A review of undulated sediment features on Mediterranean prodeltas: distinguishing sediment transport structures from sediment deformation

Most Mediterranean prodeltas show undulated sediment features on the foresets of their Holocene wedges. These features have been described all along the Mediterranean for the last 30 years and interpreted as either soft sediment deformation and incipient landsliding, and more recently, as sediment t...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Urgeles Esclasans, Roger, Cattaneo, A., Puig, Pere, Liquete García, Camino, De Mol, Ben, Amblàs i Novellas, David, Sultan, N., Trincardi, F.
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/124788
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/124788
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Sediments litorals
Mediterrània (Costa)
Coastal sediments
Mediterranean Coast
Descrição
Resumo:Most Mediterranean prodeltas show undulated sediment features on the foresets of their Holocene wedges. These features have been described all along the Mediterranean for the last 30 years and interpreted as either soft sediment deformation and incipient landsliding, and more recently, as sediment transport structures. We perform a review and detailed analysis of these undulated sediment features using ultrahigh-resolution seismic and bathymetric data as well as geotechnical information and hydrodynamic time series and hydrographic transects. In this study we show that the characteristics of the sediment undulations (configuration of the reflections down section and between adjacent undulations and overall morphologic characteristics) are incompatible with a genesis by sediment deformation alone and do not show evidence of sediment deformation in most cases. Various processes in the benthic boundary layer can be invoked to explain the variety of features observed in the numerous areas displaying sediment undulations.