%0 Journal Article
%A Acosta, Juan
%A Canals, Miquel
%A Carbo Gorosabel, Andrés
%A Muñoz, Araceli
%A Urgeles, R.
%A Muñoz Martín, Alfonso
%A Uchupi, E.
%T Sea floor morphology and Plio-Quaternary sedimentary cover ofthe Mallorca Channel, Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean
%D 2004
%@ 0025-3227
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/52409
%X A complete multibeam coverage of the sea floor of Mallorca Channel, in the western Mediterranean, was recorded duringthe Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone surveys in 1995, 1996 and 1997. These data, combined with previous high-resolutionseismic reflection profiles, allow an assessment of the geomorphology of the area. The channel seafloor is disrupted by a faultcomplex and pockmarks. Motion along the faults split the sea floor into a series of undulations separated by narrow V-shapednotches. Faulting may be a consequence of recent seaward gravitational sliding that occurred along a soft surface at the top of alate Messinian–early Pliocene unit and a late Messinian evaporite. These units have been tilted during recent subsidence of theMallorca Channel at the same time that the insular shelf was uplifted along a fault at the shelf’s edge. The set of pockmarks inthe channel sequence were probably formed by the expulsion of gas of hydrothermal origin, and expulsion may have beenenhanced by the faulting. This gas seepage could be an additional factor leading to sediment instability.
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