Sandy Contourites and Pathways of the Norwegian Sea Overflow Water, West of the Faeroe Bank Channel

Abstract

The cold Norwegian Sea overflowwater flows with considerable speed through the Faeroe Bank Channel, which is the deepest passageway for bottom water out of the Norwegian Sea and into the North Atlantic. This bottom current has affected sedimentation since at least as far back as the Miocene (Boldreel and Andersen 1995). The pathways west of the Faeroe Bank Channel are little known (Hansen and Østerhus 2000). One pathway follows the west side of the Faeroe-Iceland Ridge with a core depth of about 800–900 m and deepening northwards, as shown by photographs (Bowlesand Jahn 1983) and by sidescan sonar images of current bedforms (Dorn and Werner 1993), as well as by physical oceanographic observations.