Title | Wave-form sheeted contourite drift on the Barra Fan, NW UK continental margin |
Publication Type | Book Chapter |
Year of Publication | 2002 |
Authors | Knutz, PC, E. Jones, JW, Howe, JE, Van Weering, TJC, Stow, DAV |
Editor | Stow, DAV, Pudsey, CJ, Howe, JA, Faugeres, J-C, Viana, A |
Book Title | Deep-Water Contourite Systems: Modern Drifts and Ancient Series, Seismic and Sedimentary Characteristics, Geological Society, London, Memoirs |
Volume | 22 |
Series Volume | 1 |
Pagination | 85-97 |
Publisher | Geological Society |
City | London |
Abstract | The lithology of a 30 m long piston core (MD95-2006) and high-resolution, seismic profiles from the lower Barra Fan, Rockall Trough, reveal a sheeted drift form with internal sediment waves deposited over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Deposition of these mainly fine-grained deposits was controlled by a combination of downslope and alongslope transport mechanisms that interacted with the positive topography created by debrite lobes on the lower fan. The core penetrates a small field of sediment waves (wavelength approx. 1 km, height 3-6 m), which onlap a debrite lobe dated to the last glacial maximum. The sedimentary sequence shows: (1) silty-muddy contourites deposited during the mid-Devensian (Marine Isotope Stage 3), (2) glacimarine hemipelagites and sandy turbidites deposited between 26 and 18 C14 ka BP, followed by a short phase of erosion and redeposition by bottom currents, and (3) glacimarine hemipelagites and silty-muddy contourites representing the glacial to Holocene transition. On the distal fan edge, a drift sequence with upslope-migrating sediment waves (wavelengths approx. 3 km, height 15-30 m) onlaps the tongue of a previous slide event (pre-Devensian?). These bedforms were probably generated by decelerating, low-density glacigenic turbidity currents, but pirated by contour-following bottom currents on the distal part of the drift. |
URL | http://mem.lyellcollection.org/content/22/1/85.abstract |
- Log in to post comments
- Google Scholar