Late Quaternary slope instability on the Faeroe margin: mass flow features and timing of events

Abstract.

Deep-tow side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiling and sediment core data reveal that, since the last interglacial, mass flows repeatedly occurred both on the northeastern Faeroe margin and on the Faeroes slope of the Faeroe-Shetland Channel. In both areas, the last two slope instability episodes are dated at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary and at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), i.e. during times of fast sea-level rise and increasing bottom current activity, and glacio-eustatic lowstand, respectively. A major fine-grained turbidite found in the Norwegian Sea basin off the Faeroe margin may be correlated with the LGM event. Several distinctive mass flow features have been documented. These include, among others, large swarms of debris flow 'glide' tracks with outrunner blocks found on the seabed of the northeastern Faeroe margin. It was concluded that the age of the latter features is not older than the LGM.