Bottom currents influenced deepwater canyons in the northern of Baiyun Sag slope, South China Sea
Mao, K.; Delivet, S.; Van Rooij, D.; Xie, X. (2014). Bottom currents influenced deepwater canyons in the northern of Baiyun Sag slope, South China Sea, in: Van Rooij, D. et al. (Ed.) Book of Abstracts. 2nd Deep-Water Circulation Congress: The Contourite Log-book. Ghent, Belgium, 10-12 September 2014. VLIZ Special Publication, 69: pp. 87-88
In: Van Rooij, D.; Rüggeberg, A. (Ed.) (2014). Book of Abstracts. 2nd Deep-Water Circulation Congress: The Contourite Log-book. Ghent, Belgium, 10-12 September 2014. VLIZ Special Publication, 69. Ghent University, Department of Geology and Soil Science/Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ): Oostende. xviii, 152 pp., more
In: VLIZ Special Publication. Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ): Oostende. ISSN 1377-0950, more
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Document type: Summary
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| Keywords |
Motion > Water motion > Water currents > Bottom currents
Properties > Physical properties > Turbidity
Marine/Coastal |
| Author keywords |
Deepwater canyons; Morphology controlling factors |
| Abstract |
Most submarine canyons are documented as erosive features that deeply cut into the shelf margin, and are considered as important conduits for the transfer of sediment to the lower slope and abyssal plain. In this study we investigate a series of submarine canyons developed on the shelf margin in the Pearl River Mouth Basin. High-resolution 2D seismic and borehole data have been used to investigate the morphology and stacking pattern of these submarine canyons. Seventeen canyons oriented NNW-SSE, approximately perpendicular to the regional slope, have been distinguished. They evolve from V-shaped in the upslope part to U-shaped morphology downslope. Numerous buried channels can be distinguished below the modern canyons showing an auto-cyclic progression in the scouring-filling and vertical stacking, indicating that canyons experienced a cyclic evolution with several cutting and filling phases of varying magnitude. Infilling evolved from high to low energy deposits. The low energy deposits form asymmetric, eastward prograding bodies developed on the western flank of the buried channel. The remarkable asymmetry between the two flanks of canyons may result from the interaction between turbiditic current within canyons and along slope bottom currents that flow northeast-ward along the margin. |
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