Sediment waves control origins of submarine canyons

Abstract

The paper by Wang et al. (2023) is timely and thought-provoking. They address the role of bottom-current sediment waves as a major control on the initiation and evolution of regularly spaced, unidirectionally migrating submarine canyons (unidirectionally migrating deep-water channels [UCs], sensu Gong et al., 2018) (Fig. 1). The primary purpose of this Comment is to highlight different possible origins for the initiation versus the subsequent evolution of UCs. Hopefully, this Comment and its Reply will provide further clarity on the theme of unidirectional channel migration.