Recurrent Pleistocene sub-marine slide events on the south Vøring Plateau, mid-Norwegian continental margin

Throughout the Pleistocene the sediment input and depositional environments on the continental slope off Norway have been strongly controlled by variability in the ocean circulation, glaciations and sea-level changes. Repeated occurrence of shelf edge glaciations along the whole NW European margin, from Ireland to Svalbard, started at Marine Isotope Stage 12 (c. 0.5 Ma). During these periods, fast moving ice streams crossed the continental shelf on a number of locations, and large submarine fans and prograding wedges accumulated on the continental slope. During glacial maximums and in the early phases of the deglaciations high sedimentation rates, >2000 cm/ka, characterised the Norwegian continental margin. Within these depositional environments more than 30 large-scale mass failures have been identified. Here, we report on three slide events on the south Vøring Plateau, on the mid-Norwegian margin. These slides have affected an area between 2900 and 12000 km2 and involved 580-2400 km3 of sediments, noting that the slide debrites left by the failure events reach a maximum thickness of c. 150 m. For comparison the Holocene Storegga Slide, considered the largest exposed sub-marine slide in the world today, mobilized c. 2500-3500 km3 of masses and affected an area of c. 95 000 km2. The Vøring Plateau sub-marine slides are most likely younger than 0.5 Ma, thus occurring in a time period of repeated ice sheet growth to the shelf edge and high accumulation rates. The failures have occurred within an area dominated by gradients less than 1 degree, and observation of long run-out distances indicate that hydroplaning was important during slide development. Our multichannel seismic profiles further show that gas hydrate bearing sediments are observed on the mid-Norwegian continental margin. Thus, dissociation of gas hydrates and high sedimentation rates may have promoted conditions for failures to occur.