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Continental Slope Construction and Destruction, West Africa

  • Chapter
The Geology of Continental Margins

Abstract

According to the generally accepted concept, a continental margin of the Atlantic (passive) type develops by outbuilding and upbuilding of sediments. The sediment material is thought to be supplied mainly from land. A shallow-water terrace is always present between the coast and the continental slope. The shelf sediments may build up to a height of several tens of meters below sea level, determined by water movement (see Rona, 1973a, for numerous references). If more sediment material is supplied, it migrates onto the continental slope. Therefore, shallow-water sediments several kilometers in thickness, often encountered, require subsidence of the basement.

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Authors
  1. Eugen Seibold
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  2. Karl Hinz
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mobil Oil Corporation, 221 Nassau Street, 08540, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

    Creighton A. Burk (Chief Geologist) (Chief Geologist)

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, 03755, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

    Charles L. Drake (Professor of Earth Sciences) (Professor of Earth Sciences)

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Seibold, E., Hinz, K. (1974). Continental Slope Construction and Destruction, West Africa. In: Burk, C.A., Drake, C.L. (eds) The Geology of Continental Margins. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01141-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01141-6_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-01143-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-01141-6

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