Discovery of two new large submarine canyons in the Bering Sea

Marine Geology
By:  and 

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Abstract

The Beringian continental margin is incised by some of the world's largest submarine canyons. Two newly discovered canyons, St. Matthew and Middle, are hereby added to the roster of Bering Sea canyons. Although these canyons are smaller and not cut back into the Bering shelf like the five very large canyons, they are nonetheless comparable in size to most of the canyons that have been cut into the U.S. eastern continental margin and much larger than the well-known southern California canyons. Both igneous and sedimentary rocks of Eocene to Pliocene age have been dredged from the walls of St. Matthew and Middle Canyons as well as from the walls of several of the other Beringian margin canyons, thus suggesting a late Tertiary to Quaternary genesis of the canyons. We speculate that the ancestral Yukon and possibly Anadyr Rivers were instrumental in initiating the canyon-cutting processes, but that, due to restrictions imposed by island and subsea bedrock barriers, cutting of the two newly discovered canyons may have begun later and been slower than for the other five canyons.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Discovery of two new large submarine canyons in the Bering Sea
Series title Marine Geology
DOI 10.1016/0025-3227(84)90011-2
Volume 56
Issue 1-4
Year Published 1984
Language English
Publisher Elsevier
Description 21 p.
First page 159
Last page 179
Country Russia, United States
Other Geospatial Bering Sea
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