The Ebro Continental Margin, Western Mediterranean Sea: Interplay Between Canyon-Channel Systems and Mass Wasting Processes

An introduction to Mediterranean deep-sea biology

“…The course of submarine canyons is from straight to sinuous or even meandering, as is perfectly exemplified by the Rhone Canyon and channel off the Gulf of Lions, the Blanes Canyon off Spain, and others. An intriguing inner course incised into a major course is a rather common feature, as was recently observed in the northwestern Mediterranean thanks to full coverage swath bathymetric mapping (Berné et al, 1999;Canals et al, 2000).…”

“…Canals et al (2000) and Lastras et al (2002) show the structure of a debris flow named BIG'95 on the Ebro continental slope that disturbs more than 2200 km 2 , including a 26 km 3 deposit of remobilised sediment. In the source area, the headwall scar located on the lower continental slope at ca.…”

“…Landsliding modifies the distribution pattern of canyon-channel systems and channel-levee complexes and thus the sedimentary architecture of continental margins (Canals et al, 2000).…”

“…At present, the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) has assigned new areas of responsibility to the national hydrographic offices to obtain new detailed bathymetric maps using multibeam and long-range sidescan sonars. In some specific areas, regional geological work has made an important contribution to knowledge of the physiography and seafloor characteristics of the Mediterranean Sea: Pierrot (1972) for the Ligure Sea, Monti et al (1978) for the western basin, Gennesaux and Vanney (1979) for the Algero-Provençal basin, Canals et al (1982) for the northeastern Iberian margin, Bellaiche et al (1980) for the deep-sea fan of the Rhone river, Canals et al (2000) for the Valencia trough, and Berné et al (1999 and for the Gulf of Lions.…”

Submarine canyons of north-western Sicily (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea): Variability in morphology, sedimentary processes and evolution on a tectonically active margin

“…The top-down processes mainly refer to turbidity and hyperpycnal flows occurring along the shelf margin which generate axial incision down to the slope, in alternating erosive and depositional dynamics (Baztan et al, 2005). At a global scale, top-down processes generally occur in moderate to high sediment-supply margins, alimented by coastal and fluvial sedimentary inputs, and are more frequent and active during the glacial phases (Canals et al, 2000;Baztan et al, 2005;Harris and Whiteway, 2011). Bottom-up processes are governed by the development of stacked mass-movements retrograding through the lower slope to the shelf margin and are more commonly observed in sediment-undersupplied margins, in tectonically active high-gradient bedrock slopes (Lo Iacono et al, 2011;Biscara et al, 2012;Micallef et al, 2012).…”