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Weddell Fan and associated abyssal plain, Antarctica: Morphology, sediment processes, and factors influencing sediment supply

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Abstract

The newly discovered Weddell Fan, Antarctica, covers 0.75 million km2. The adjacent continental shelf is characterized by deep, rugged topography; the inner shelf is covered by a grounded polar ice sheet. The upper fan has numerous deep, V-shaped canyons that intersect a slope-base, leveed fan valley. Piston cores from the valley contain disorganized gravel grading upward into graded gravel and sand. Levee cores contain interbedded hemipelagic sediments and fine-grained turbidites. The lower fan is sand-rich. Sediment supply to the fan apparently occurred before development of glacial shelf topography and during a more temperate glacial setting.

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Anderson, J.B., Wright, R. & Andrews, B. Weddell Fan and associated abyssal plain, Antarctica: Morphology, sediment processes, and factors influencing sediment supply. Geo-Marine Letters 6, 121–129 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02238082

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02238082

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