Geologic development and characteristics of the continental margins, Gulf of Mexico. Research report, 1983-1986

The continental slope of the Gulf Basin covers more than 500,000 sq km and consists of smooth and gently sloping surfaces, prominent escarpments, knolls, intraslope basins, and submarine canyons and channels. It is an area of extremely diverse topographic and sedimentologic conditions. The slope extends from the shelf break, roughly at the 200 m isobath, to the upper limit of the continental rise, at a depth of 2800 m. The most-complex province in the basin, and the one of most interest to the petroleum industry, is the Texas-Louisiana slope, occupying 120,000 sq km and in which bottom slopes range from 20 deg around the knolls and basins. The near-surface geology and topography of the slope are functions of the interplay between episodes of rapid shelf-edge and slope progradation and contemporaneous modification of the depositional sequence by diapirism. Development of discrete depo-centers throughout the Neogene results in rapid shelf-edge progradation, often in excess of 15-20 km/my. This rapid progradation of the shelf edge leads to development of thick wedges of sediment accumulation on the continental slope. Oversteeping, high pore pressures in rapidly deposited soft sediments and changes in eustatic sea level cause subaqueous slope instabilities suchmore » as landsliding and debris flows. Large scale features such as shelf edge separation scars and landslide related canyons often results from such processes.« less