Unusual bed forms on the North Aleutian Shelf,Bristol Bay,Alaska

Side-scan sonar records collected over an area of the North Aleutian Shelf, approximately 250 km west of the head of Bristol Bay, Alaska, identified widespread evidence of active sea floor erosion processes, including sediment transport. Thousands of sea floor depressions, many linear and some containing rippled floors, were identified in water depths of 30 to 90 m. The depressions cover approximately 40 percent of the area surveyed. The sea floor depressions are interpreted to be erosional features, and in conjunction with a field of sand waves, exemplify the dynamic nature of the ocenographic processes active on this area of the sea floor.