Hyperbolic echo zones in the eastern Atlantic and the structure of the southern Madeira Rise |
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Authors: | Robert W Embley Philip D Rabinowitz Robert D Jacobi |
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Institution: | Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964 U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | The Madeira Rise is a 450 km northeast-trending structural-sedimentary feature which lies west of the Madeira Islands. Its northern half is controlled by a basement ridge, but its southern section consists of an apparent current-controlled sediment deposit. Its maximum sediment thickness is about 1 km over a relatively level basement. There are two reflectors which can be traced within the sediment pile. A shallow reflector (R1) may mark the termination of a rapid constructional phase of the drift. Sediment cores taken on the southern Madeira Rise have recovered brown marls and chalks with sedimentation rates of only about 1.5 cm/1000 years over the last 225,000 years.A striking zone of hyperbolic reflectors mapped around the flank of the southern Madeira Rise in the 4000–4800 m depth range may be the expression of bedforms created by contour-following currents. Another zone of hyperbolic echoes is found on the continental rise at about 24–26°N in a similar depth range. Trend determinations in this area suggest that the bedforms which give rise to the hyperbolae are oriented north-northeast and may be similar to the abyssal furrows discovered by DEEP-TOW observations on the Blake-Bahama Outer Ridge.The bottom photographs available from both hyperbolic echo zones show a tranquil bottom. This suggests that the hyperbolic bedforms are relict. |
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