Upslope migrating sand dunes in the upper slope of the Mozambican margin (SW Indian Ocean)

The upper slopes of continental margins are very energetic areas where nepheloid layers are often observed. Multibeam bathymetry, sub-bottom profiler and multi-channel highresolution seismic reflection data acquired during the PAMELA-MOZ04 survey in the Mozambique Channel revealed the presence of sand dunes on the upper slope at 120-250 m water depth. The dunes migrate upslope and their crests are oblique to the contours. They are medium to large dunes, with wavelengths between 20 and 150 m and heights between 0.15 and 1.50 m, and their size decreases upslope. Seismic reflection data of the water column show internal solitary waves travelling offshore in the depth range of the dune field. The formation of the dune field could be related to the interaction of the barotropic tide with the upper slope that results in the generation of internal tides.

How to cite
Miramontes Garcia Elda, Jouet Gwenael, Cattaneo Antonio, Thereau Estelle, Guerin Charline, Jorry Stephan, Droz Laurence (2019). Upslope migrating sand dunes in the upper slope of the Mozambican margin (SW Indian Ocean). Le­fe­b­vre, A., Gar­lan, T. and Winter, C. (Eds), 2019. MARID VI. Sixth In­ter­na­tional Con­fer­ence on Mar­ine and River Dune Dy­nam­ics. Bre­men, Ger­many, 1-3 April 2019. MARUM – Cen­ter for Mar­ine En­vir­on­mental Sci­ences, Uni­versity Bre­men and SHOM. 267 pp. ISBN: 978-2-11-139488-9. pp.169-172. https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00499/61049/

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