The Andoya Slide and the Andoya Canyon, north-eastern Norwegian-Greenland Sea

Based on GLORIA side-scan sonar imagery, echo sounder records, 3.5 kHz prof iles, multichannel seismics and gravity cores the Andoya Slide and Andoya C anyon, north-eastern Norwegian-Greenland Sea were mapped and interpreted. T he Andoya Slide covers an area of about 9700 km(2) of which the slide scar area comprise ca. 3600 km(2). The slide has a total run-out distance of abo ut 190 km. Slope failure is inferred to have occurred during the Holocene b ecause the slide scar has prominent relief on the present sea floor. The ar ea of sediment removal is characterised by an irregular relief were relativ ely consolidated sediments are exposed at the sea floor. Little or no uncon solidated sediments overlies the slide deposits. Earthquake activity is inf erred to have triggered the slide. A Holocene age of the Andoya Slide impli es that three giant slides (the Storegga, Tranadjupet and Andoya Slides) ha ve occurred along the continental slope of Norway during the last 10,000 ye ars. A large canyon, the Andoya Canyon, is located immediately south of the Andoya Slide. On the upper slope, the canyon has been incised about 1000 m in the bedrock, and the maximum width at the bottom and between the canyon shoulders is 2 and 12 km, respectively. The Andoya Canyon represents the u pper part of the Lofoten Basin Channel. Based on analogy with other deep-se a canyon/channel systems, the Andoya Canyon/Lofoten Basin Channel is possib ly of pre-Quaternary age. Holocene sediments recovered from within the cany on, and draping the flanking channel deposits, indicate that the Andoya Can yon is not presently active and has probably not been active during the Hol ocene. During the Holocene, the canyon acted as a trap for sediments settli ng from the winnowing Norwegian Current. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.