Instability Events Characterization in a Highly Active Submarine Canyon, Western Black Sea

The southwestern Black Sea is characterized by abrupt continental slopes carved by canyons, ridges and gullies. The complex morphology of the slopes is the result of mass wasting processes that are well known to be a threat for infrastructures, marine environments, and coastal communities. Because of their hard-to-reach nature, the study and assessment of those processes is as important as challenging.

The instability processes in the southwestern Black Sea include failures in steep slopes, smaller slides on canyon or gullies flanks, debris flow and turbidity currents. Propensity to these events is facilitated by active triggering mechanisms such as ground shaking from earthquakes and active river discharge. In this study we integrate high resolution geophysical data with geotechnical data, acquired along a submarine canyon in the Turkish Margin of the Black Sea, with the aim of providing a consistent overview of the instability events that were/are active in the area. The integration allowed to differentiate between mass transport deposits and turbidites, which are the deposits of turbidity currents. This differentiation is not always straightforward on geophysical data, which are, on the other hand, essential to define the extension of the instability deposits and the direction of movements.