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Contourites in the Gulf of Cadiz: a cautionary note on potentially ambiguous indicators of bottom current velocity

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Abstract

Facies associations in cores collected in the deep part of the Gulf of Cadiz, which is under the influence of the lower branch of the Mediterranean Outflow Water, are investigated in terms of the classical contourite model using grain-size analyses and thin sections of indurated sediment. Cores include both low-energy (contourite drift) and high-energy (channel) environments. The thin sections and grain-size distributions show that clayey fine silts and sandy coarse silts are the most common facies associations in the studied contourite sequences, while coarse-grained, gravelly contourites are less common. Grain-size distributions are unimodal in the fine-grained and bi- or trimodal in the coarser-grained contourites. This change in grain-size composition is related both to the partial removal of the fine-grained fraction and to the replenishment of the coarser-grained one. In addition, most of the contacts between individual facies are sharp rather than transitional. This suggests that the contourite sequence is only in part related to changes in bottom current velocity and flow competency, but may also be related to the supply of a coarser terrigeneous particle stock, provided by either increased erosion of indurated mud along the flanks of confined contourite channels (mud clasts), or by increased sediment supply by rivers (quartz grains) and downslope mass transport on the continental shelf and upper slope. The classical contourite facies association may therefore not be solely controlled by current velocity, but may be the product of a variety of depositional histories. The classical contourite depositional sequence should therefore be interpreted with greater care and in the light of the regional sedimentological background. In addition, the wisdom of exclusively using mean or modal particle size for the interpretation of depositional contourite processes is questioned. Instead, it is proposed that the vertical evolution of grain-size populations in the facies successions forming contourite sequences be assessed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the crew of the RV Le Suroît for technical assistance during the Cadisar 1 and 2 cruises, and F.J. Hernández-Molina and R.G. Lucchi for reviews of the manuscript. We are grateful to B. Martin for the realisation of thin sections on indurated sediments. We thank the editors of Geo-Marine Letters for editorial and language correction on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Bordeaux, UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, avenue des facultés, 33405, Talence cedex, France

    Thierry Mulder, Rim Hassan, Emmanuelle Ducassou, Sébastien Zaragosi, Eliane Gonthier & Vincent Hanquiez

  2. Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM), rue du Chatellier, 29228, Brest cedex 2, France

    Elodie Marchès

  3. Ifremer, Géosciences Marines, BP 70, 29280, Plouzané, France

    Samuel Toucanne

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  1. Thierry Mulder
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Mulder, T., Hassan, R., Ducassou, E. et al. Contourites in the Gulf of Cadiz: a cautionary note on potentially ambiguous indicators of bottom current velocity. Geo-Mar Lett 33, 357–367 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-013-0332-4

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