Structure and history of submarine slope failures at the Cape Fear submarine landslide, U.S. Atlantic margin

Abstract:

New multi-channel seismic (MCS), chirp sub-bottom, and multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data image the Late Pleistocene-Holocene age Cape Fear submarine landslide (CFS) along its complete ~375 km length, from the multiple headwalls at ~2500 m water depth on the slope to the lobate, low-relief toe at ~5400 m water depth. A surficial chaotic mass transport deposit (MTD) filling the failure scar exceeds 100 m in thickness over large sections of the deposit, thinning towards the margins of the slide. Below 5000 m, the CFS truncates the surficial MTD of the Cape Lookout Landslide in several places, indicating that it post-dates the Cape Lookout Landslide. At depth, the MCS data image the edge of the Cape Fear salt diapir and a seismically transparent region that may be associated with fluid flow focused along the edge of the diapir. This potential fluid pathway sits directly beneath the headwalls of the CFS, supporting the hypothesis that the salt diapir is responsible for the failure, either through deformation of sediments during salt emplacement or by focusing of fluids, or both. The MCS data also image several earlier MTDs. These deposits are confined to sediments younger than the early Cenozoic, consistent with interpretations of major canyon cutting in the Eocene and initiation of intense deep and erosive currents in the Late Paleogene. These processes can over-steepen and redistribute slope sediments, enhancing conditions for slope failures and salt diapirism.