Correntes De Contorno E Erosão Submarina No Segmento Nordeste Da Margem Continental Brasileira

New multichannel seismic reflection data collected over the northeastern continental margin off Brazil show impressive abyssal<br>erosional processes related to bottom currents. The most remarkable erosional feature is the 800 -km-long and up to 470 -mdeep<br>Pernambuco Seachannel, which conducts the northward-flowing AABW across the Bahia Seamounts region, debouching into<br>the Pernambuco Abyssal Plain. However, the erosional -depositional action of the AABW is not only restricted to the channel<br>setting, where the flow finds a physiographic constriction. Actually, this bottom current has been controlling the formation of<br>regional unconformities and the deposition of contourite drifts in the last 30 Ma, affecting a broad region of the continental<br>margin. So, the sedimentary apron of the slope-rise system on this region must be reconsidered as an interplay between<br>downslope sediment gravity flows and alongslope bottom-current -controlled deposition.