Landslides in the North Atlantic and its adjacent seas: an analysis of their morphology, setting and behaviour

A unique and comprehensive collection of submarine landslide data from different tectonic environments in the North Atlantic, based on published literature and industry sources, is analysed in order to establish possible relationships between landslide parameters and evaluate their potential importance. Slope failures in the western North Atlantic appear to be more frequent, and apart from a few huge failure complexes, on average smaller than those found in the eastern North Atlantic. On the other hand, failures tend to occur on lower slopes in the eastern North Atlantic. This trend could be used to conclude information about the sediment strata of the landslides in these two areas; long slides seem to consist of softer, more fluid, material, whereas short failures might contain of more stiff sediments. It is also found that a majority of failures on both sides of the Atlantic are generated in a water depth window between 1000 and 1300 m, bringing internal waves and/or gas hydrates into play as possible contributing factors. Failures in fjords are generally influenced and limited by the geometry of the environment they occur in.