--> Abstract: Submarine Channel Initiation from Gullies on the Upper Slope: Fuji and Einstein Channels, Gulf of Mexico, by Laura Faulkenberry, Jeffrey Peakall, and Ben Kneller; #90039 (2005)

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Submarine Channel Initiation from Gullies on the Upper Slope: Fuji and Einstein Channels, Gulf of Mexico

Laura Faulkenberry1, Jeffrey Peakall1, and Ben Kneller2
1 University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
2 University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

Recognizing the interrelated initiation processes of submarine channel systems poses a challenge, as they may consist of erosive and high concentration turbidity flows, gravity induced slope mass failures, and failure within the channel. Submarine channel initiation can be inferred, but has not often been directly imaged. This may be because the initial stages of channel evolution are cannibalized as the channel evolves, or because they are beneath the resolution of the seismic data.

The Fuji and Einstein are aggradational, low-sinuosity channel levee systems on the upper slope in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. They are part of a series of similarly formed channel systems that resulted from the progradation of Pleistocene paleo-shelf-edge deltas. These channels have little post-depositional deformation. Fuji and Einstein channel initiation occurs subsequent to series of slope structures that formed prior to the development of each channel, consisting of linear gully fields, their terminal splays, and localized slope failures.

Channel initiation has been theoretically linked to gullies; however, there has been no direct evidence that gullies evolve into channels. The spatial and temporal juxtaposition of gullies underlying both the Fuji and Einstein channels and enlargement of these gullies downslope and through time indicate they evolved into channel systems. The close spatial and temporal proximity of these initiation features to one another suggest a continuum of sediment gravity flow processes that are progressively focused and erosive on the upper slope, culminating in the development of a channel system.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90039©2005 AAPG Calgary, Alberta, June 16-19, 2005