Erosion-Dominated Modern Submarine Gully-Canyon-Channel Systems in Offshore Northwest Palawan, Southern South China Sea

Abstract

We investigated the morphology and sedimentary state of an extensive modern canyon system on the northwest continental slope of Palawan Island in the southern South China Sea using multibeam bathymetry data and chirp sub-bottom profiles. The canyon system in Northwest Palawan consists of a fairly large dendritic canyon, a braided canyon, and a set of short, straight, and slope-confined gullies. The erosion state covers 71% of the system. Sediment accumulates downstream of the bend’s inner side in the proximal main stem of the dendritic canyon and is eroded in its outer side. In the distal main stem, sediment is deposited inside and outside the bend. In most of the system’s tributaries, decreasing slope gradients result in more sediment deposition. There is thick aggradation of sediment waves in the interfluve throughout the system, which exhibit increasing levels of stratification as the slope decreases. The lack of slump scars and headward erosion at the canyon heads, as well as the presence of regular gullies and sediment wave fields, suggest that large areas of unconfined downslope turbidity currents formed the system. We propose that frequent storms in northwestern Palawan triggered these currents by resuspending sediments on the shelf.

Keywords

submarine canyon system / modern activity / multibeam bathymetry / chirp sub-bottom profiles / turbidity currents / sedimentary processes / Palawan / southern South China Sea

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