Underwater canyon
The underwater canyon is a deep valley underwater (it can reach 1000 m compared to the surrounding level) narrow and sloping dug in the continental Slope ( cf diagram ). It can in certain cases notch the continental shelf until in edge of coast: it is then is indicated under the term of Gouf.
The underwater canyon can be the underwater prolongation of a river but it can also have other origins.
It is the place of advance priviligé of the sediments torn off in the continent which are transported until the abyssal Plaine. The flow of the sediments, normally relatively slow, can accelerate, starting true avalanches which are propagated on several hundred kilometers (current of Turbidité). In 1979, a phenomenon of this type in the canyon of the Var caused the collapse of a dam of 300 meters in construction along the airport of Nice and cut 2 telephone cables in the abyssal plain 100 km further.
See too
- continental Shelf
- Flat abyssal
- Gouf
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