Congo submarine canyon
Congo submarine canyon
Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geol. (1964) 48 (7): 1126-1149
Data from seismic reflection soundings, piston coring of bottom sediments, and other investigations of the major submarine canyon off the mouth of the Congo river on the west coast of Africa are reported. A subaerial delta is lacking at the mouth of the river, and the head of the canyon is not filled with river deposits. It is apparent that the bed load of the river is transported through the canyon chiefly by turbidity-current action to form a submarine delta ststem--the Congo cone--on the continental slope and the Angola abyssal plain. Repeated failures of a submarine cable between 1886 and 1937 show good correlation with high river discharge and maximum bed-load transport; they are attributed to turbidity currents and therefore provide a record of the frequency of such currents, estimated to occur about 50 times per century.