Controls on the evolution of submarine cannel systems as exemplified in the morphology and stratigraphy of the Northwest Atlantic Mid-Ocean Channel, Labrador Sea

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Sebastian Krastel
• Subject Area: Geophysics ; Geology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 575615999

The Northwest Atlantic Mid-Ocean Channel (NAMOC) is the longest known deep-sea channel in the world. It extends over 4000 km from offshore Hudson Strait, through the Labrador Sea, circumnavigating the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and terminating at the northern limit of the Sohm Abyssal Plain. It was a major sediment transport pathway during Quaternary glacial cycles, directing sediment from the subaerial to the deep-sea environment. NAMOC exhibits features similar to fluvial systems with tributaries, channel meanders, levees, point bars, Yazoo channels, and a prominent thalweg. The detailed morphologies and morpho-metrics of the system, however, are not known, nor has the system been interpreted in the context of today’s knowledge of naturally-occurring turbidity currents and their role in carbon transport and burial in the deep sea. New hydroacoustic and seismic data core data were collected during the RV Maria S. Merian cruise MSM102 along a 2000 km stretch of the NAMOC’s course; sediment cores were taken at selected locations. This proposal aims to reconstruct the evolution of NAMOC over geological timescales, investigate its current status, and analyse the source of sediments, their transport mechanism within NAMOC, and their carbon, trash, and nutrient sink potential. Such an understanding is crucial for estimating NAMOC's role in directing sediment from land to the deep sea in response to the deglaciation of the North American and Greenland ice sheets.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Canada, United Kingdom
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Ingo Klaucke
• Cooperation Partners: Kai Boggild; Professor Dr. David C. Mosher; Dr. Chris Stevenson