Wilmington Submarine Canyon: A marine fluvial-like system

Abstract

Midrange sidescan sonar data (swath width = 5 km) show that a system of gullies and small channels feeds into large submarine canyons on the Middle Atlantic Continental Slope of the United States. The surveyed canyons all have relatively flat floors, but they have different channel morphologies. Wilmington Canyon has a meandering channel that extends down the Continental Slope and across the Continental Rise, whereas two canyons south of Wilmington Canyon have straight channels that trend directly downslope onto the rise. The morphology of these submarine canyon systems is remarkably similar to that of terrestrial fluvial systems.