Low sea-level stand emplacement of megaturbidites in the western and eastern Mediterranean Sea

Rothwell, R. G.; Reeder, Michael S.; Anastasakis, George; Stow, Dorrik; Thomson, J.; Kähler, Gisela

doi:10.1016/s0037-0738(00)00064-6

Cited by 62 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The tendency for slope failure can be amplified if the sediment accumulates so quickly that the excess high porosity of surface sediments cannot be squeezed out. This can lead to instability of the sediment column, causing periodic Storegga-type landslides off the coast of Norway (see below), in the Mediterranean Sea (Rothwell et al, 2000) and potentially off the East coast of the United States (Dugan and Flemings, 2000). Maslin et al (2004) find that 70% of the landslides in the North Atlantic over the last 45 kyr occurred within the time windows of the two meltwater peaks 15-13 and 11-8 kyr ago.…”

Section: Landslidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change

2007

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Abstract. Methane frozen into hydrate makes up a large reservoir of potentially volatile carbon below the sea floor and associated with permafrost soils. This reservoir intuitively seems precarious, because hydrate ice floats in water, and melts at Earth surface conditions. The hydrate reservoir is so large that if 10% of the methane were released to the atmosphere within a few years, it would have an impact on the Earth's radiation budget equivalent to a factor of 10 increase in atmospheric CO 2 .Hydrates are releasing methane to the atmosphere today in response to anthropogenic warming, for example along the Arctic coastline of Siberia. However most of the hydrates are located at depths in soils and ocean sediments where anthropogenic warming and any possible methane release will take place over time scales of millennia. Individual catastrophic releases like landslides and pockmark explosions are too small to reach a sizable fraction of the hydrates. The carbon isotopic excursion at the end of the Paleocene has been interpreted as the release of thousands of Gton C, possibly from hydrates, but the time scale of the release appears to have been thousands of years, chronic rather than catastrophic.The potential climate impact in the coming century from hydrate methane release is speculative but could be comparable to climate feedbacks from the terrestrial biosphere and from peat, significant but not catastrophic. On geologic timescales, it is conceivable that hydrates could release as much carbon to the atmosphere/ocean system as we do by fossil fuel combustion.

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Section: Landslidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change

2007

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“…The Herodotus Abyssal Plain is located between the Mediterranean Ridge and the African continental margin, while the Rhodes Basin, the Antalya Basin and Cyprus Abyssal Plain are bordered to the north by the Turkish continental margin and to the south by the Mediterranean Ridge. The Herodotus Abyssal Plain, the largest basin plain in the eastern Mediterranean, is a NE-SW elongated depression bounded by the isobaths of 2800 or 3000 m with a maximum depth of 3156 m (Carter et al, 1972;Rothwell et al, 2000), lying seaward of the northwestern part of the Nile Cone (Rothwell et al, 2000).…”

Section: Abyssal Plainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sediments filling the Mediterranean abyssal plains have been dominated by the deposition of turbidites. Two main controls have been identified, affecting sediment remobilisation and redeposition in the Mediterranean Sea ( Rothwell et al, 2000): (1) climate change, principally linked to Quaternary glaciations, causing large-scale eustatic regressions and transgressions; and (2) the tectonic framework resulting from the long-term northward movement of the African plate into Europe. However, after Stanley (1985), the dominant control of Plio-Quaternary sediment thickness, sediment types, basin plain depth and margin configuration is geologically recent tectonic activity rather than sedimentary processes.…”

Section: Abyssal Plainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thick structureless turbidite muds have long been reported from cores of Mediterranean troughs and basins (see references in Stanley, 1985). However, thick, laterally extensive 'megabeds' that are clearly very large-volume pounded mud turbidites have been described from the larger abyssal plains of the Mediterranean, on the western Mediterranean and Calabrian Ridges (Kastens and Cita, 1981), on the Ionian Abyssal Plain (Hieke, 1984), on the Herodotus Abyssal Plain (Cita et al, 1984 andRothwell et al, 2000), and on the Balearic Abyssal Plain (Rotwell et al, 1998 and2000).…”

Section: Abyssal Plainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An introduction to Mediterranean deep-sea biology

et al. 2004

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“…The Balearic Abyssal Plain "Megaturbidite" Rothwell et al (1998Rothwell et al ( , 2000 described an approximately 9 m thick seismically transparent unit of turbidites, called the "Megaturbidite", at about 10 m below seafloor infilling the deepest part of the Balearic Basin. This megaturbidite was interpreted as a single depositional event .…”

Section: Mass-movement Depositsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quaternary turbidite systems on the northern margins of the Balearic Basin (Western Mediterranean): a synthesis

et al. 2006

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International audienceThe Balearic Basin is a young basin composed of thick Plio–Quaternary sediments, including active gravity sedimentation. During the Quaternary, gravity processes deposited (1) turbidite systems, either as symmetrical fans (Petit-Rhône and Valencia fans) or asymmetrical ridges (Marseille–Planier, Grand-Rhône and Pyreneo-Languedocian ridges) and (2) several mass-transport deposits, indicating recurrent sedimentary failures of the margin. This paper synthesizes previous works and proposes a chronological sedimentary evolution for the basin. Except for the last 20 ka, the chronostratigraphy remains poorly constrained but should soon be established for the last 500 ka, based on the PROMESS1 drillings on the outer shelf of the Gulf of Lions, and hopefully for the last 30 Ma, based on ultra-deep drilling in the deep basin from aboard the Chikyu research vessel (IODP proposal Pre699

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Low sea-level stand emplacement of megaturbidites in the western and eastern Mediterranean Sea

Cited by 62 publications

References 28 publications

Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change

Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change

An introduction to Mediterranean deep-sea biology

Quaternary turbidite systems on the northern margins of the Balearic Basin (Western Mediterranean): a synthesis

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