03762nas a2200313 4500000000100000008004100001260004400042100001900086700002700105700001900132700001900151700001900170700001900189700002200208700002500230700001800255700001800273700002100291700001800312700001800330700001600348700002100364700001700385245009100402856005100493300002200544520286000566020002203426 2014 d bSpringer International PublishingaCham1 aAaron Micallef1 aAggeliki Georgiopoulou1 aTimothy Le Bas1 aJoshu Mountjoy1 aVeerle Huvenne1 aClaudio Iacono1 aSebastian Krastel1 aJan-Hinrich Behrmann1 aDavid Völker1 aMichael Stipp1 aChristian Berndt1 aRoger Urgeles1 aJason Chaytor1 aKatrin Huhn1 aMichael Strasser1 aCarl Harbitz00aThe Malta-Sicily Escarpment: Mass Movement Dynamics in a Sediment-Undersupplied Margin uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00972-8_28 a317\textendash3283 a

The Malta-Sicily Escarpment (MSE) is a steep carbonate escarpment that appears to have largely remained isolated from inputs of fluvial and littoral sediments since the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Mass movement activity has so far only been inferred from sediment cores at the base of the MSE. In this study we use geophysical and sedimentological data acquired from the upper MSE and outer Malta Plateau to: (i) map and characterise the dominant forms of mass movements, and (ii) determine the nature and origin of these mass movements, and their role in the evolution of the MSE. We document 67 mass movement scars across 370 km2 of seafloor. Slope instability entailed translational slides, spreads and debris flows that mobilised Plio-Pleistocene outer shelf hemipelagic/pelagic sediments or carbonate sequences across the upper continental slope. Slope failure events are caused by loss of support associated with the formation of channels, gullies, canyon heads and fault-related escarpments. Mass movements play a key role in eroding the seafloor and transferring material to the lower MSE. In particular, they control the extent of headward and lateral extension of submarine canyons, facilitate tributary development, remove material from the continental shelf and slope, and feed sediment and drive its transport across the submarine canyon system.

 a978-3-319-00972-8