Sedimentological and geochemical characterization of a small scale turbidite cycle in the El Arraiche Mud Volcano Province (Gulf of Cádiz)
Cunha, A.G. (2014). Sedimentological and geochemical characterization of a small scale turbidite cycle in the El Arraiche Mud Volcano Province (Gulf of Cádiz). MSc Thesis. Universiteit Antwerpen/Universiteit Gent/VUB: Antwerpen, Gent, Brussel. 11, 38 pp.
The El Arraiche Mud Volcano province was first discovered in 1999 during the TTR-9 cruise on board of the R/V Professor Logachev. Since then, intensive research as been performed in this region, focusing mostly on the mud volcanoes and in cold water coral mounds, and associated processes. The study of the hydrodynamic conditions and sedimentary processes started receiving attention about 5 years ago. So far, no studies concerning mass wasting events were performed in this region. During the MD169 MiCROSYSTEMS campaign (2008), a 3.5m sediment core containing a well preserved turbidite cycle was collected in a small sub-basin east of the Renard Ridge, an area considered to be fairly quite. In this work, sedimentological, geophysical and geochemical techniques are use to characterize and the sedimentary sequence. A time frame for the emplacement of the turbidites is inferred by correlating with cores for which relative chronostratigraphic ages have been previously defined. A relation between the frequency and magnitude of turbidites and climate and sea level changes is observed. A sediment source rich in biogenic elements (Ca, Sr or Si), and poor in detrital and organic material is deduced from the XRF analysis. Three likely source areas (all at the surrounding the ridges) are inferred from the study of the regional bathymetry.
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