Morphology and post‐Chaudian (Late Pleistocene) evolution of the submarine Danube fan complex

Abstract

The Danube deep sea fan in the northwestem Black Sea has a lateral dimension of over 150 k m and stretches from several hundred metres water depth down to the abyssal plain. Eight seismic sequences have been recognized in the fan complex. Each sequence consists of channel, levee and overbank deposits, as well as mass transport units. The Danube and the Ukrainian rivers have aggraded two surficial channellevee systems which diverge and decrease in volume downfan. The channels of these systems have a low sinuosity, implying young age, steep gradients and/or limited sediment supply. Sigruficant channel migration occurred in the course of fan development, which could be largely controlled by relative sea-level changes. The six youngest sequences mapped have been correlated to sea-level fluctuations from the post-Chaudian regression to the present day. Terra Nova, 6,502-511,1994.

Multiple bottom-simulating reflections in the Black Sea: Potential proxies of past climate conditions

“…5‰ (Chepalyga, 1985). Knowing that deposition in the Danube fan occurred essentially during lacustrine lowstands, and was quasiinterrupted during marine highstands (Wong et al, 1994), we assumed a mean pore water salinity value of 5‰.…”

“…The sedimentary architecture of this zone is marked by the presence of a major turbidite system: the Danube deep-sea fan. The Danube fan is a large mud-rich fan, essentially composed of a succession of stacked channel-levee systems that are emplaced during successive sea-level lowstands (Wong et al, 1994;Popescu et al, 2001). Typically, channel-levee systems in mud-rich fans are lenticular sedimentary units with coarse-grained sediments at the channel axis, and finergrained, well-stratified alternations of sand and mud in the lateral levees (Manley et al, 1997;Normark et al, 1997).…”

Evolution of the Danube Deep-Sea Fan since the Last Glacial Maximum: new insights into Black Sea water-level fluctuations

“…This unit results mainly from the sediment supply from Central Europe via the Danube River and from Eastern European rivers, i.e., the Dnieper, Dniester and Southern Bug. The sediment inflow contributed to the shaping of the NW Black Sea margin from the coastal area, marked by deltaic deposits, down to the deep basin where large deep-sea fan complexes including the Danube Deep-Sea Fan were formed (Wong et al, 1994(Wong et al, , 1997Popescu, 2002;Lericolais et al, 2013).…”

“…The Danube Deep-Sea Fan (NW Black Sea) was fed during lowstand periods by the Danube River, and is one of the most developed deep-sea sediment depositional systems in Europe (Wong et al, 1994;Winguth et al, 2000) (Figs. 1-3).…”

TOPO-EUROPE: The geoscience of coupled deep Earth-surface processes

“…This can be resolved by mapping the architecture, facies development and thickness of Pliocene to Quaternary deposits on the basis of available reflection seismic lines, and by carrying out quantitative subsidence analyses, with emphasis on Holocene eustatically induced shoreline variations (e.g. Wong et al, 1994). …”