The Cenozoic western Svalbard margin: sediment geometry and sedimentary processes in an area of ultraslow oceanic spreading |
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Authors: | Ingrid Marie Hasle Amundsen Maria Blinova Berit Oline Hjelstuen Rolf Mjelde Haflidi Haflidason |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Allegt 41, 5007 Bergen, Norway; |
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Abstract: | The northeastern high-latitude North Atlantic is characterised by the Bellsund and Isfjorden fans on the continental slope
off west Svalbard, the asymmetrical ultraslow Knipovich spreading ridge and a 1,000 m deep rift valley. Recently collected
multichannel seismic profiles and bathymetric records now provide a more complete picture of sedimentary processes and depositional
environments within this region. Both downslope and alongslope sedimentary processes are identified in the study area. Turbidity
currents and deposition of glacigenic debris flows are the dominating downslope processes, whereas mass failures, which are
a common process on glaciated margins, appear to have been less significant. The slide debrite observed on the Bellsund Fan
is most likely related to a 2.5–1.7 Ma old failure on the northwestern Barents Sea margin. The seismic records further reveal
that alongslope current processes played a major role in shaping the sediment packages in the study area. Within the Knipovich
rift valley and at the western rift flank accumulations as thick as 950–1,000 m are deposited. We note that oceanic basement
is locally exposed within the rift valley, and that seismostratigraphic relationships indicate that fault activity along the
eastern rift flank lasted until at least as recently as 1.5 Ma. A purely hemipelagic origin of the sediments in the rift valley
and on the western rift flank is unlikely. We suggest that these sediments, partly, have been sourced from the western Svalbard—northwestern
Barents Sea margin and into the Knipovich Ridge rift valley before continuous spreading and tectonic activity caused the sediments
to be transported out of the valley and westward. |
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