Resumen de Recent sedimentary processes on the Cantabrian continental margin, eastern Bay of Biscay
Gemma Ercilla Zárraga, J. Iglesias Moscoso, David Casas, Ferran Estrada Llacer, Juan Tomás Vázquez, Margarita García García, Manuel Gómez Lende
Multibeam bathymetry, high (sleeve airguns) and very high resolution (parametric system - TOPAS-) seismic records were used to define the morphosedimentary features and investigate the sedimentary processes of the Cantabrian continental margin (eastern Bay of Biscay). Erosion is the dominant sedimentary process on the outer continental shelf (down to 180/245 m water depth). Recent deposits are only locally present as lowstand shelf-margin deposits on the shelf-break and a transparent drape with bedforms. The upper (down to 2000 m water depth) and lower (down to 3700/4600 m water depth) slopes are mostly subject to different types of slope failures, such as slides, mass-transport, and turbidity currents. The upper slope is also subject to the action of bottom currents (the Mediterranean Water) that interact with the Le Danois Bank favouring the reworking of the sediment and the sculpting of a contourite system. The continental rise is a bypass region of debris-flows and turbidity currents where a complex channel-lobe transition zone of a turbidite system created by the confluence of CapFerret, Santander and Torrelavega canyon systems.
