Progradation and retreat of the Valencia fanlobes controlled by sea-level changes during the Plio-Pleistocene (northwestern Mediterranean)

Abstract The Valencia Fan developed in the Valencia Trough at the lower end of the Valencia Valley and the Blanes Canyon. The morpho-sedimentary features of the upper, middle and lower fan, studied from high-resolution sparker reflection profiles, indicate cyclic updip-downdip migrations of fan depocenters during the Plio-Pleistocene. These migrations were caused by changes of sediment input related to the Plio-Pleistocene climatic-eustatic sea-level variations. During periods of sea-level lowering, the system migrated downbasin and developed extensively on the deeper sectors of the Valencia Trough. During periods of sea-level rise, the fan sedimentation migrated updip, abandoning the deeper areas of the basin. The Valencia Fan is not affected by significant lateral migration because it developed in a basin constricted between two land masses. As a consequence, longitudinal progradation and retreat of fan deposition produced a vertical stacking of fanlobes displaced alternatively updip and downdip. These growth patterns reveal some differences with respect to classical deep-sea fans.

• Publication year

  1994

• Venue

  Oceanographic Literature Review

• Publication date

  1994-03-01

• Fields of study

  Environmental Science, Geology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/0025-3227(94)90015-9
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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