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Contourite drift evolution and related coral growth in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and its gateways

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Abstract

Sediment subbottom profiler and multi-beam data reveal that sediment drifts evolved in various depth intervals between 420 and 650 m water depth in the eastern Golf of Mexico and its gateways. Drift evolution on the western flank of the Yucatan Strait is controlled by the northbound Loop Current down to 800 m and by a counter-current beneath. On the northern Campeche Bank and the West Florida Slope, drifts evolved in depth of 520–600 m and 420–550 m, respectively. In both instances, the causative contour current represents a counter flow to the Loop Current. The varying depth ranges correlate with an eastward rise of the upper boundary of the Antarctic Intermediate Water. The geometry and reflection pattern of upper slope deposits strongly suggest that the causative bottom current velocities in the eastern Gulf of Mexico varied significantly in space and time. The subbottom profiler data further show peculiar stacked diffraction hyperbolae in depths between 480 and 600 m. Camera and video observations from the seafloor off western Florida imply that the diffraction hyperbolas are formed by boulders and cliffs of sedimentary rock, which are locally colonized by cold-water corals, such as Lophelia pertusa, octocorals and stylasterids.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Pia Pulm, Hamburg, and Julie Richey, St. Petersburg, U.S.A., for her support during the preparation of the manuscript. Thanks to all watch keepers from the shipboard scientific party on R/V Meteor cruise M78/1 who spent hours and days in the hydroacoustic lab. The comments of Michael Strasser and an anonymous reviewer further improved the manuscript. The support of Captain Niels Jakobi and his crew is gratefully acknowledged. The shipboard work was funded by the “Senatskommission für Ozeanographie” of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

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  1. Institut für Geophysik, Universität Hamburg, Bundesstrasse 55, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Christian Hübscher

  2. Leibniz Institut für Meereswissenschaften, IFM-GEOMAR, Wischhofstr. 1-3, 24109, Kiel, Germany

    Christian Dullo, Sascha Flögel & Joachim Schönfeld

  3. GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Fachgruppe Paläoumwelt, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Loewenichstr. 28, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Jürgen Titschack

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Hübscher, C., Dullo, C., Flögel, S. et al. Contourite drift evolution and related coral growth in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and its gateways. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 99 (Suppl 1), 191–206 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-010-0558-6

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