near the bubble frequency for the shot. The ocean bottom in this region consists of a layer of mainly sandy sediments (about 100 m thick) overlying older consolidated material. Consequently, the inversion was designed to estimate the parameters of a two-layer elastic sediment model. In the inversion, an adaptive global search algorithm was used to investigate the multidimensional space of geoacoustic models in order to determine the set of values corresponding to the best replica field. Convergence is driven by adaptively guiding the search to regions of the parameter space associated with above-average values of the matched field correlation between the measured and replica fields. The geoacoustic profile estimated by the inversion consisted of a 125-m layer with compressional speed ~1700 m/s and shear speed ~400 m/s, overlying a layer with compressional speed ~1900 m/s. This model is consistent with the results from conventional seismic experiments carried out in the same region  相似文献   

20.
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   

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