Further evidence of contour currents in the Western North Atlantic
Abstract
A study of compass-oriented sea-floor photographs, echograms and sediment cores on the Atlantic continental margin of North America has been made in order to evaluate the role of deep-sea contour currents in the shaping of the continental rise. The sediments on the upper continental rise consist of lutites which are being deposited on the sea floor in an environment devoid of strong bottom currents. Below an abrupt change in regional slope, that marks the boundary between the upper and lower continental rise, a swift bottom current is observed which flows to the southwest parallel to the contours. Beneath this current the surface sediments are distinctly coarser grained and long cores show many quartz silt laminations in the sedimentary column. Further downslope on the lower continental rise the currents are variable in direction and weaker. Measurements of northerly directions indicate that at certain locations the Gulf Stream may intermittently scour the sea floor. In the area of the Lower Continental Rise Hill a swift southwesterly current is again observed. Hyperbolic echo traces on echograms, prolonged multiple echo sequences, and wedging of sub-bottom reflecting interfaces can be mapped as distinct zones. These zones of sea floor micromorphology parallel the regional contours of the continental rise, and are produced by erosional and depositional processes of bottom currents. We conclude that the continental rise is a large sediment wedge which owes its shape to deep geostrophic contour currents.
- Publication:
-
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
- Pub Date:
- July 1967
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0012-821X(67)90156-2
- Bibcode:
- 1967E&PSL...2..351S