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An subaquatic avalanche annihilate a huge chunk of the East Atlantic ocean floor nearly 60,000 long time ago , leaving behind an tremendous trail of end .
The avalanche started as a small seafloor slide in the Agadir Canyon off the coast of Morocco , but it rapidly snowballed into a thunderous torrent of sediment and boulders , according to a fresh study .
Researcher have mapped, for the first time, the path of a huge underwater avalanche in the Agadir Canyon 60,000 years ago.
A wave of clay , rocks and sand measuring 660 feet ( 200 beat ) tall came crash down through the canyon at upper of 40 miles per hour ( 65 km / h ) , " ripping out the seafloor and tear everything out in its manner , " study co - pass authorChristopher Stevenson , a sedimentologist and lecturer at the University of Liverpool in the U.K. , say in astatement . The avalanche buck through the 250 - Admiralty mile - long ( 400 kilometers ) canyon before shoot out the other end and move around another 1,000 miles ( 1,600 km ) along the Atlantic ocean bottom , Stevenson said .
All in all , the avalanche grew more than 100 times in size along its path , according to the study . That ’s a vast growth factor equate with snow avalanches and debris flows on land , which grow four to eight times in size of it from start to end , co - lead authorChristoph Böttner , a Marie - Curie research worker in geophysical science and geology at Aarhus University in Denmark , said in the instruction .
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Overview of the study area off the coast of Morocco. The black line shows the path of the underwater avalanche inside the Agadir Canyon, and the white dotted lines show the direction of spread of sediments at the canyon mouth.
Massive inflation of this kind could be a defining equipment characteristic of underwater avalanches , Böttner said . " We have also seen thisextreme growthin smaller zep avalanchesmeasured elsewhere , so we think this might be a specific demeanor associated with underwater avalanche , " he said .
The investigator used sediment data point to retrace the path of the Agadir Canyon avalanche . They study more than 300 core samples taken during inquiry cruises over the retiring 40 years , as well as seismal and bathymetric ( seabed topography ) information from the area . By compiling this entropy , they created a map of the avalanche that present its winding path inside and beyond the canyon . The squad published its results Aug. 21 in the journalScience Advances .
" This is the first time anyone has managed to map out an integral private underwater avalanche of this size , " Stevenson said . The map give away that after the avalanche exited the canyon , it spread its load across an orbit close to the size of Oregon , covering the seafloor in more than 3 feet ( 1 m ) of deposit .
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Underwater avalanches are extremely difficult to measure and often go unnoticed , but a advanced - day equivalent to the Agadir Canyon calamity could potentially make serious price , the investigator said in the command .
" These findings are of enormous importance for how we essay and assess their potential geohazard risk to seafloor base , " study co - authorSebastian Krastel , a prof of maritime geophysics and hydroacoustics at Kiel University in Germany , said in the statement . Things like net cables , which dribble the majority of global internet dealings , could suffer huge damage should another avalanche of this sizing rap again , Krastel sound out .
