The Crati Submarine Fan,Ionian Sea

The Crati Fan is located in the tectonically active submerged extension of the Apennines chain and foretrough. The small fan system is growing in a relatively shallow (200 to 450 m), elongate nearshore basin receiving abundant input from the Crati River. The fan is characterized by a short, steep, channelized section (inner or upper fan) and a smooth, slightly bulging distal section (outer or lower fan). The numerous subparallel channels head in the shelf or littoral zone and do not form branching distributary patterns. Sand and mud depositional lobes of the outer fan stretch over more than 60% of fan length.     

The Bengal Submarine Fan,Northeastern Indian ocean

Bengal Submarine Fan, with or without its eastern lobe, the Nicobar Fan, is the largest submarine fan known. Most of its sediment has been supplied by the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers, probably since the Early Eocene. The “Swatch-of-No-Ground” submarine canyon connects to only one active fan valley system at a time, without apprent bifurcation over its 2500-km length. The upper fan is comprised of a complex of huge channel-levee wedges of abandoned and buried older systems. A reduction of channel size and morphology occurs at the top of the middle, fan, where meandering and sheet flow become more important.     

The Bengal Submarine Fan, Northeastern Indian ocean

Bengal Submarine Fan, with or without its eastern lobe, the Nicobar Fan, is the largest submarine fan known. Most of its sediment has been supplied by the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers, probably since the Early Eocene. The “Swatch-of-No-Ground” submarine canyon connects to only one active fan valley system at a time, without apprent bifurcation over its 2500-km length. The upper fan is comprised of a complex of huge channel-levee wedges of abandoned and buried older systems. A reduction of channel size and morphology occurs at the top of the middle, fan, where meandering and sheet flow become more important. Margin setting represents fan and/or source area     

Seamont magnetism in the Ionian Sea,eastern Mediterranean

Several seamounts in the Ionian Sea, the largest unit in the eastern Mediterranean, have magnetic anomalies. The magnetization vectors of six of these seamounts have been calculated. These paleomagnetic data suggest that the Ionian Sea is composed of several crustal units which came to their present location from different directions. This implies that there has been relative motion in the past between various land masses around the Ionian Sea. The possibility that the Ionian Sea is composed of several crustal units is supported by observations of the magnetic field over the area which is of different character in the north and south. The major limitation in applying the paleomagnetic data into an evolutionary scheme is that all the seamounts in the Ionian Sea as well as its crust are undated.     

Origin of talc in the Ionian Sea waters

Talc and/or pyrophyllite have been detected as suspended particulates in the waters of the Ionian Sea (eastern Mediterranean). Differing from similar findings reported in some recent works by many authors, the presence of these silicates is completely attributable to unavoidable contamination during collection and analytical processing of the water samples.     

Geomorphology of the western Ionian Sea between Sicily and Calabria,Italy

In the westernmost Ionian Sea lies a steep, tectonically active marine basin influenced by turbidity currents generated by terrigenous river input from the adjacent mountains and strong tidal currents propagating through the Strait of Messina. Like many young marine rifts, the basin is lined by steep streams draining the uplifting coasts and supplying sediment across narrow shelves. However, unlike many rifts, this basin is semi-enclosed. The present study explores the seabed morphology and sediment structures in this complex environmental setting, based on multibeam sonar, chirp profiler and seismic reflection data collected in 2006. Offshore channels include many that can be directly linked to onshore streams, suggesting that hyperpycnal flows are important for their formation. Near the Strait of Messina in depths shallower than 400 m, the channels are subdued, plausibly explained as an effect of strong tidal currents. The Messina Channel is characterised by abundant mass-wasting features along its outer bends, particularly on the Calabrian side. Coincidence of the channel course with faults suggests that the channel is structurally controlled in places. The chirp profiles generally show only shallow penetration, the evidence for coarse texture being consistent with the steep gradient of the basin that inhibits deposition from turbidity currents. By contrast, some locally discontinuous mounds exhibiting layered sub-bottom reflectors in the chirp profiles are interpreted as modern levee deposits formed from channelised turbidity current overspill. Overall, this semi-enclosed basin shows little evidence of substantial accumulations associated with modern turbidity current activity, any contemporaneous sediment supply evidently bypassing the area to be deposited in the Ionian Trench; as a consequence, this trench should be an archive of local slope failure and flood events.     

菲律宾海的海底构造

“乔迪斯·决心者”号钻探船于2 0 0 1年3—5月在太平洋西部进行了第1 95航次的调查,是由加拿大地质调查所的MSalisbury、日本地震科学研究所的MShinohara和“大洋钻探计划”的代表CRichter负责。在深度为1 2 74m至571 0m处,沿着东起马里亚内海沟西至台湾岛穿过菲律宾海的剖面,选择3个站位,共计打了1 5个钻孔。第1 95航次的主要任务是在这个海区定位能安装长期监控地质现象的钻孔站位。其中的一个是为了研究俯冲区内的地球化学过程,查明气液流体在下沉板块中活动的空间变化和生物在深部岩石中的活动性。这个站位就是1 2 0 0号钻孔,它直接…     

A Survey of Estuarine Benthic, Zoo-planktonic and Phytoplanktonic Communities of Amvrakikos Gulf, Ionian Sea

Abstract. The estuarine ecosystem of the Amvrakikos Gulf, a semi-enclosed embayment of the Ionian Sea, was surveyed at 9 stations in June, 1980. Quantitative and qualitative relationships among the phytoplanktonic, zooplanktonic and benthic populations were examined and related to environmental parameters. It was found that quantitative maxima of each of the three components occurred at different stations. When stations were grouped according to a similarity index of each community, it could be shown that the stations were very similar with regard to phytoplankton and slightly less similar with regard to zooplankton. The stations differed considerably as far as the benthos is concerned. The phytoplankton also exhibited a lower species diversity (0.08-0.82 bits-indiv.^-1) than the zooplankton (1.08-2.10 bits indiv.^-1) and the benthos (0.85-5.06 bits indiv.^-1). Differences in salinity among stations showed no significant correlation with the abundance or species diversity of phytoplankton, zooplankton or benthos.     

Heavy metals in marine sediments of Taranto Gulf (Ionian Sea, Southern Italy)

Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Ti and Zn concentrations have been determined in surface sediment samples collected in the Taranto Gulf (Ionian Sea, Southern Italy) in order to evaluate their levels and spatial distribution in this important area of the Mediterranean Sea. For various metals, the geoaccumulation index has been calculated as a criterion to assess if their concentrations represent contamination levels or can be considered as background levels. The results show that metals concentrations in sediments can be considered near the background levels found in the Mediterranean Sea.Analytical results have been elaborated by using a Geographical Information System (GIS) software to show metals accumulation areas. Using multivariate statistical analysis, we evaluate the possibility to distinguish the sampling stations, in relation to their geographical position. Results have showed metals distribution in the Taranto Gulf is principally influenced by industrial and urban wastes, located mostly in the northern coastal area of the Ionian Sea. Rivers in the Basilicata region and prevailing anticlockwise marine currents are further factors influencing metal accumulation in sediments.     

论南海海底电缆保护机制之完善

海底电缆连接全球通信,也承担了陆海能源传输的重要功能,对全球社会经济发展有基石性作用,现有国际条约对海底电缆的保护设置基本规范但仍显不足。南海海底电缆众多,各国对保护海底电缆存在共同利益,因此有必要在立法、执法、司法等领域促进对海底电缆的共同保护,并以此建立南海各国之间的互信合作。     

The Ionian Abyssal Plain (central Mediterranean Sea): Morphology, subbottom structures and geodynamic history – an inventory

In order to understand the structure and evolution of the Mediterranean Ridge accretionary complex, it is necessary to understand the structure and history of its foreland. The Ionian Abyssal Plain is one of the varying types of foreland. The state of knowledge for that is presented. Its contour and detailed relief are described for the first time. Based on published and hitherto unpublished seismic data, information on the thickness of the Plio-Quaternary and on the Messinian evaporites are presented. Of particular interest are data concerning the pre-Messinian reflectors. They indicate a pattern of tilted blocks and horst-like features created in pre-Messinian time by tensional tectonics. Varying subsidence continued, however, during Messinian time and controlled the thickness of evaporites. At some places (e.g. Victor Hensen Seahill) vertical tectonics seem to be still active. The main tectonic structures of the Ionian Abyssal Plain are not related to the process of the present accretion and subduction at the Africa/Eurasia plate boundary but are pre-existing and should influence the internal structure of the Mediterranean Ridge which is still growing at the expense of the foreland. As a consequence of our structural evidence, we favour the following interpretation: the Ionian Abyssal Plain is not a remainder of the Jurassic Tethyan ocean but originated by extensive attenuation of continental crust.     

南海西沙海域永乐海底峡谷形成演化过程分析

远海孤立碳酸盐台地周缘发育了碳酸盐岩峡谷,对其开展研究有助于深刻理解碳酸盐碎屑沉积物的“源-汇”体系及深水油气成藏等方面。文章利用多波束测深、高分辨率二维多道地震等数据,精细刻画南海西沙海域永乐海底峡谷的地貌形态及内部充填特征,揭示该峡谷沉积演化过程,分析峡谷成因控制因素及稳定性。永乐海底峡谷形成演化可分为萌芽、汇聚和拓展3个阶段,随着演化过程的发展,峡谷规模及对沉积物输运作用增加。永乐海底峡谷形成及演化主要受古地貌隆起形成的负地形和沉积物重力流侵蚀作用影响。峡谷在第四纪以后仍有较明显的活动迹象。分析显示永乐海底峡谷是西北次海盆的重要物质输送通道,其沉积演化过程及稳定性对研究碳酸盐台地沉积物输运等深水沉积过程及岛礁工程建设具有一定参考意义。     

Plankton Distribution Patterns in a Mediterranean Dilution Basin: Amvrakikos Gulf (Ionian Sea, Greece)

Abstract. The present work describes Amvrakikos Gulf (Ionian Sea, Greece) as a dilution basin and provides information concerning the relationships between the hydrology and plankton composition and distribution.
Amvrakikos Gulf is characterized by a differentiated planktonic system which is apparently directly influenced by the input of the rivers located at the northern part of the gulf.     

Morphological features of the Apennines foreland/accretionary-wedge boundary in the Ionian Sea

A detailed reconstruction of the morphology and recent tectonic activity of the Northern Ionian basin is provided on the basis of newly acquired high-resolution swath bathymetric and single and multichannel seismic profiles. The tectonic domains in this area are the Calabrian accretionary wedge and the Apulian foreland. The contact between the two domains, oriented NW–SE, morphologically coincides with a sea-bottom erosional channel (Taranto canyon) characterized on both sides by mass movements induced by slope instability. Along the accretionary wedge/Apulian foreland boundary three different morphological sectors have been recognized whose main characters are represented by a southward stepped increase of erosional canyon activity resulting in a pronounced slope acclivity and a superficial sediment instability. By means of seismic data we correlate the morphology of the sea-bottom to different contractional and flexural processes of the accretionary wedge/foreland system. The interaction between the different rheological domains in the subduction/collision processes could have also induced horizontal stress represented by areas of tectonic release. In an area like this, where very few detailed surveys have been carried out, this study represents the first attempt in correlating the recent tectonic activity to the morphological features and in locating possible slope instability that has to be evaluated for the positioning of offshore infrastructures.     

The spatial pattern and drainage cell characteristics of a pockmark field,Nile Deep Sea Fan

Over 25,300 seabed pockmarks were mapped from the Rosetta Channel region of the Western Nile Deep Sea Fan (NDSF) using concurrent High Resolution 2D, Chirp profiler and multibeam bathymetry data which spans the Holocene–Pleistocene period. Within the region, a pockmark field containing >13,800 pockmarks was analysed using spatial statistics to determine the distribution of pockmarks within the field. Pockmarks within the field are small (∼16 m diameter), shallow (∼0.5 m deep) circular depressions which formed within the last ∼ 6500 years. The fluid source for the field is identified as an accumulation/generation of gas beneath a hemipelagic seal c. 20–40 ms beneath the seabed. The position of the pockmarks is shown to be unrelated to the depth to the fluid source and an irregular high amplitude acoustic anomaly which is tentatively interpreted as a possible carbonate precipitate of biogenic microbial activity. Statistical spatial analysis of the field confirms the distribution of pockmarks is not random. An exclusion zone surrounding each individual pockmark is identified. The exclusion zone is a unique minimum radius around each pockmark which is not penetrated by any other pockmark. The exclusion zone works in unison with Self-Organised Criticality (SOC) in determining the spatial distribution of pockmarks within the field. The exclusion zone is interpreted as a pockmark “drainage cell”. A conceptual model for a pockmark drainage cell is proposed whereby pockmark formation dissipates a radius/area of fluid and overpressure, thereby preventing the formation of another pockmark within that cell. Consequently, pockmarks are observed to separate or produce anti-clustering tendencies within the field.     

Submarine Landslides on the Western Slope of the Kuril Basin,Sea of Okhotsk

Landslide processes on the western slope of the Kuril Basin were studied using bathymetry and seismic data obtained under the international KOMEX and SSGH projects. Slope areas containing landslides, landslide blocks and mass-transport deposits were distinguished. Large-scale landslides occupying an area of more than 100 km² are located in such areas of open continental margins as the slopes of the North Hokkaido Marginal Plateau and Terpeniya Ridge. Landslide blocks up to 2 km in size and mass-transport deposits are located in submarine canyons and fans in Terpeniya Bay. The age of landslides has been estimated as Middle Pleistocene–Holocene. Landslides are most likely triggered by seismic activity and gas saturation of sediments. Subsequent slope failure seems quite probable within the study area, and landslides capable of generating tsunamis may occur.     

The Central Submarine Canyon in the Qiongdongnan Basin, northwestern South China Sea: Architecture, sequence stratigraphy, and depositional processes

Submarine canyons have been the subject of intense studies in recent years because of their close link to deepwater systems. The Central Canyon is a large unusual submarine canyon in the northwestern margin of the South China Sea, has a total length of about 425 km and is oriented sub-parallel to the continental slope. Using integrated 2D/3D seismic, well log, core, and biostratigraphy data, the current study documents the stratigraphic framework, internal architecture, depositional processes, and controlling factors of the segment of the Central Canyon located in the Qiongdongnan Basin.The integrated analysis shows that the canyon fill consists of four 3^rd-order sequences, SQ4, SQ3, SQ2, and SQ1. Each of them is bounded by regionally important erosional surfaces (3^rd-order sequence boundaries). Within each 3^rd-order sequence there is maximum regressive surface separating a regressive systems tract in the lower part and a transgressive systems tract in the upper part. Nine facies are identified and are further grouped into five depositional units, DU1 through DU5.The canyon evolved through four cut-and-fill stages, with a change from predominantly axial cut-and-fill to primarily side cut-and-fill. Axial cut-and-fill dominated during the first stage, and the slope-subparallel paleo Xisha Trough was intensely eroded by large-scale axial gravity flows. During the second cut-and-fill stage, the Central Canyon experienced both axial and side cut-and-fill. The third stage was dominated by side cut-and-fill. The canyon was eroded and fed by slope channels that transported sandy sediments from the shelf to the north during regression, and was covered by side-derived muddy MTCs during transgression. The last stage was also dominated by side cut-and-fill. The canyon, however, was filled predominantly by side-derived muddy MTCs.Evolution and depositional processes in the Central Canyon were likely controlled by slope-subparallel negative-relief induced by paleo-seafloor morphology, structural inversion of the Red River Fault and the slope-subparallel basement faults. Additionally, Coriolis force, sea-level fluctuations, high sedimentation rate, and rapid progradation of the slope also controlled and influenced the depositional processes, and internal architectures of the canyon.     

Seafloor distribution and last glacial to postglacial activity of mud volcanoes on the Calabrian accretionary prism,Ionian Sea

Mud volcanoes (MVs) are abundant along the eastern Mediterranean subduction zones, recording mud breccia extrusion over long timescales (10⁶ years), but to date relatively few have been recognised in the northern Ionian Sea on the Calabrian accretionary prism (CAP). In the present study, the seafloor distribution and recent activity of MVs is investigated across a 35,600 km² sector of the CAP using a regional acoustic dataset (multibeam bathymetric and backscatter imagery, integrated with subbottom profiles) locally ground-truthed by sediment cores. A total of 54 MVs are identified across water depths of 150–2,750 m using up to four geophysical criteria: distinctive morphology, high backscatter, unstratified subbottom facies and, in one case, a hydroacoustic flare. Fourteen MVs are identified from 3–4 criteria, of which five have been previously proven by cores containing mud breccia beneath up to 1.6 m of hemipelagic sediments (Madonna dello Ionio MVs 1–3, Pythagoras MV and the newly named Sartori MV), while nine others are identified for the first time (Athena, Catanzaro, Cerere, Diana, Giunone, Minerva, ‘right foot’, Venere 1 and 2). Forty other as yet unnamed MVs are inferred from 1–2 geophysical criteria (three from distinctive morphology alone). All but one possible MV lie on the inner plateau of the CAP, landwards of the Calabrian Escarpment in a zone up to 120 km wide that includes the inner pre-Messinian wedge and the fore-arc basins, where they are interpreted to record the ascent from depth of overpressured fluids that interacted with tectonic structures and with evaporitic or shale seals within the fore-arc basins. The rise of fluids may have been triggered by post-Messinian out-of-sequence tectonism that affected the entire pre-Messinian prism, but Plio-Quaternary sedimentation rates and depositional styles support the inference that significant mud volcanism has taken place only on the inner plateau. Sedimentation rates across the CAP applied to a 12 khz sonar detection depth of 225 cm imply that all MVs with backscatter signatures (50 of 54) have erupted mud breccias within the last 56 ka, and within the last 12.5 ka in the fore-arc basins. Ages of eruption estimated from the depth of cored mud breccias at five MVs, and a seismo-stratigraphic relationship at a sixth, indicate episodes at the last glacial maximum ca. 20 ka BP and during the postglacial period. Eruptive episodes within the Calabrian MV province constitute recurrent geohazards, separated by longer periods of quiescent (subdued) fluid seepage that are likely to support gas hydrate formation and chemosynthetic ecosystems.     

Submarine permafrost in the nearshore zone of the southwestern Kara Sea

The results of seismic studies in the shallow waters of the southwestern Kara Sea show the presence of a seismic unit that can be interpreted as relict submarine permafrost. The permafrost table has a strongly dissected upper surface and is located at a water depth of 5–10 m. A 3D modeling of the permafrost table suggests the presence of relict buried thermodenudational depressions (up to 2 km across) at a water depth of 5–10 m. The depressions may be considered to be paragenetic to thermocirques found at the Shpindler site. Relict thermocirques are completely filled with sediment and not exposed at the sediment surface.