Late Tertiary Slumping on the Continental Slope of Southern Portugal

Abstract

THE geological relationship of the Atlantic Ocean to Europe is recorded west of the British Isles and France in a sequence of continental shelf and slope deposits, although the latter seem to be missing on the northern and western sides of Iberia¹. Accordingly, the southern continental slope of Iberia was examined (Fig. 1) for the missing parts of the record, particularly south of Portugal where a detailed bathymetric survey had revealed a series of long, sub-parallel ridges with a westerly to west–south–westerly trend (Hydrographer of the Navy, personal communication).