Large submarine slides have occurred along the entire 2500 km long Norwegian–Svalbard continental slope, affecting and defining the shelf edge. This is a result of ice sheets having delivered large volumes of sediments to the upper slope a number of times during the Quaternary (Ottesen et al. 2005). One of the largest, Traenadjupet Slide, occurred during the Holocene interglacial period, probably immediately prior to 4 14C ka BP (Laberg et al. 2002). It extended from the shelf edge with water depths between 270 m (northern part) and 400 m (southern part) (Fig. 1b), down to more than 3000 m in Lofoten Basin. The slide scar displays a number of features such as escarpments, detached sediment ridges, sediment streams, grooves, elongate highs, tabular sediment blocks, pressure ridges and tension fractures (Laberg et al. 2002). Remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) inspections (Fossa et al. 2005) have shown that the highest concentrations of Lophelia colonies are found on the ridges in the uppermost part of the headwall zone between 300 and 380 m depth, and that coral mounds also occur on the shelf close to the slide area (Fig. 1c). Fig. 1. Multibeam bathymetry, acoustic profiles and bottom photographs of a shelf-edge slide, mid-Norwegian margin. ( a ) Slope gradient map of steep escarpment and detachment ridges. ( b ) Bathymetry of the slide. Acquisition system Kongsberg EM100. …