Seafloor Mapping

Course Overview: the course provides an overview of the seafloor and the geological/sedimentological processes that shape its morphology, from currents, to submarine landslides. With only 20% of the seafloor mapped (as of 2020), there is still a long way to go to understand the complex processes that affect the seafloor and the interactions between them.

Topics:

1. Measurements – single beam, multibeam, backscatter

2. Creation and recycling of the seafloor – subduction and other processes

3. Sediments – terrigenous, neritic and pelagic. Sources and transport. Chemical deposition in the ocean.

4. Submarine fans

5. Submarine landslides – triggering mechanisms, types, recognition is seismic data

6. Turbidity currents – formation, maintenance and resulting seafloor features

7. Contour currents and contourites – formation processes and resulting seafloor features

8. Seamounts

9. Pockmarks and their connection to gas escape from the seafloor

10. The law of the sea – seafloor resources and mining rights

11. Student lectures

At the end of the course students will be able to:

Understand the processes affecting the morphology of the seafloor, be able to read and interpret a bathymetric (multibeam) map and recognize ancient seafloor features in seismic data