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Facies in Submarine Canyons on the Continental Slope of the Argentine Patagonia (SW Atlantic)

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Abstract

The lithological study of Recent sediments, as well as planktonic foraminiferal tests and macrobenthos therein, within transverse sections of four submarine canyons in the northern sector of the Argentine Patagonia gravitite–contourite system revealed a considerably more complex facies variability within the canyons than on the Perito Moreno Terrace between them. The facies variability in canyons is controlled by a combination of along-slope contour currents and down-canyon gravity flows. Two southern canyons contain the channel facies of terrigenous glauconite-rich sand that separate the flank facies of sand with a high content of foraminiferal tests. Two northern canyons include the facies of mixed sediments with a high content of <0.1 mm fraction, whose analogs are lacking on the surrounding terrace. They were likely deposited from the down-canyon gravity flows of dense suspension in the still-water bottom environment. Attached macrobenthos with calcareous skeletal elements (commonly corals) inhabits the mainly ice- or iceberg-rafted coarse rock fragments in all canyons and on the surrounding Perito Moreno Terrace.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to colleagues who participated in the collection of bathymetric data and bottom sediment samples during Cruises 53 (R/V Akademik Ioffe) and 79 (R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh).

We thank T.N. Molodtsova and K.V. Minin for help in the identification of fauna.

Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-27-00421). The dating of samples in the Poznań Radiocarbon Laboratory was carried out under the Russian Science Foundation project no. 18-17-00227.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117997, Moscow, Russia

    I. O. Murdmaa, D. G. Borisov, E. V. Ivanova, M. A. Zenina, N. G. Simagin & F. S. Shchepelev

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  1. I. O. Murdmaa
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  2. D. G. Borisov
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  3. E. V. Ivanova
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  4. M. A. Zenina
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  5. N. G. Simagin
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  6. F. S. Shchepelev
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to I. O. Murdmaa, D. G. Borisov, E. V. Ivanova, M. A. Zenina, N. G. Simagin or F. S. Shchepelev.

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Translated by D. Sakya

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Murdmaa, I.O., Borisov, D.G., Ivanova, E.V. et al. Facies in Submarine Canyons on the Continental Slope of the Argentine Patagonia (SW Atlantic). Lithol Miner Resour 57, 363–379 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0024490222050066

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