Sedimentary processes and origin of sediment gravity-flow deposits on the western Algerian margin during late Pleistocene and Holocene

Abstract : Seven piston cores retrieved from the Algerian margin from Oran to 80 km east of Algiers were studied to identify sediment gravity-flow deposits and their sources. At the foot of the slope, five sediment cores indicate a decreasing frequency of turbidite sequences from the transgressive systems tract to the highstand systems tract resulting in lower off-shelf sediment fluxes during the last highstand episode. There is an approximately log-normal frequency distribution of bed thickness that increases for larger grain-size class, but this relationship is frequently altered by truncation of the top of the turbidite sequence. In the deep basin off Algeria, two sediment cores indicate that turbidite sequences are both thicker and more preserved than at the foot of the slope and are observed through the entire sediment core implying various origin of the gravity flow (eustatic change, seismicity).