Mass wasting in the western North Atlantic

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Abstract
The balance between processes of slope degradation and slope aggradation on the ocean floor is constantly shifting. Along “active” continental margins, tectonic effects can provide large amounts of sediments to submarine slopes and they also can trigger frequent large slope displacements. Along “passive” continental margins such as that of eastern North America, the aggradation and degradation processes probably operate at a slower rate; they are stimulated primarily by changes in sediment supply caused by climatic changes or by occasional intraplate earthquakes. The North American continental margin has long been a “type area” for studies of submarine sedimentary features and the processes that formed them, including canyon incision (Veatch and Smith, 1939), turbidity currents (Heezen and Ewing, 1952), and contour currents (Heezen and others, 1966). Although slumping has always been considered an important process on the upper continental slope and in canyon heads, only within the past few years has it been recognized that slumps and slides are ubiquitous on the continental slope and upper rise and that mass- wasting products are an important component of the deep-water Pleistocene sedimentary sequence (Embley and Jacobi, 1977; Knebel and Carson, 1979; Embley, 1980). It also has only recently been appreciated how important such factors as jointing and biological erosion are to failure of consolidated sediments on steep slopes in the deep ocean. This chapter describes our present state of knowledge of mass-wasting processes in the provinces of the North American margin and basin.With increasing oil exploration in deeper water,

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