Abstract
High-resolution reflection seismic investigations have been carried out along the eastern margin of the Weddell Sea by R.V. Polarstern in the austral summer 1986–1987. The very high resolution achieved on most profiles allows a refinement of previous seismostratigraphic work in this region.
Two main survey areas are discussed in this paper:
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(a)
a seismic grid shot off Cape Norvegia in the area of the ODP Sites 692 and 693, framing the Wegener Canyon and exploring the local geological setting of the Explora Escarpment;
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(b)
a high-resolution seismic transect and grid covering the continental shelf, slope and rise north of Halley Bay and yielding a fine-scale picture of the distal part of the Crary Fan deposits.
On ODP Site 693, different depositional sequences of both Mesozoic and Cenozoic age can be identified. The Cenozoic sequences are correlated with the results of the ODP drilling.
In the survey area on the continental slope and rise north of Halley Bay, the fan sequences are onlapping on a major erosional unconformity which seems to correlate with the lower Cretaceous — lower Oligocene unconformity on Site 693. The fan sequences display remarkable interactions between depositional, sediment-tectonical and erosional processes. At the foot of the upper continental slope off Halley Bay, a deep buried channel is observed, bordered to the north by a steep and high buried scarp. The channel fill deposits are characterized by the presence of large olistolith-like structures.
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© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Miller, H., Henriet, J.P., Kaul, N., Moons, A. (1990). A Fine-Scale Seismic Stratigraphy of the Eastern Margin of the Weddell Sea. In: Bleil, U., Thiede, J. (eds) Geological History of the Polar Oceans: Arctic versus Antarctic. NATO ASI Series, vol 308. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2029-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2029-3_8
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