Abstract
The elongate Rhône Fan is the largest turbidite system in the western Mediterranean and contains an elevated channel-levee system which constitutes the fan valley (Droz and Bellaiche 1985). Unique to modern submarine systems, both the Rhône fan-valley and an inner thalweg channel have arcuate, scallop- or cuspate-shaped morphology (Fig. 13.1), a morphology which is best developed in the modern thalweg channel (O’Connell et al. 1991). Between 1650 and 2200 m below sea level (mbs1) this channel and the surrounding fan-valley were investigated with a deep-towed, high-resolution side-looking sonar and a 4.5 kHz sub-bottom profiler (SeaMARC I; Fig. 13.2). Some of these images (Fig. 13.3), which provide information on the scale of a few tens of metres, are presented, and their implications for fan processes are discussed. Details of the acquisition of the data presented here are given in O’Connell et al. (1991).
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O’Connell, S., McHugh, C., Ryan, W.B.F. (1995). Unique fan morphology in an entrenched thalweg channel on the Rhône Fan. In: Pickering, K.T., Hiscott, R.N., Kenyon, N.H., Ricci Lucchi, F., Smith, R.D.A. (eds) Atlas of Deep Water Environments. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1234-5_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1234-5_14
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