Submarine landslides in the continental margins of the Arctic Basin

Abstract

A review of investigations devoted to submarine landslides of Norwegian-Barents Sea-Spitsbergen and Canadian-Alaskan continental margins is presented. The review includes general characteristics of the landslides and environments in which they are widely spread. Data on Russian Arctic landslide processes are very poor; so for this region we examined necessary and sufficient conditions of landslide formation such as sloping bottom, high-rate sedimentation and environmental stress (triggering mechanisms). As a result the most favorable for landslides formation areas were distinguished, namely: shelf trenches and their fans in the Kara Sea, shelf break, slope and broad continental rise in the Laptev Sea.

Keywords

• submarine landslides
• landslide tsunamis
• formation environment