Deep water circulation around the Iberian continental margin: state of art and future implications

Abstract

Numerous and frequent examples of deep water bottom-current processes and products have been recorded in the recent evolution of the Iberian margins, comprising both erosive (terraces, abraded surfaces, channels, furrows and moats) and depositional (separated, sheeted, plastered and confined drifts) features of variable dimensions, depending on a variety of geological and oceanographic contexts. Most of them are related to the influence of the Mediterranean water masses, especially by the interaction of the Mediterranean Outflow Water with the seafloor. Despite their important scientific implications (stratigraphy, sedimentology, paleoceanography, paleoclimatology), geological hazards and economic potential, there is no full knowledge about the specific morphologic details of these features and its evolution as well as their relation with water masses and associated interphases. So, future multidisciplinary work has to be done between geologist and oceanographers for understanding the bottom current influence along the Iberian margin