A Review of the Morphology, Physical Processes and Deposits of Modern Straits

This study reviews the morphology, hydrodynamics and sedimentology of 33 modern straits, including examples from diverse tectonic and climatic settings. Strait morphology ranges from short, simple straits to long, tortuous passages many 100s of kilometers long; depths range from 10 m to >1 km. The morphological building block of strait sedimentation is a constriction flanked by open basins; a single strait can contain one or several of these. Currents accelerate through the constrictions and decelerate in the basins, leading to a spatial alternation of high- and low-energy conditions. Currents in a strait can be classified as either ‘persistent’ (oceanic currents or density-driven circulation) or ‘intermittent’ (tidally or meteorologically generated currents). Constrictions tend to be bedload partings, with the development of transport paths that diverge outward. Deposition occurs where the flow decelerates, generating paired subaqueous ‘constriction-related deltas’ that can be of unequal size. Cross-bedding predominates in high-energy settings; muddy sediment waves and contourite drifts are present in some straits. In shallow straits that were exposed during the sea-level lowstand, strait deposits typically occur near or at the maximum flooding surface, and can overlie estuarine and fluvial deposits. The most energetic deposits need not occur at the time of maximum inundation.Supplementary material at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5746061

Supplemental Material: Active faulting controls bedform development on a deep-water fan

Additional information about the numerical modeling, bathymetric profiles, cross sections along type 1 and type 2 bedforms, a 3-D view of the study area, seafloor bathymetry and thickness map of post-salt deposits, and morphology of sediment waves seaward of the fan.<br>

Supplemental Material: Active faulting controls bedform development on a deep-water fan

Additional information about the numerical modeling, bathymetric profiles, cross sections along type 1 and type 2 bedforms, a 3-D view of the study area, seafloor bathymetry and thickness map of post-salt deposits, and morphology of sediment waves seaward of the fan.<br>

A Scalable, Supervised Classification of Seabed Sediment Waves Using an Object-Based Image Analysis Approach

National mapping programs (e.g., INFOMAR and MAREANO) and global efforts (Seabed 2030) acquire large volumes of multibeam echosounder data to map large areas of the seafloor. Developing an objective, automated and repeatable approach to extract meaningful information from such vast quantities of data is now essential. Many automated or semi-automated approaches have been defined to achieve this goal. However, such efforts have resulted in classification schemes that are isolated or bespoke, and therefore it is necessary to form a standardised classification method. Sediment wave fields are the ideal platform for this as they maintain consistent morphologies across various spatial scales and influence the distribution of biological assemblages. Here, we apply an object-based image analysis (OBIA) workflow to multibeam bathymetry to compare the accuracy of four classifiers (two multilayer perceptrons, support vector machine, and voting ensemble) in identifying seabed sediment waves across three separate study sites. The classifiers are trained on high-spatial-resolution (0.5 m) multibeam bathymetric data from Cork Harbour, Ireland and are then applied to lower-spatial-resolution EMODnet data (25 m) from the Hemptons Turbot Bank SAC and offshore of County Wexford, Ireland. A stratified 10-fold cross-validation was enacted to assess overfitting to the sample data. Samples were taken from the lower-resolution sites and examined separately to determine the efficacy of classification. Results showed that the voting ensemble classifier achieved the most consistent accuracy scores across the high-resolution and low-resolution sites. This is the first object-based image analysis classification of bathymetric data able to cope with significant disparity in spatial resolution. Applications for this approach include benthic current speed assessments, a geomorphological classification framework for benthic biota, and a baseline for monitoring of marine protected areas.

The Late-Quaternary morphostratigraphic record of glaciation, paleoseismicity and postglacial environmental changes in fjord-lakes of Québec-Labrador

&lt;p&gt;Hydroacoustic surveys were conducted in eight fjord-lakes of Qu&amp;#233;bec-Labrador in order to analyse their Late-Quaternary geomorphological and stratigraphic record of glaciation, paleoseismicity and postglacial environmental changes. This large morphostratigraphic dataset provided a unique opportunity to establish a conceptual model of the evolution for fjord-lakes in relation to deglaciation, glacio-isostatic rebound, sediment fluxes and paleoseismicity. The analysis of the morphology and distribution of many morainic deposits into the fjord-lakes (hummocky moraines, morainic sills and morainic complexes) allows relating their formation to the glacial erosion potential, as well as to climatic and topographic controls. During past glaciations, a topographic sill was left uneroded at the opening of valleys due to the decrease in the glacial erosion potential associated with the lateral extension of the glacier down-ice; this bedrock sill created in turn an anchoring point to the ice during deglaciation. Hummocky moraines were documented at the outlet of five fjord-lakes that are located within the deepest and narrowest valleys of the studied systems. Based on our analysis of these sublacustrine landform-sediment assemblages, fjord-lakes constitute distinct sedimentary systems that should be differentiated from typical fjord system (i.e., in marine waters). The large-scale landforms contained in the fjord-lakes of Qu&amp;#233;bec-Labrador (i.e., esker, moraines, gullies, lateral banks, turbidity channels and circular cavities) are inherited from their past subglacial, glaciomarine and paraglacial conditions, while only small deltaic bedforms (i.e., sediment waves and crescent-shaped bedforms) were formed in postglacial times. The present-day hydrological regime of fjord-lakes of Qu&amp;#233;bec-Labrador is considered river-driven, except for the lakes located near active seismic zones where widespread postglacial mass-movements are documented.&lt;/p&gt;