Seismicity due to the compressional motion in North Africa has an important effect on the stability of the sediments on the Algerian continental slope. The 1954 earthquake induced a large turbidity current that cut many telephone cables. Results of the 1980 EI-Asnam earthquake on sliding of slope deposits are not well documented, mainly because there were fewer cables than in the past. Nevertheless in the Bay of Alger, 200 km from the epicentre, a telephone cable was broken by a small turbidity current. This current reached a velocity of about 45 km/h.
The messinian erosional surface buried beneath the Guif of Lion has been mapped by to a dense, systematic seismic reflexion profiles survey. A river system running downward the evaporitic basin is carved across this surface. The main stream, the paleo-Rhône, has been surim posed on a mesozoic ridge as deep as 600 m during messinian low sea level. From the consideration of its profile of equilibrium, the authors think that the contemporaneous coastline was lying at about 1 000 m below the last tortonian sea level.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.