Dakar slide offshore senegal, NW- Africa: Interaction of stacked giant mass wasting events and canyon evolution

Abstract

Acoustic data reveal giant submarine slides offshore Senegal. The most prominent slide, named Dakar Slide, shows a headwall with a length of at least 100 km in water depths of 2,000-3,100 m. The slide is situated between two canyons, the Dakar Canyon in the north and the Diola Canyon in the south. Seismic data indicate a complex interaction of mass wasting and canyon evolution during the formation of this part of the continental margin. The northern sidewall of the Dakar Slide crosses the distal part of the Dakar Canyon, which was repeatedly destroyed and filled by slide deposits. The area above the headwall does not show major masswasting events though the slope gradient there is significantly steeper. The Dakar Slide is underlain by multiple giant mass transport deposits reaching back to Oligocene times. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012.