Canary Basin

Moreno A., Nave S., Kuhlmann H., Canals M., Targarona J., Freudenthal T., and Abrantes F. (2002) Productivity response in the North Canary Basin to climate changes during the last 250,000 yr a multi-proxy approach. Earth Planet. Set Lett. 196, 147-159. 

Organic geochemistry of lipids in marine sediments in the Canary Basin Implications for origin and accumulation of organic matter... 

Abstract—The Canary basin consists of the continental margin off the coast of Northwest Africa, the deep basin, the Madeira Abyssal Plain (MAP) and the volcanic Canary Islands. 

The Canary Basin contains a varied geological setting along the continental shelf and slope off the Northwest African coast, the Canary Islands, and the Madeira Abyssal Plain (MAP) (Fig. 1). The MAP is situated in the deepest part (about 5400 m) of the Canary Basin about 700 km west of the Canary Islands (Jarvis and Higgs, 1987). 

Fig. 1. Map of the Canary Basin with ODP Leg 157 Sites 950 and 952, Leg 159T Site 958 and Meteor cruise 37/1 Sites GeoB 4202 etc. Bathymetric lines with 4 and 2 denote water depths in thousands of meters. Solid arrows depict pathways for turbidites.

The possible sources of OM in the Canary Basin area are (1) marine organisms formed during upwelling, (2) windblown material from the African continent, (3) material brought by river discharge, and (4) drifting marine extraneous matter. 

Henderiks J., Freudenthal T., Meggers H., Nave S., Abrantes F., Bollmann J. and Thierstien H. R. (2002) Glacial-interglacial variability of particle accumulation in the Canary Basin A time-slice approach. Deep-Sea Res. II... 

Weaver P. P. E., Masson D. G., Gunn D. E., Kidd R. B., Rothwell R. G. and Maddison D. A. (1995) Sediment mass-wasting in the Canary Basin. In Atlas of Deep Water Environments Architectural Style in Turbidite systems (eds. K. T. Pickering, R. N. Hiscott, N. H. Kenyon, F. Ricci Luchi and R. D. A. Smith), pp. 287-296. Chapman Hall, London. 

The Canary Island hotspot (including Madeira) in the eastern Atlantic has a small plume flux (Fig. 5a) and is situated on the oldest lithosphere in the ocean basins (Jurassic, >170 Ma Fig. 5b), and adjacent to a continent on the very slowly moving African plate (<5 mm/y Fig. 5c). Its lavas show a He/" He range of 5.5 to 8.9 Ra (Graham et al. 1996c Hilton et al. 2000a). 

Thiele G, Roether W, Schlosser P, Kuntz R, Siedler G, Stramma L (1986) Baroclinic flow and transient tracer fields in the Canary Cape Verde Basin. J Phys Oceanogr 16 814-826 Tides D (1966) Atmospheric noble gases from extraterrestrial dust. Science 151 1015-1018 Tides D (1967) Extraterrestrial excess Ar and Ar concentrations as possible accumulation-rate indicators for sea sediments. Icarus 7 94-100... 

---