The West Melilla cold water coral mounds, Eastern Alboran Sea: Morphological characterization and environmental context
The West Melilla cold water coral mounds, Eastern Alboran Sea: Morphological characterization and environmental context
A new mound field, the West Melilla mounds, interpreted as being cold-water coral mounds, has been recently unveiled along the upper slope of the Mediterranean Moroccan continental margin, a few kilometers west of the Cape Tres Forcas. This study is based on the integration of high-resolution geophysical data (swath bathymetry, parametric sub-bottom profiler), CTD casts, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), ROV video and seafloor sampling, acquired during the TOPOMED GASSIS (2011) and MELCOR (2012) cruises. Up to 103 mounds organized in two main clusters have been recognized in a depth range of 299–590 m, displaying a high density of 5 mounds/km2. Mounds, 1–48 m high above the surrounding seafloor and on average 260 m wide, are actually buried by a 1–12 m thick fine-grained sediment blanket. Seismic data suggest that the West Melilla mounds grew throughout the Early Pleistocene–Holocene, settling on erosive unconformities and mass movement deposits. During the last glacial–interglacial transition, the West Melilla mounds may have suffered a drastic change of the local sedimentary regime during the late Holocene and, unable to stand increasing depositional rates, were progressively buried. At the present day, temperature and salinity values on the West Melilla mounds suggest a plausible oceanographic setting, suitable for live CWCs. Nonetheless, more data is required to groundtruth the West Melilla mounds and better constrain the interplay of sedimentary and oceanographic factors during the evolution of the West Melilla mounds.
316-326
Lo Iacono, Claudio
2ec2b5f4-a134-462b-b8ba-f7bd757040f5
Gràcia, Eulàlia
4cdbab2b-dd60-496b-aeef-76ae9c30e48d
Ranero, Cesar R.
1dce852c-182f-43e1-beeb-f756348d4c85
Emelianov, Mikhail
077687f7-cd07-4da0-a4c6-e758fceb9688
Huvenne, Veerle A.I.
f22be3e2-708c-491b-b985-a438470fa053
Bartolomé, Rafael
0843e5c7-4dcc-48ff-a18a-f107ef272bc0
Booth-Rea, Guillermo
ed1ed6a0-b2ab-4a7a-8f68-203eb9fe3239
Prades, Javier
8fae3cdf-f559-4ffc-969c-b3dcb8fe251f
January 2014
Lo Iacono, Claudio
2ec2b5f4-a134-462b-b8ba-f7bd757040f5
Gràcia, Eulàlia
4cdbab2b-dd60-496b-aeef-76ae9c30e48d
Ranero, Cesar R.
1dce852c-182f-43e1-beeb-f756348d4c85
Emelianov, Mikhail
077687f7-cd07-4da0-a4c6-e758fceb9688
Huvenne, Veerle A.I.
f22be3e2-708c-491b-b985-a438470fa053
Bartolomé, Rafael
0843e5c7-4dcc-48ff-a18a-f107ef272bc0
Booth-Rea, Guillermo
ed1ed6a0-b2ab-4a7a-8f68-203eb9fe3239
Prades, Javier
8fae3cdf-f559-4ffc-969c-b3dcb8fe251f
Lo Iacono, Claudio, Gràcia, Eulàlia, Ranero, Cesar R., Emelianov, Mikhail, Huvenne, Veerle A.I., Bartolomé, Rafael, Booth-Rea, Guillermo and Prades, Javier
(2014)
The West Melilla cold water coral mounds, Eastern Alboran Sea: Morphological characterization and environmental context.
[in special issue: Biology and Geology of Deep-Sea Coral Ecosystems: Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Deep Sea Corals]
Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 99, .
(doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2013.07.006).
Abstract
A new mound field, the West Melilla mounds, interpreted as being cold-water coral mounds, has been recently unveiled along the upper slope of the Mediterranean Moroccan continental margin, a few kilometers west of the Cape Tres Forcas. This study is based on the integration of high-resolution geophysical data (swath bathymetry, parametric sub-bottom profiler), CTD casts, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), ROV video and seafloor sampling, acquired during the TOPOMED GASSIS (2011) and MELCOR (2012) cruises. Up to 103 mounds organized in two main clusters have been recognized in a depth range of 299–590 m, displaying a high density of 5 mounds/km2. Mounds, 1–48 m high above the surrounding seafloor and on average 260 m wide, are actually buried by a 1–12 m thick fine-grained sediment blanket. Seismic data suggest that the West Melilla mounds grew throughout the Early Pleistocene–Holocene, settling on erosive unconformities and mass movement deposits. During the last glacial–interglacial transition, the West Melilla mounds may have suffered a drastic change of the local sedimentary regime during the late Holocene and, unable to stand increasing depositional rates, were progressively buried. At the present day, temperature and salinity values on the West Melilla mounds suggest a plausible oceanographic setting, suitable for live CWCs. Nonetheless, more data is required to groundtruth the West Melilla mounds and better constrain the interplay of sedimentary and oceanographic factors during the evolution of the West Melilla mounds.
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Published date: January 2014
Organisations:
Marine Geoscience
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Local EPrints ID: 363062
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/363062
ISSN: 0967-0645
PURE UUID: cb4dd66a-8c5e-48eb-ace2-7f70635312d6
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Date deposited: 12 Mar 2014 14:24
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:19
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Author:
Claudio Lo Iacono
Author:
Eulàlia Gràcia
Author:
Cesar R. Ranero
Author:
Mikhail Emelianov
Author:
Veerle A.I. Huvenne
Author:
Rafael Bartolomé
Author:
Guillermo Booth-Rea
Author:
Javier Prades
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