Processes driving submarine landslide geohazards in Alboran Sea: A complex interaction between fluid pressure, contouritic sedimentation and seismicity

Abstract:

The active Eurasia-Nubia plate boundary runs across the Alboran Sea in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Earthquakes of magnitude Mw >6, fluid escape and thick accumulations are potential triggers of submarine landslides along the Alboran contouritic margins. Over the last decade, international collaboration between Spanish, French and Moroccan marine geologists working has allowed a large amount of high-resolution multibeam and multi- and single channel seismic data to be collected from the Alboran Sea. Multibeam and echosounder data collected during the SARAS Eurofleet cruise reveal the distribution of slope failures along the northern flank of the Xauen-Tofiño bank along the Moroccan margin and the southern flank of the Alboran ridge. Those highs are active folds located on both sides of the Trans Alboran Shear Zone (TASZ). Here we provide a detailed mapping and description of the morphology of the Xauen-Tofiño landslides, including volumetric estimates of the failed mass and the related mass transport deposits over the last 2 myr. The most voluminous Holocene landslide mobilized ~0.5 km3 of sediment at the initial stage of slope failure, and formed a ~2.2-2.4 km3 mass transport deposit. Twenty-eight and thirty-eight Mass Transport Deposits (MTD) were described from the Xauen and Tofiño banks, respectively. Boreholes analysis of ODP sites 976 and 979 allowed the calibration of some of the reflectors and relative ages of the pulses of tectonic activity and MTD’s events. Active uplift pulses are observed at 1.19, 0.79 and 0.46 Ma for the Alboran ridge, and at 1.19 and 0.79 Ma for the Xauen-Tofiño Bank. We compute different parameters for each MTD’s from the literature, including the volume of sediments involved and the porosity, thanks to physical laws. For few MTD’s, we also map associated slump scars and compute parameters such as the run-off and the volume of sediments, deduced from the scar with a simple geometric reconstitution of the paleo-topography. The nature and volume of the MTD depends on the preexisting slope and contouritic accumulations. As the topography controls the localization of contouritic currents in the area, we therefore propose that the tectonic activity influences the growth of contouritic structures and may be a triggering factor to rework contouritic deposits as MTD.