Anxo Mena

Anxo Mena
University of Vigo | UVIGO · Departamento de Xeociencias Mariñas e Ordenación do Territorio

PhD

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54
Publications
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685
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Publications

Publications (54)
Article
Full-text available
The Sines Contourite Drift (SCD) is a plastered drift with terraced-like morphology, formed by the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) that emplaced in the Alentejo Margin, SW Iberia. The high (~ 27 cm/kyr) and variable sedimentation rates experienced since the Pleistocene resulted in low consolidation, and the development of excess pore pressure, wh...
Article
Bottom current deposits (contourites) form in association with modern-day or ancient oceanic gateways. A paucity of examples in the ancient record and the lack of consensus on diagnostic criteria for differentiating them from other deepwater deposits limit our understanding of how they may record past global oceanic circulation, tectonic events and...
Article
Full-text available
Multidisciplinary studies have allowed us to describe the abiotic landscapes and, thus, reveal the ichnological and benthic foraminifera trends in a deep-water gateway. Mesoscale landscape mapping is presented based on the bathymetric position index, substrate types and near-bottom water temperature. Four sediment cores, retrieved from the entrance...
Article
Full-text available
Palaeoceanographic studies of abyssal bottom currents are often complicated by low current speeds and sedimentation rates, resulting in sediment condensation or erosion. However, increased rates of erosion and deposition may occur where bottom current velocities change as they pass through deep marine gaps and gateways. Despite this, the deposition...
Conference Paper
In this work, we characterize the morphology and recent sedimentary processes of two shelf-indenting submarine canyons (Motril and Carchuna) on the northern margin of the Alboran Sea. To achieve this aim, we used multibeam bathymetric data, seafloor imagery and short sediment cores (up to 50 cm). The Carchuna Canyon is deeply incised in the shelf,...
Conference Paper
Submarine canyons are major morphological features incising continental margins and constitute the main pathways for shelf-to-basin sediment transfer and flux of contaminants and waste. The effectiveness of present-day canyon sediment transport depends largely on the proximity to a major sediment source from the continent, such as riverine or litto...
Article
Marine macrobenthic tracemaker communities are controlled by limiting parameters (e.g., oxygen, organic matter availability and hydrodynamic energy, among others) which are determined by ocean/atm dynamics affecting the sea bottom. Over the last few years, detailed ichnological studies have provided information about trace fossils content of contou...
Article
The productivity of intertidal shellfish banks is affected by a wide variety of environmental parameters. In this study, a battery of multivariate analyses including generalized linear mixed models, hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis were performed to define the spatial organization of sandbanks and to identify the varia...
Article
Full-text available
Despite numerous efforts to properly differentiate between contourites and other deep-water deposits in cores and outcrops, reliable diagnostic criteria are still lacking. The co-occurrence of downslope and along-slope sedimen-tary processes makes it particularly difficult to differentiate these relatively homogeneous deposits. The main aim of this...
Article
Full-text available
Outer shelf sedimentary records are promising for determining the recurrence intervals of tsunamis. However, compared to onshore deposits, offshore deposits are more difficult to access, and so far, studies of outer shelf tsunami deposits are scarce. Here, an example of studying these deposits is presented to infer implications for tsunami-related...
Article
The Sines Contourite Drift (SCD), located in the Alentejo margin, southwest Iberian continental margin, has been through many depositional phases in result of climatic variations and bottom current oscillations, which determined a variable depositional pattern and an irregular sedimentary evolution since the Late Pleistocene. The SCD, being in the...
Article
Full-text available
Interbedded contourites, turbidites and pelagites are commonplace in many deep‐water slope environments. However, the distinction between these different facies remains a source of controversy. This detailed study of calcareous contourites and associated deep‐marine facies from an Eocene–Miocene sedimentary succession on Cyprus clearly documents th...
Article
A morphological and seismic-stratigraphic analysis of the Gulf of Cadiz area near the Strait of Gibraltar is presented in this work, focused on the sedimentary evolution of the upper and proximal middle-continental slope since the Mid-Pleistocene. Based on the analysis of seismic reflection profiles and swath bathymetry data, this work analyses the...
Article
Full-text available
The differentiation of pure turbidites and contourites from mixed deposits —as the bottom current reworked sands (BCRS) — in sedimentary cores and outcrops from the modern or ancient records is still challenging. An accurate evaluation of facies associations calls for detailed understanding of processes controlling these deep-water systems and how...
Article
Heinrich events (HEs) are climatic changes, occurring during the Pleistocene, related to massive discharge of freshwater from the Laurentide Ice Sheet, through the Hudson Strait, recognized in the sedimentary record through distinctive layers of ice-rafted detritus (IRD), the so-called Heinrich layers (HLs). Environmental changes during HEs influen...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Resumo: Neste trabalho apresentam-se resultados preliminares da análise e tratamento de imagens obtidas por tomografia axial computorizada em sedimentos provenientes de diferentes depósitos de tempestade e tsunami. Este método, de alta resolução espacial, auxiliou o reconhecimento de estruturas sedimentares e na percepção da distribuição de sedimen...
Article
Full-text available
Although bioturbation is commonly recognized in contourites, only a few studies have analyzed the ichnological content of these deposits in detail. These studies have mainly focused on meso-scale bigradational sequence (a coarsening upward followed by a fining-upward sequence resulting from variations in current velocity). Here we present data from...
Article
This work uses seismic records to document and classify contourite features around the Iberian continental margin to determine their implications for depositional systems and petroleum exploration. Contourites include depositional features (separated, sheeted, plastered and confined drifts), erosional features (abraded surfaces, channels, furrows a...
Data
This code was used in the open access research article in Marine Geology titled "Quantitative characterisation of contourite deposits using medical CT" by Vandorpe et al. (2019). doi: 10.1016/j.margeo.2019.106003
Article
Full-text available
Five sediment cores, retrieved from four different depositional contouritic morphological settings (a sheeted drift, a confined mounded drift, a mounded elongated drift and a plastered drift) from the Northern Gulf of Cadiz and the Alboran Sea have been analysed using medical X-ray computed tomography (medical CT). A quantitative approach has been...
Article
Infilling of trace fossils can serve as a proxy for sediment otherwise missing from basin deposits. The Petra Tou Romiou section (southern Cyprus) includes calcilutite/calcarenite material that represents deep-marine deposits of Eocene age. Lateral and vertical variation indicates pelagic, gravitational, and bottom-current processes simultaneously...
Article
Full-text available
The Galicia Interior Basin (GIB; NW Iberian Peninsula) is located near a critical transition between the subtropical (temperate) and subpolar (cold) gyres of the North Atlantic. It therefore witnesses oceanographic changes driven by global climatic events. This study reports on the recent (latest Pleistocene) sedimentary, palaeoceanographic and pal...
Article
This work presents a detailed study of CONTOURIBER and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program 339 sediment data targeting sand-rich contourites in the Eastern Gulf of Cadiz. All of the collected sediments are interpreted as contourites (deposited or reworked by bottom currents) on the basis of oceanographic setting, seismic and morphometric features and...
Article
Major ichnofabric attributes may be related to a number of limiting marine parameters for tracemakers with paleoenvironmental significance, including ocean/atmosphere dynamics. This is why ichnofabric analysis has proven to be a very useful tool in sedimentary basin analysis — as well as in other Earth Science disciplines — although it is a compara...
Article
Full-text available
Turbidite systems or submarine fans are considered the most important clastic accumulations in the deep sea and represent the sediment-transfer system between the hinterland source area and the deep-sea depositional sink. Their deposits contain information about global factors and local factors. Different scales and varying observational methods ha...
Article
The products of bottom current circulation around the Iberian continental margin are characterised by large erosional and depositional features formed under a variety of geological and oceanographic contexts. The Iberian margins are influenced by several water masses that mainly interact along the upper and middle continental slopes, as well as alo...
Article
Non-destructive techniques of core analysis, especially of marine cores, are being broadly employed for sedimentary, paleoceanographic and paleoclimate research. In particular, Computed Tomography scanning (CT–scanning) allows acquisition of 3D and 2D images, according to desired planes, and thus the identification of sedimentary structures, large...
Article
Full-text available
Acidification of the oceans is one of the consequences of ongoing increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The effects on organisms that build their shells of calcium carbonate are not sufficiently studied and might be detrimental. Simulating ocean acidification scenarios in the laboratory is a reasonable way to study their response to decreased...
Article
Full-text available
Controls of sediment dynamics at the Galician continental slope (NW Iberia) during the past 30 ka were reconstructed from three new gravity cores (GeoB11035-1, 130206–1, 13071–1) based on sedimentological (e.g. sortable silt, IRD), micropalaeontological (e.g. coccoliths), geochemical (AMS 14C, XRF) and geophysical (e.g. magnetic susceptibility) dia...
Article
Full-text available
An extensive terrace comprising sandy sheeted drifts characterises the proximal sector (close to the Straits of Gibraltar) of the Contourite Depositional System (CDS) of the Gulf of Cadiz and the western continental margin of Portugal. A novel morphosedimentary study over this terrace has been executed based on new multibeam echosounder data, seism...
Article
Full-text available
Compositional, mineralogical and grain size data from 13 superficial samples recovered between 490 and 1144 m water depth in three Contourite Depositional Systems (CDSs): the Gulf of Cadiz, Ortegal Spur and El Cachucho are presented. First surficial centimeter was analysed in different contourite features: depositional (drifts), erosive (moats) and...
Article
Full-text available
Computed tomography (CT scan) is a non-destructive technique of sedimentary analysis rarely used in oceanic cores. This technique allows a simple way to obtain radio-density measurements of high quality, very high resolution and detail. Its application allows obtaining an accurate image of the sedimentary changes recorded and the correlation betwee...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Se presentan los resultados multidisciplinares que combinan aspectos de hidrografía y dinámica de las aguas continentales y marinas que se mezclan en las rias, de la composición química de la columna de agua, de la granulometría y composición actual y pasada de los sedimentos de los bancos marisqueros, de la toxicidad de las aguas y sedimentos y de...
Data
Controls of sediment dynamics at the Galician continental slope (NW Iberia) during the past 30 ka were reconstructed from three new gravity cores (GeoB11035-1, 130206-1, 13071-1) based on sedimentological (e.g. sortable silt, IRD), micropalaeontological (e.g. coccoliths), geochemical (AMS 14C, XRF) and geophysical (e.g. magnetic susceptibility) dia...
Article
Full-text available
Deep-water circulation is a critical part of the global conveyor belt that regulates Earth's climate. The bottom (contour)-current component of this circulation is of key significance in shaping the deep seafloor through erosion, transport, and deposition. As a result, there exists a high variety of large-scale erosional and depositional features (...
Article
Full-text available
The no-destructive techniques of core analyses are being more employed due to the quality and quantity of data that can be obtained without the re-quirement of the use of samples. These samples are then available to other kind of analyses. The Computerized Tomography (CT) is a technique few ex-tended in sedimentology. The CT is relevant because it...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This contribution aims to illustrate the Ortegal Cape Contourite Depositional System (OCCDS), a new example of contourites located on the northern Galicia margin generated by the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) influence. This work is based on several datasets collected during two multidisciplinary cruises, including: single echosounder and swath...
Article
Full-text available
The gravity core GeoB-11035 (2045 m depth, 505 cm) was recovered 65 km from the occidental Galicia coast over the continental slope. In this core the planktonic foraminifera assemblages was analyzed to carry out a reconstruction of the surface paleoceanographic conditions and to investigate in the climate changes which induced the observed climatic...
Article
Full-text available
Gravity core GeoB-11035 (2045 mbsl, 505 cm length) was retrieved 65 km offshore the Galician occidental coast at the lower continental slope. Preliminary analysis of the planktonic foraminifera assemblage and the terrigenous material in the sand fraction have led to identify successive climate events off the NW Iberian Margin. The core stratigraphy...

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