We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Depositional characteristics and spatial distribution of deep-water sedimentary systems on the northwestern middle-lower slope of the Northwest Sub-Basin, South China Sea.
- Authors
Chen, Hui; Xie, Xinong; Van Rooij, David; Vandorpe, Thomas; Huang, Li; Guo, Laiyuan; Su, Ming
- Abstract
Based upon 2D seismic data, this study confirms the presence of a complex deep-water sedimentary system within the Pliocene-Quaternary strata on the northwestern lower slope of the Northwest Sub-Basin, South China Sea. It consists of submarine canyons, mass-wasting deposits, contourite channels and sheeted drifts. Alongslope aligned erosive features are observed on the eastern upper gentle slopes (<1.2° above 1,500 m), where a V-shaped downslope canyon presents an apparent ENE migration, indicating a related bottom current within the eastward South China Sea Intermediate Water Circulation. Contourite sheeted drifts are also generated on the eastern gentle slopes (~1.5° in average), below 2,100 m water depth though, referring to a wide unfocused bottom current, which might be related to the South China Sea Deep Water Circulation. Mass wasting deposits (predominantly slides and slumps) and submarine canyons developed on steeper slopes (>2°), where weaker alongslope currents are probably dominated by downslope depositional processes on these unstable slopes. The NNW–SSE oriented slope morphology changes from a three-stepped terraced outline (I–II–III) east of the investigated area, into a two-stepped terraced (I–II) outline in the middle, and into a unitary steep slope (II) in the west, which is consistent with the slope steepening towards the west. Such morphological changes may have possibly led to a westward simplification of composite deep-water sedimentary systems, from a depositional complex of contourite depositional systems, mass-wasting deposits and canyons, on the one hand, to only sliding and canyon deposits on the other hand.
- Subjects
SOUTH China Sea; SEDIMENTATION &; deposition research; GEOLOGICAL research; OCEAN currents; OCEAN circulation
- Publication
Marine Geophysical Research, 2013, Vol 34, Issue 3/4, p239
- ISSN
0025-3235
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11001-013-9191-7