Submarine Glacigenic Debris Flows on the Bear Island Trough Mouth Fan, Western Barents Sea: Aspects of Flow Behaviour

Abstract

The Bear Island Trough Mouth Fan is situated in front of the Bear Island Trough in the western Barents Sea. The fan extends from the shelf break to water depths greater than 3,000 m and covers an area of approximately 215,000 km2 (Fig. 1). The late Weichselian glacigenic debris flow deposits on the Bear Island TMF can be followed from the upper fan downslope to ca. 2,500 m water depth (Vogt et al. 1993) and the largest cover an area of 1,880 km2 (Laberg and Vorren 1995). Our objective is to elucidate aspects of the flow behaviour of these large subaqueous debris flows on a low angle slope (<1°). Open image in new window Fig. 1. Bathymetric may showing the location of the Bear Island Trough Mouth Fan and the area shown in Fig. 2a–f