Olga Sánchez GuillamónInstituto Español de Oceanografia | IEO · Centro Oceanográfico de Málaga
Olga Sánchez Guillamón
Doctor in Marine Sciences. Marine Geology. Seafloor geomorphology.
Into INTEMARES project characterizing the current geological processes shaping the seafloor of the Mallorca Channel
About
61
Publications
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188
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Citations since 2017
Introduction
PhD in SUBVENT project (IEO/IGME project) : Submarine fluid venting on the continental margins of the Canary
Islands and the Gulf of Cadiz: Comparative analysis of associated build-ups.
Additional affiliations
January 2011 - April 2011
Education
January 2012 - December 2012
University of Cadiz
Field of study
- MSc in Oceanography
Publications
Publications (61)
Introduction and methods
Marine litter density, distribution and potential sources, and the impact on canyon seafloor habitats were investigated in the Motril, Carchuna and Calahonda canyons, located along the northern margin of the Alboran Sea. During the ALSSOMAR-S2S oceanographic survey carried out in 2019, canyon floor imagery was collected by...
Multibeam bathymetry, sub-bottom parametric profiler, multichannel seismic reflection data and sediment cores were used to detail the nature, morpho-sedimentary and internal structure of five newly discovered submarine mud volcanoes (MVs) in the Moroccan margin of the Gulf of Cadiz. The Henriet and Subvent MVs are located at 300–400 m water depth,...
Seamounts are globally important and essential ecosystems for supporting and maintaining marine biodiversity. In the Mallorca Channel, three prominent seamounts are present: Ausias March, Ses Olives and Emile Baudot. Currently, this area is being evaluated for inclusion in the Natura 2000 network. For this objective three surveys were conducted in...
Various studies have been carried out to the declaration of new marine protected areas for their importance for habitats, according to the Natura 2000 Network. One of these sites is a sector of the Capbreton Submarine Canyon System, located in front of the Basque Country coast, in the Bay of Biscay (North Atlantic). During the Intemares_CapBreton 0...
The Gulf of Cadiz and the Alboran Sea are characterized by tectonic activity due to oblique convergence at the boundary between the Eurasian and Nubian plates. This activity has favored a variety of tsunamigenic sources: basically, seismogenic faults and submarine landslides. The main tsunamigenic faults in the Gulf of Cadiz would comprise the thru...
Carbonate mounds clustering in three fields were characterized on the upper continental slope of the northern Alboran Sea by means of a detailed analysis of the morphosedimentary and structural features using high-resolution bathymetry and parametric profiles. The contemporary and past benthic and demersal species were studied using ROV underwater...
This paper integrates sedimentary, tectonic and volcanic geological processes inside a model of volcano-tectonic activity in oceanic intraplate domains related to rifted continental margins. The study case, the eastern Canary Basin (NE Atlantic), is one of the few places in the world where giant MDTs and Quaternary volcanic and hydrothermal edifice...
Extensive beds of the deep-sea mussel Bathymodiolus mauritanicus (currently also known as Gigantidas mauritanicus ) linked to active cold seeps related to fissure-like activity on Al Gacel mud volcano, Gulf of Cádiz, were filmed and sampled for the first time during the oceanographic expedition SUBVENT-2 aboard R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa. Al Gacel mud...
The scientific exploration of Mallorca Channel seamounts (western Mediterranean) is improving the knowledge of the Ses Olives (SO), Ausias March (AM), and Emile Baudot (EB) seamounts for their inclusion in the Natura 2000 network. The aims are to map and characterize benthic species and habitats by means of a geological and biological multidiscipli...
may be also exacerbated by other anthropogenic activities such as fishing. Submarine canyons represent the most significant seafloor litter sinks. In this work, the distribution and density of anthropogenic activity indicators in three submarine canyons (Motril, Carchuna and Calahonda) of the northern margin of the Alboran Sea are characterized, fo...
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,...
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...
Litter enters the seas mostly from coastal and marine anthropogenic activities and travel long distances before being stranded at the seafloor, where is influenced by the seafloor geomorphology as well as oceanographic and sedimentary processes. Submarine canyons constitute the main pathways for the sediment transfer, flux of contaminants and waste...
Offshore geological hazards can occur in any marine domain or environment and represent a serious threat to society, the economy, and the environment. Seismicity, slope sedimentary instabilities, submarine volcanism, fluid flow processes, and bottom currents are considered here because they are the most common hazardous processes; tsunamis are also...
The seafloor of the Alboran Sea reflects its complex tectonic, sedimentary, and oceanography dynamics as a consequence of the geological context, involving interaction between the Eurasian and African plates, and oceanographic context, as it is where the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters meet. Their physiography has a semi-enclosed configuration ch...
The seafloor of the Alboran Sea reflects its complex tectonic, sedimentary, and oceanography dynamics as a consequence of the geological context, involving interaction between the Eurasian and African plates, and oceanographic context, as it is where the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters meet. Their physiography has a semi-enclosed configuration ch...
In this work, we integrate five case studies harboring vulnerable deep-sea benthic habitats in different geological settings from mid latitude NE Atlantic Ocean (24–42° N). Data and images of specific deep-sea habitats were acquired with Remoted Operated Vehicle (ROV) sensors (temperature, salinity, potential density, O2, CO2, and CH4). Besides doc...
This article offers an overview of the main sedimentary systems defining the geomorphology of deep sea environments from low to high latitudes. Mass-transport deposits, turbidite systems, contourites, volcaniclastic aprons, glacial trough mouth systems, carbonate mounds and other bathyal systems, such as pelagites, hemipelagites, mid-ocean channels...
The Iberian margin in the Gulf of Cádiz hosts a fluid venting area embedded into a contourite depositional drift and is a natural laboratory to study how multiple interacting processes shape the seafloor. A high-resolution morpho-sedimentary analysis, based on geophysical data, sediment samples and submarine imagery, has been carried out; the onset...
The Canary Islands are a volcanic alignment of seven islands that conforms an archipelago located in the northwestern part of the still active Nubian (African) tectonic plate. The archipelago showed its latest volcanic activity south off El Hierro Island in 2011, resulting in the formation of the newest underwater volcano, known as Tagoro, for the...
The Gulf of Cádiz is influenced by the collision of the Alborán Domain with the North African and South Iberian margins, which ultimately promotes hydrocarbon-rich fluid venting. Regarding oceanography, the effects of the Eastern North Atlantic Central Water, the Mediterranean Outflow Water and their interaction, strongly influence seabed topograph...
A relationship between scleractinian cold-water corals and fluid venting submarine structures has been observed in Mediterranean and adjacent areas. Mud volcanoes and mud diapirs promote different substrate types for biological colonisation: from muddy bottoms with chemosynthesis-based communities and typical bathyal soft bottom fauna to hard botto...
Tagoro, the youngest submarine volcano of the Canary Islands, erupted in 2011 South of El Hierro Island. Pre-existing sea floor and inhabiting biological communities were buried by the newly erupted material, promoting the appearance of new habitats. The present study pursues to describe the first metazoans colonizing different new habitats formed...
Tagoro, the most recently discovered shallow submarine volcano on the Canary Islands archipelago, Spain, has been studied from the beginning of its eruptive phase in October 2011 until November 2018. In March 2012, it became an active hydrothermal system involving a release of heat and gases that produce significant physical–chemical anomalies in t...
The Gulf of Cádiz margin is characterized by geological processes that control seabed bathymetry and promote hydrocarbon-rich fluid venting in areas where the Eastern North Atlantic Central Water and the Mediterranean Outflow Water influence the substrate types. Geological and oceanographic processes determine the distribution of a wide variety of...
High-resolution multibeam bathymetry, seismic reflection data, sediment core and water samples were used to first detail the morpho-sedimentary structure and seepage environment of a recently discovered mud volcano (MV) in the Atlantic Moroccan margin during the SUBVENT-2 cruise. Henriet MV is the most eastern edifice of the Gulf of Cadiz, located...
The seabed geomorphology of the Passage of Lanzarote (PoL), between the Lanzarote and Fuerteventura islands and the West Africa Continental Margin (WACM), has been considered with the aim to improve the knowledge of the main active processes working on the seafloor. We have analyzed the acoustic data obtained in the oceanographic cruise SUBVENT2 ca...
The increasing volume of high-resolution multibeam bathymetry data collected along continental margins and
adjacent deep seafloor regions is providing further opportunities to study new morphological seafloor features in deep water environments. In this paper, seafloor mounds have been imaged in detail with multibeam echosounders and parametric sub...
Derived digital elevation models (DEMs) are high-resolution acoustic technology that has proven to be a crucial morphometric data source for research into submarine environments. We present a morphometric analysis of forty deep seafloor edifices located to the west of Canary Islands, using a 150 m resolution bathymetric DEM. These seafloor structur...
New seismic profiles, bathymetric data and sediment-rock sampling document for the first time the discovery of hydrothermal vent complexes and volcanic cones at 4800-5200 m depth related to recent volcanic and intrusive activity in an unexplored area of the Canary Basin (Eastern Atlantic Ocean, 500 km west of the Canary Islands). A complex of sill...
Deep-water corals growing in close proximity to the 2011 submarine eruption at Tagoro (El Hierro Island; Canary Archipielago, Spain) have revealed their ability to record the magmatic helium (³He) signal during a period of months prior to the eruption with magmatic ³He/⁴He ratios of 3.6–5.0 RA This is similar to the range of He isotope values (3–10...
Eurofleets 2- BURSTER cruise was conducted onboard the German icebreaker RV Polarstern (Expedition PS99-1a) during June 13–23, 2016 (Bremerhaven-Longyearbyen) having the principal objective of investigating the hydrographic and bio-geochemical conditions of the Kveithola glacial trough (south of Svalbard), and to uncover the possible existence of g...
Between October 2011 and March 2012 a submarine volcanic eruption took place at the offshore of El Hierro Island. The extensive study of the eruption and subsequent degassing process has allowed monitoring the newly generated volcanic edifice. Multibeam bathymetric has enabled building a digital high-resolution bathymetric model (grid 1x1 m). The p...
Mercator mud volcano has been explored by direct visual observations using a ROV at 350 to 370 m depth. Underwater images, taken mainly at the summit, have allowed characterizing the fluid venting environment, where different microforms, habitats and associated biota, with typical seepage components have been identified. Chemosynthetic bacterial co...
Habitat characterization using underwater images has been carried out in 4 mud volcanoes (Gazul, Almazán, St.
Petersburg and Aveiro) and one mud volcano/diapir complex (Hespérides) located at the middle slope of the
Spanish margin of the Gulf of Cádiz (360-1200m depth). A total of 126 species, mostly cnidarians, sponges,
brachiopods, crustaceans an...
In this work, we present a morphometric analysis of 41 mounded edifices located on the seafloor to the west of Canary Islands, from 4800 to 5200 m water depth, using a 150 m resolution DEM and very high resolution seismic profiles. The objective of this study is to establish mound morphological relationships related to the possible variability in f...
Análisis de imagen para la identificación de objetos en filtros procedentes de las plumas de turbidez Image analysis to identify objects in filters obtained from turbidity plumes Abstract: The study of turbidity plumes developed in front of the river mouth, have an increasing scientific interest due to its contribution to infralittoral sediment tra...
Morfometría de montículos submarinos del talud inferior del margen continental canario (O de las Islas Canarias): Análisis basado en un MDT Abstract: We present a morphometric analysis of 41 mounded edifices located on the seafloor to the west of Canary Islands, using a 150 m resolution DEM and very high-resolution seismic profiles. In order to car...
Extrusive edifices and structural reliefs, catalogued as mounds and located on the seafloor to the west of Canary Islands were analyzed by acoustic data obtained with multibeam and parametric echosounders during several oceanographic expeditions. They were carried out at deep waters, from 4800 to 5200 m, and they have allowed characterizing 41 newl...
Mud volcanism represents an important migration pathway for methane and other gases from deeper reservoirs to the surface; however most submarine sources remain poor quantified. During SUBVENT2 cruise, water column over several mud volcanoes were surveyed for gas seepage characterization. Water samples of ROV Niskin and Rosette-CTD Niskin bottles w...
The northeastern sector of the Gulf of Cadiz continental margin has been deeply studied the last two decades. The seafloor is characterized by the Gulf of Cadiz Contourite Depositional System, strong diapirism and seepage related to the mobility of the frontal units of the Gibraltar Arc. Since 2010 high resolution bathymetric data and high and very...
The Passage of Lanzarote is an example of a wide oceanic corridor. It extends between the eastern Canary Islands and the Western Africa continental margin. Seafloor morphology of this passage has been analyzed with the aim to know the morphogenetic processes related to both the oceanography and the geology. Multibeam bathymetric data and high and v...
The mud volcanism in the Iberian and Moroccan margins of the Gulf of Cadiz is well known over more than a decade. Nevertheless, new structures and morphologies related to fluid venting are still discovered in the recent oceanographic cruise SUBVENT2 in 2014 along the Moroccan margin. Four new mud volcanoes have been identified along two sector of M...
Se presentan nuevas evidencias de actividad tectónica reciente en la plataforma continental del margen Bético del Golfo de Cádiz. La identificación y caracterización de fallas normales activas cuaternarias, principalmente en la plataforma media y externa existente entre la desembocadura del río Guadalquivir hasta la Bahía de Cádiz, está basada en l...
Very high resolution parametric echosounder (TOPAS) data interpretation obtained during CADHYS0713, INDEMARES/CHICA1011 and ARSA0313 cruises along the middle, external shelf and upper slope of the eastern Gulf of Cadiz between 50 and 400 m depth has allowed us the identification of several active tectonic structures acting since the Holocene. To da...
The seafloor morphology of the Passage of Lanzarote has been analysed with the aim to know the active processes on the bottom surface related to the oceanographic context. Multibeam bathymetric data and high and very high resolution seismic profiles obtained in the SUBVENT2 cruise have been used. Five main morphological groups have been analysed: (...
Morphostructural interpretation based on high and very high resolution reflection seismic profiles and a bathymetric mosaic acquired along several oceanographic cruises have allowed the neotectonic char-acterization of a sector of the Gulf of Cádiz continental shelf, which is extended from the Guadalquivir river mouth to the Bay of Cádiz. High reso...
La monografía de los volcanes de fango del golfo de Cádiz se enmarca en una serie de 10 publicaciones en las que se detallan los resultados de la investigación de las áreas de estudio del proyecto LIFE+ INDEMARES.
The metal removal and neutralization capacities of digested sewage sludges from municipal wastewater treatment plants, cattle slurry (liquid manure), and Biofert granules (dried granular anaerobic sludge) were compared under batch conditions using synthetic AMD (pH 2.8) containing high concentrations of Al, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn (100, 15, 270, 15,...
121 Emplazamiento de algunas estructuras submarinas relacionadas con la tectónica salina y la expulsión de gases en el talud superior y medio del Golfo de Cádiz Emplacement of some submarine structures related to salt tectonics and leaking gasses in the upper and middle slope of the Gulf of Cádiz V. Díaz-del-Río (A set of methane expulsion related...
We discuss in this presentation the preliminary results on the structural characterization of the continental shelf of the Gulf of Cádiz (SW Iberian Peninsula) from the Guadalquivir river mouth to the Bay of Cádiz. It is based on interpretation of very high (Geopulse) and high resolution reflection seismic sections (Topas) acquired by several ocean...
We discuss in this presentation the preliminary results on the structural characterization of the continental shelf of the Gulf of Cádiz (SW Iberian Peninsula) from the Guadalquivir river mouth to the Bay of Cádiz. It is based on interpretation of very high (Geopulse) and high resolution reflection seismic sections (Topas) acquired by several ocean...
We discuss in this presentation the preliminary results on the structural characterization of the continental shelf of the Gulf of Cádiz (SW Iberian Peninsula) from the Guadalquivir river mouth to the Bay of Cádiz. It is based on interpretation of very high (Geopulse) and high resolution reflection seismic sections (Topas) acquired by several ocean...
The Gulf of Cadiz displays a high biodiversity due to its complex oceanographic circulation, geological evolution, heterogeneity of sediment and habitat types as well as its biogeographic context, among other reasons. In this area, emissions of hydrocarbon-rich fluids (mainly methane) cause the formation of sub-surface structures, such as mud volca...
Projects
Projects (4)
The INPULSE project aims the characterization of the overflow related to the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) and the possible link between oceanographic and sedimentary processes in the Gulf of Cadiz continental slope. To achieve this objective, the past and present interactions between oceanographic processes and morphological features will be identified based on real data and numerical simulations. Furthermore, the environmental implications of this interaction and their impact on the occurrence and development of specific habitats and on the economic activities over the seafloor, such as submarine cables, gas pipelines, etc., will be investigated. All this will be complemented by the assessment of the viability of a submarine sensors network deployment that will measure and quantify environmental variables.
The principal objective of VULCANA is to continue with the first multidisciplinary time series over a submarine volcano in the Spanish coast. In this moment, the degasification phase is still active which produce significant physical-chemical anomalies in the whole submarine volcano. In order to quantify the environmental impact caused by the eruptive process, a physical-chemical-biological and geological approach has been carried out at Tagoro submarine volcano at the island of El Hierro and extended to other possible hydrothermal areas around the Canary Archipielago.
Seafloor Geohazards in Spanish seabed areas may have very different origins. The control exercised both by tectonic activity and sediment dynamics in a region with the geomorphology of each region itself, may generate processes that produce significant changes in the seabed, as well as on the habitats present in them, and even some processes could also affect the water column. These processes may have a strategic interest, they could affect man made infrastructures in these marine environments, and can also have a strong impact on the coastal strip.
It is therefore necessary to address the evaluation of potential marine geohazards (earthquakes, submarine volcanism, erosion, landslides, gas emissions, tsunami, etc.) in an integrated manner using a standard methodology. This approach is the first step to building a tool that provides administrations the ability to minimize natural hazards of the marine environment and its cascading effects on economic, social and ecological systems. The results will help establish the technical conditions to increase the safety of people and the civil works. These results would be integrated and complement the activities undertaken under the descriptor 6 of the Marine Strategy, helping to maintain a high awareness of the conservation of the seabed, as well as the maritime safety policy.