Sediment distribution in the Bering Sea: Bowers Ridge, Shirshov Ridge, and enclosed basins

Abstract

Twelve seismic reflection profile sections illustrate the variation in sea floor topography and shallow subbottom structure along the length of Bowers ridge. The configuration of the sediments on the ridge appears to be that of depositional draping over irregular relief by some mechanism that tended to concentrate sedimentation along the western flank. Two profile sections of Shirshov ridge reveal thick accumulations of sediment contained in steep valleys between basement highs. The sediments on the flank of Bowers and Shirshov ridges extend below a younger highly reflective turbidite sequence in the adjacent basins. The ends of the ridges may be structurally connected at shallow depth below the turbidites in the interplain channel that separates them.