Abstract
The Brazilian Continental Shelf Survey Programme (LEPLAC) identified the occurrence of large-scale mass-transport deposits on the southernmost limit of the Brazilian margin, based mainly on analyses of acoustic imagery. The mass-transport deposits, named the Chuí Megaslide Complex, comprise a stack of large translational slides that spread from the shelf break ~650 km downslope to ~4,900 m water depth, cutting into Pliocene-Quaternary sedimentary successions and strongly affecting both the margin morphology and regional depositional processes. The main headwall scarp is U-shaped, 400–500 m high, and extends c. 80 km downslope as a large elongated evacuated scar, 50–85 km wide. Outside this main failure scar, external scarps evidence a large area of erosion and faulted blocks, indicating ongoing retrogressive sediment disruption. Slide masses occur as a combination of variably deformed failed masses and debris flows, covering an area of ~150,000 km2. Main preconditioning parameters and the possible triggering mechanism for the Chui Megaslide Complex are likely a combination of a series of causative factors such as slope failure structurally-induced by gravity tectonics and high sediment influx into the shelf-edge and upper slope during the Early Miocene-Quaternary.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish especially to thank the Executive Committee of the LEPLAC PROGRAMME for permission to publish the acquired geophysical data. We would also thank the Brazilian National Oil and Gas Agency (ANP) for supplying extra seismic and well data. We are also very grateful to reviewers Sébastien Migeon and Nathalie Babonneau for their constructive suggestions while revising the paper. Special thanks are due to Seismic Micro-Technology Inc. (SMT) for the use of the educational licenses of the software Kingdom Suite®. Finally, we thank the Brazilian National Research Agency (CNPq) for providing research grants for the first and second authors.
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dos Reis, A.T. et al. (2016). The Chuí Megaslide Complex: Regional-Scale Submarine Landslides on the Southern Brazilian Margin. In: Lamarche, G., et al. Submarine Mass Movements and their Consequences. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 41. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20979-1_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20979-1_11
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