Aksu, A. E. and Hiscott, R. N. (1989): Slides and debris flows on the high-latitude continental slopes of Baffin Bay

Leg/Site/Hole:
ODP 105
ODP 105 645
Identifier:
1989-069788
georefid

10.1130/0091-7613(1989)017<0885:SADFOT>2.3.CO;2
doi

Creator:
Aksu, A. E.
Mem. Univ. Newfoundland, Dep. Earth Sci., St. John's, NL, Canada
author

Hiscott, R. N.
author

Identification:
Slides and debris flows on the high-latitude continental slopes of Baffin Bay
1989
Geology (Boulder)
Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, United States
17
10
885-888
The eastern continental margin of Baffin Island around Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 645 was surveyed by using single-channel airgun, high-resolution boomer systems and piston cores. The data show that much of the upper slope between the 300 and approximately 1200 m isobaths is erosional. Major sliding and rotational slumping has removed several hundred metres of sediment from the upper slope, giving the sea bed a steplike morphology. From approximately 1200 m to the 2300 m isobath, the slope is constructional and is characterized by abundant acoustically transparent lenses, some of which are traced upslope into acoustically transparent to internally deformed wedge-shaped bodies. These lenses are interpreted to be debris-flow deposits and their abundance in the lower slope indicates frequent upper slope failures. The wedge-shaped bodies are much less common and are interpreted to be larger slides and/or slumps. Near the base of the slope, fields of diapiric structures pierce the acoustically well stratified section and locally produce small mounds on the sea floor. On the basis of correlation with ODP Site 645, they are interpreted as mud diapirs. The combined data show that the lower slope of Baffin Island is constructed predominantly of shingled lenses of debris-flow deposits and rotated slump blocks that originated from major erosion of the upper slope.
English
Serial
Coverage:Geographic coordinates:
North:71.3000
West:-67.3000East: -64.2000
South:70.3000

Oceanography; Applied geophysics; acoustical methods; Arctic Archipelago; Arctic Ocean; Baffin Bay; Baffin Island; Canada; continental slope; currents; debris flows; diapirism; Eastern Canada; Franklin District Northwest Territories; geophysical methods; geophysical profiles; geophysical surveys; Leg 105; mass movements; Northwest Territories; Nunavut; Ocean Drilling Program; oceanography; ODP Site 645; sedimentation; seismic methods; seismic profiles; seismic stratigraphy; surveys; transport; turbidity currents; Western Canada;

.