Abstract
A major outcome from studying the sedimentary archives of the Timiris Canyon off Mauritania and the Dakar Canyon off Senegal was a clear climatically controlled triggering of turbidite events. The records of both canyons display a high frequency of siliciclastic turbidite activity during deglacial sea level rise, obviously being induced by remobilisation of huge eolian dune fields that had expanded close to the shelf edge during glacial exposure. Further in glacial periods, frequent turbidite beds are recorded in the Timiris Canyon and sporadic turbidites occur also during intermediate sea level rises in the late phase of Heinrich events. The latter seem also to be related to a general increased dust supply and remobilisation of local dunes.
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Acknowledgments
M. Gutsch, H. Heilmann and B. Kockisch are thanked for their technical assistance in the laboratory and C. Henrich is thanked for compilation of the radiograph line drawings. δ18O analyses and XRF core scanning were carried out at the lab facilities of MARUM. The constructive reviews by Anabela Oliveira and Henko de Stigter are gratefully acknowledged. This work was funded through the DFG-Research Center/Excellence Cluster “The Ocean in the Earth System”.
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Henrich, R., Hanebuth, T.J.J., Cherubini, Y., Krastel, S., Pierau, R., Zühlsdorff, C. (2010). Climate-Induced Turbidity Current Activity in NW-African Canyon Systems. In: Mosher, D.C., et al. Submarine Mass Movements and Their Consequences. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 28. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3071-9_37
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