Sediment mass-flow processes on a depositional lobe, outer Mississippi Fan

SeaMARC 1A sidescan-sonar imagery and cores from the distal reaches of a depositional lobe on the Mississippi Fan show that channelized mass flow was the dominant mechanism for transport of silt and sand during the formation of this part of the fan. Sediments in these flows were rapidly deposited once outside of their confining channels. The mass flows most likely originated from slope failure at the head of the Mississippi Canyon or on the outer continental shelf and flowed approximately 500 km to the distal reaches of the fan, with debris flow being the dominant flow type.