Submarine Erosion in North Spanish Atlantic Sea

Abstract

Submarine erosion seems to play important role in being responsible for the general topography and microtopography of the north Spanish Atlantic margins and deep-sea areas. Several surveys were carried out on board the R/V Hesperides in the north Spanish Atlantic Sea in order to obtain detailed hydrographical and geological information on the Galicia Bank and the Bay of Biscay show that submarine erosion. The R/V Hespérides (A-33) is manned and operated by the Spanish Navy and is a multi-role oceanographic research vessel that operates globally, including ice. Bathymetric mapping was undertaken with a Simrad EM 12 swath-bathymetry echo sounder of 12KHz and 120° opening, providing 81 values of bathymetry across the ship track, corrected for the geometric propagation of sound in the stratified water column. The erosion seems to have resulted from the complex interaction between tectonics, physiology, sealevel change, sediment sources and bottom currents