Abstract
Uniformly structureless clayey muds, very much like those termed unifites or homogenites in the Mediterranean and other basins, occur in intraslope basins in the northwest Gulf of Mexico. Their organic carbon and carbonate contents indicate a terrigenous source. Their age (about 17,000 B.P.) approximates the time when large-scale slumping of terrigenous delta fronts formed the Mississippi Canyon (Trough). Their compositional dissimiliarity to nearby hemiplagic mud precludes a homogenite-like origin involving a tsunami. However, it is uncertain whether they are end-products of bypassing (unifites) or entrapments of entire flows of sandless clays from deltaic facies of the same composition.
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Behrens, E.W. Unifite muds in intraslope basins, northwest gulf of Mexico. Geo-Marine Letters 4, 227–233 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02281711
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02281711