Abstract The Laurentian Fan is one of the largest submarine fans on the western margin of the North Atlantic. Recently acquired high-resolution multibeam bathymetric data (60 m horizontal resolution) reveal a major mass-transport deposit (MTD) on the Western Levee of Western Valley (WLWV), covering >14 000 km 2 in water depths from 3900 to >5000 m. Typical submarine landslide features are observed such as headscarps that in places reach the crest of the levee, crown cracks, extensional ridges, blocky debris and flow lineations. Multiple headwalls are observed on 3.5 kHz sub-bottom profiles, indicating that the landslide retrogressed upslope. While the upper parts of the MTD consist of intact blocks that were displaced downslope as ridges and troughs, the lower parts exhibit a c. 30 m thick incoherent to transparent acoustic facies, typical of debris flows. Landslide geomorphology therefore suggests that it was generated as a retrogressive spread and that slide blocks disintegrated downslope to become a blocky landslide with a surficial debris flow. The blocky landslide/debris flow extends downslope c. 90 km and partially fills a submarine channel. The superposition of the MTD filling the channel and its location at the top of the stratigraphic succession in the levee suggests that it is late Quaternary in age, possibly Holocene. Deeper seismic reflection data also show that this is a rare event during the Quaternary; it is the largest MTD observed in the upper c. 375 m of the levee succession and among the largest and deepest in the western North Atlantic.

Abstract The seismic geomorphology of a succession of alternating gravity-flow-dominated and bottom-current-dominated deposits along the continental slope and rise off western Nova Scotia demonstrates the importance of inherited geomorphology on subsequent deposition patterns in mixed turbidite and contourite depositional systems. In the study area, widespread mass wasting and channel incision during the Miocene created a steep ramp with a complex geomorphology along the lower continental slope. In the Late Miocene and Pliocene, a sediment drift was constructed on the continental rise, forming a 50-km-wide terrace that onlapped the steeper slope. The location, style, and evolution of sediment waves associated with this sediment drift appear strongly linked to the morphology of the underlying surface. The orientation and extent of wave crests show strong correspondence to underlying geomorphic elements, with the most prominent sediment waves forming downcurrent of seafloor perturbations like failure escarpments and salt diapirs. The erosional and constructional morphology of the contour-current-swept seafloor in turn strongly influenced the trajectory and response of subsequent down-slope-oriented submarine sediment gravity flows later in the Pliocene. Preferential accumulation took place above a regional terrace constructed as the sediment drift evolved, promoting deposition from sediment gravity flows that may have otherwise been transported into deeper water. The positive relief of wave crests guided sediment gravity flows down the slope, with erosion and deposition focused along wave troughs. This study highlights the complex feedback that exists between along-slope and down-slope constructional and degradational processes.

Abstract A large submarine-slide deposit from the western Scotian Slope off eastern Canada was imaged on a 3D seismic reflection dataset in the Barrington exploration block. The mass-transport deposit (MTD) forms a tongue-shaped body that is 25 km long and 8 km wide, with a run-out distance from the headscarp of 41.5 km and a total volume of 12.5 km 3 . In profile, it consists of a chaotic seismic facies. This facies forms a highly rugose top surface morphology, suggesting that the flow consisted of an abundance of intact angular blocks. Its base reveals evidence of erosion typical of submarine MTDs, with linear downslope-trending gouges and excavation of a pit 50-m-deep. The source area and headscarp of the Barrington MTD are somewhat obscured by postdepositional erosion. Additionally, high-resolution seismic profiles show that the deposit is draped by approximately 30 m of late Pleistocene and Holocene sediment, providing an age estimate of 30 ka for the failure. Despite this drape, the modern seafloor above the MTD still has a highly rugose morphology, echoing the top surface of the deposit. Seismic profile data show a series of stacked MTDs underlying the Barrington MTD, suggesting that mass-failure recurrence is common on geologic time scales. Although it is difficult to attribute mass-failure triggering mechanisms, high sedimentation rates due to proximal shelf glaciers and intense erosion causing oversteepening, and likely established preconditions for instability. Local seismicity, possibly a result of glacial rebound, is the most probable initiating factor.