A high-resolution, deep-tow side-scan sonar and subbottom profiler survey has been completed across a section of the middle Mississippi fan in water depths of 2,470 to 2,600 m (8,100 to 8,500 ft). A traverse across the fan-axis channel revealed a variety of sediment types: a buried acoustically opaque unit, an extensive mantle of stratified, conformable sediments, and two channel infills. Sea-floor morphology displayed ridge systems, both marginal to the channel and elsewhere on the fan surface, and various channel bed forms, including mottling and ripple systems. Rills and bed truncations are indicative of erosion on the fan surface.

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