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Mississippi Fan: Internal structure and depositional processes

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Abstract

The Mississippi Fan is a Quarternary accumulation composed of more than seven elongated fan lobes. Isopach and structure maps show frequent shifting of these lobes. The Mississippi Canyon, formed by retrogressive slumping, connects to the youngest fan lobe. The upper fan-lobe is characterized by a large, incised, partially infilled, leveed channel. The middle fan-lobe is aggradational, convex in cross section, with a channel-levee complex on its apex. The lower fan-lobe contains a recently active small channel and several abandoned ones. Depositional patterns can be explained by several processes: “fluvial,” debris flows, and turbidity currents.

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Bouma, A.H., Stelting, C.E. & Coleman, J.M. Mississippi Fan: Internal structure and depositional processes. Geo-Marine Letters 3, 147–153 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02462460

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02462460

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