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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 63 (1979)

Issue: 3. (March)

First Page: 498

Last Page: 498

Title: Submarine Slides: ABSTRACT

Author(s): David G. Moore

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

Large submarine slides have long been known to damage structures in nearshore areas where lateral movements or depth changes have abruptly occurred when triggered by earthquakes and/or by periods of rapid deposition off large river mouths. Oldest reports of deep-water sliding are in connection with breaks in submarine telegraph lines. With the Previous HitintroductionTop of seismic profiling in the early 1960s, sub-seafloor sedimentary structures interpreted as slides have been recorded in many areas. The structures in these records are commonly equivocal and, to prevent misinterpretation, the limitations of the method must be recognized. Knowledge of the environment of submarine slides is equally important. Morphology, seismicity, and sedimentary processes are important in determining he relative stability of slope environments. Superimposed on these are the effects of Pleistocene lowered sea levels which resulted in pulses of sedimentation, overloading, sliding, and erosive turbidity currents. Slides reported in the literature range from rotational slumps off mouths of large rivers, where rapid outbuilding of delta-front deposits over fine-grained impermeable sediments develops excess pore pressures, to massive (over 900 cu km) allochthonous slides of complex structure displaced from an accretionary slope above a subduction zone.

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Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists