Pockmarks in the Ibiza Channel and western end of the Balearic Promontory (western Mediterranean) revealed by multibeam mapping

Pockmarks ranging in width from <10 to 700 m, and with reliefs of 2 to 55 m were discovered in the Ibiza Channel and on the Balearic Promontory, Western Mediterranean, during a multibeam survey. In the Ibiza Channel the larger structures are found within a field of small craters less than 10 m wide and 5 m deep which give the seafloor an "orange peel" texture. The abundant 30 Ma-Present volcanic structures in the region suggests that most of the craters may have been formed by the escape of gases and associated waters via faults from a hydrothermal field beneath the surficial sediments. Others may be the result of neotectonism.