NEW HIGH-RESOLUTION ACOUSTIC DATA FROM THE BRAIDED SYSTEM OF THE ORINOCO DEEP-SEA FAN

The interpretation of approximately 100 km of EM12 multibeam bathymetr y and backscatter data together with high resolution TOPAS profiles ob tained during a transit over the Orinoco deep-sea fan, near the Barbad os accretionary prism, shows that the braided drainage pattern seen on GLORIA images by Belderson et al. (1984) corresponds to wide (similar to 10 km), low relief (<5 m) channels, incised by numerous small (sim ilar to 500 m wide, similar to 1 m relief) erosional notches. However, the new data indicate that what was originally described as a braided system, actually is a complex depositional system composed of sinuous channels, braided channels and depositional lobes, which co-exist in a short distance, and are easily transformed in each other in response to changes in the flux power. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.