Submarine slumps, slides, and flows dominate sculpting of Beringian Margin, Alaska
Conference
·
· AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)
OSTI ID:6165252
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA (USA)
The 1,400 km long Beringian margin is characterized by several very large submarine canyons and by a large oceanic plateau at the southern end. GLORIA sidescan-sonar imagery provides a perspective of this margin that is unattainable with conventional acoustic profiles. The broad coverage of GLORIA images emphasizes that, of all the sedimentary processes affecting this vast margin, mass movement is clearly the dominant shaping process. Styles of failure include mud and debris flows, slumps, and massive block slides, some covering areas greater than 1,500 km{sup 2}. GLORIA imagery and seismic-reflection profiles show evidence for a wide variety of slides and slumps in the canyons of the northern margin, Navarin and Pervenets. The 100 km long shelf edge between these two canyons is characterized by a series of scalloped slide scars and incipient scars associated with blocks of sedimentary material, 1 to 2 km across. One of the largest single slide masses is a huge block tens of kilometers wide that occurs on the rise in the central part of the margin beyond the mouth of Zhemchug Canyon. Sliding of this block may have initiated the incision of the world's largest submarine canyon. The removal of this block accelerated headward erosion by retrograde failure until Zhemchug Canyon was cut back to a fault parallel to the shelf edge. Mass movement along the southern margin is widespread at the edges of Umnak Plateau. One mass failure, well-defined by GLORIA, is about 30 km wide and 55 km long. This and other slides along the plateau are associated with diapiric-like structures, suggesting relatively recent tectonism.
- OSTI ID:
- 6165252
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-900702--
- Conference Information:
- Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA) Journal Volume: 74:6
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
GLORIA side-scan imagery of Aleutian basin, Bering Sea slope and Abyssal plain
Morphology, paleogeographic setting, and origin of the middle Wilcox Yoakum Canyon, Texas coastal plain
Continental slope morphology in northern Gulf of Mexico mapped with long-range (GLORIA) side-scan data
Conference
·
Fri May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1987
· AAPG (Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol.) Bull.; (United States)
·
OSTI ID:6341621
Morphology, paleogeographic setting, and origin of the middle Wilcox Yoakum Canyon, Texas coastal plain
Journal Article
·
Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990
· AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)
·
OSTI ID:6558766
Continental slope morphology in northern Gulf of Mexico mapped with long-range (GLORIA) side-scan data
Conference
·
Thu Jan 31 23:00:00 EST 1985
· Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States)
·
OSTI ID:5786916