Oceanic Density Fronts Steering Bottom-Current Induced Sedimentation Deduced from a 50 ka Contourite-Drift Record and Numerical Modeling (off NW Spain)

Abstract:

How bottom-near hydrographic and sedimentary processes control the formation of bottom-current related confined deep-sea depocenters remains widely speculative. The geological approach of this study uses a transect of sediment cores and sediment echosounder profiles across a whole contourite system off NW Spain. This “mounded patch”-type contourite drift (18 km long, 20 km wide) with a 150-m deep moat has formed around an 800-m high structural obstacle. Past deposition was characterized by alternating calm and high-energy bottom-flow conditions. Calm conditions (Last Glacial period: 27–17 cal ka BP; late Holocene times: < 4 cal ka BP) led to slightly current-influenced deposition of fine-grained sediments (10 µm) over the entire basin. In contrast, waxing-and-waning high-energy conditions (D/O events during Marine Isotope Stage 3; the Deglacial/early Holocene time interval at 17–4 cal ka BP) resulted in coarse grained (70 µm) deposition.

Process-based numerical modelling demonstrates that pulse-like oceanic density fronts travelling within the transition zone of two water masses (Labrador Sea Water, Mediterranean Outflow Water) provide a powerful mechanism for contouritic deposition, rather than the core of a water mass itself. These gravity-driven density fronts lead to local re-suspension of sand from the moat and to subsequent upward transport over the crest. Here, the oceanic density fronts produce additional km-scale eddies. These migrating eddies provide an efficient mechanism for further widespread sediment re-distribution. In comparison with paleoceanographic reconstructions, a downward migration or expansion of the Mediterranean Outflow Water by about 300 m led most probably to such temporary contouritic sand deposition.

We finally propose a conceptual model to explain how seafloor obstacles redirect and perturbate bottom currents. This model proposes water mass transition zone as an important high-energy medium, for oceanic density fronts to travel. On the respective time scale, the moat itself seems to act as the main source for those sands, making a remote source and a long-distance sediment transport unnecessary.