Texas A&M University
Department of Oceanography
Newly discovered seafloor channels formed by super-salty, flowing water
Gulf geology 101
Here's a little background information about
the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico:
The seafloor in the middle of the gulf is relatively
flat. Aside from an occasional hill, these abyssal plains lack topological
variety. But as you get closer to the continents, the seafloor slopes steeply
to the surface. Much of the gulf's geologic action occurs on this slanted
region called the continental slope.
The continental slope off Texas and Louisiana is structurally
the most complex passive continental margin in the world because of salt
movement and rapid sediment deposition. More than ninety basins, numerous
domes and ridges, and seven submarine canyons dissect the continental margin
of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.
Seafloor sediments are particles from various sources
- living organisms, the land, the atmosphere or the sea - that accumulate
on the seafloor.
One way small ocean basins are supplied with sediment
is by turbidity currents, which are avalanches of water and sediments caused
by earthquakes or overloading of sediment on a slope.
http://oceanography.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/1998/3/bryant-2.html
Copyright 1998-1999, Department
of Oceanography, Texas A&M University.
Updated November 24, 1998. (abdw)
Send Quarterdeck inquiries to quarterdeck@ocean.tamu.edu.
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