Earthquakes drive large-scale submarine canyon development and sediment supply to deep-ocean basins

Mountjoy, Joshu J.; Howarth, Jamie D.; Orpin, Alan R.; Barnes, Philip M.; Bowden, David A.; Rowden, Ashley A.; Schimel, Alexandre C. G.; Holden, Caroline; Horgan, Huw J.; Nodder, Scott D.; Patton, Jason R.; Lamarche, Geoffroy; Gerstenberger, Matthew; Micallef, Aaron; Pallentin, Arne; Kane, Tim

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aar3748

i

Earthquakes drive large-scale submarine canyon development and sediment supply to deep-ocean basins

2018
By Mountjoy, Joshu J. ; Howarth, Jamie D. ; Orpin, Alan R. ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Science Advances
Personal Author:

Mountjoy, Joshu J. ; Howarth, Jamie D. ; Orpin, Alan R. ; Barnes, Philip M. ; Bowden, David A. ; Rowden, Ashley A. ; Schimel, Alexandre C. G. ; Holden, Caroline ; Horgan, Huw J. ; Nodder, Scott D. ; Patton, Jason R. ; Lamarche, Geoffroy ; Gerstenberger, Matthew ; Micallef, Aaron ; Pallentin, Arne ; Kane, Tim
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research)
Description:

Although the global flux of sediment and carbon from land to the coastal ocean is well known, the volume of material that reaches the deep ocean-the ultimate sink-and the mechanisms by which it is transferred are poorly documented. Using a globally unique data set of repeat seafloor measurements and samples, we show that the moment magnitude (M-w) 7.8 November 2016 Kaikoura earthquake (New Zealand) triggered widespread landslides in a submarine canyon, causing a powerful "canyon flushing" event and turbidity current that traveled >680 km along one of the world's longest deep-sea channels. These observations provide the first quantification of seafloor landscape change and large-scale sediment transport associated with an earthquake-triggered full canyon flushing event. The calculated interevent time of similar to 140 years indicates a canyon incision rate of 40 mm year(-1), substantially higher than that of most terrestrial rivers, while synchronously transferring large volumes of sediment [850 metric megatons (Mt)] and organic carbon (7 Mt) to the deep ocean. These observations demonstrate that earthquake-triggered canyon flushing is a primary driver of submarine canyon development and material transfer from active continental margins to the deep ocean.
Keywords:

Earthquakes Kaikōura Earthquake, N.Z., 2016 Marine Sediments Submarine Geology Marine Sediments Submarine Geology
Source:

Science Advances 4(3), 2018
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar3748
Pubmed Central ID:

PMC5851666
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

Grant no. NA05OAR4171076
Place as Subject:

New Zealand
Rights Information:

CC BY
Compliance:

PMC
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:4f9da057b42d10ac24af7be912970192d9f131feedf0def2ab01fae9290156a9ecd0bbf44d23d477243b39ac78357bf3b86c886dcb3892b6a349c9dd669b59f9
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/24728/noaa_24728_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 3.29 MB ]

ON THIS PAGE

Details

The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.