No comprehensive scheme yet exists to describe the depositional products of submarine sediment failures at the scale of piston cores, resulting in misinterpretation of failure deposits and overuse of the genetic term ‘debris flow’. Ninety‐nine sediment cores (0·5 to 20 m in length), from offshore eastern Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, are used to propose a descriptive sedimentary facies scheme with genetic implications for mass‐transport deposits. Seven facies are distinguished: (i) allochthonous stratified sediment; (ii) distorted stratified sediment; (iii) clast‐supported hard‐mud‐clast conglomerate; (iv) matrix‐supported mud‐clast conglomerate; (v) thin mud‐clast conglomerate (<0·8 m thick); (vi) diamicton; and (vii) sorted sand‐gravel deposits (≥0·05 m thick). Seven genetic types of deposits are recognized. (i) Slumping of coherent sediment blocks (facies I). (ii) Slump and slide deposits (facies I and II). (iii) Debris‐avalanche deposits (hard sediment of facies I and II overlain by facies III). (iv) Low‐viscosity or large‐scale, high‐viscosity, cohesive debris flow deposits (facies IV, may have I, II, and III). (v) Very low‐viscosity debris flow deposits (facies V). (vi) Cohesionless debris flow deposits (facies VI). (vii) High‐density turbidity currents (facies VII). Vertical transitions between the genetic types were analysed by Markov chain analysis. Although sedimentological transitions are inferred between deposits of slides and cohesive debris flows, their spatial distribution indicates that a cohesive debris flow forms principally in the initial stages of a sediment failure, suggesting that transformation depends mostly on the strength of the sediments. A genetic link is suggested for cohesionless debris flow deposits, which originate from the disintegration of sandy sediment on the upper continental slope, and the closely related turbidity current deposits. Debris avalanches are common in sedimentary marine environments with steep slopes (>10°). In many cases, geometrical and seismic characteristics of debris avalanche, slide and debris flow are similar, requiring core data to verify transport process.

International audienceThe Gulf of Corinth is one of the fastest-spreading intra-continental rifts on Earth. GPS data indicate that the rift is currently opening in a NNE-SSW direction, with a rate of extension reaching up to 16 mm yr (super - 1) in its westernmost part. Although the rest of the offshore rift has been well studied, the western tip of the rift is still poorly explored. We present an accurate map of submarine faults in this area based on two high-resolution seismic reflection surveys (single-channel sparker). In the eastern part of the studied area, the sedimentary infill is affected by the known North Eratini, South Eratini, and West Channel faults. Further to the west, the seafloor is mostly flat and is bounded to the north by the normal, south-dipping, Trizonia fault. To the north, the shallower part of the Gulf shows to the east a diffuse pattern of normal and strike-slip deformation, which is replaced to the west by a 7.5 km long SE striking strike-slip fault zone, called the Managouli fault zone. To the westernmost tip of the Gulf, in the Nafpaktos Basin, two fault sets with different strikes are encountered; the one with a NE-SW strike exhibits a clear strike-slip component. The western tip of the Gulf of Corinth is the only part of the Corinth Rift where convincing evidence for strike-slip movement has been found. This fault pattern is likely related to the complex deformation occurring at the diffuse junction at the western tip of the Rift between three crustal blocks: Continental Greece, Peloponnese, and the Ionian Island-Akarnania block

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