Deep-water (below wave base) processes, although generally hidden from
view, shape the sedimentary record of more than 65% of the Earth's
surface, including large parts of ancient mountain belts. This book aims
to inform advanced-level undergraduate and postgraduate students, and
professional Earth scientists with interests in physical oceanography
and hydrocarbon exploration and production, about many of the important
physical aspects of deep-water (mainly deep-marine) systems. The authors
consider transport and deposition in the deep sea, trace-fossil
assemblages, and facies stacking patterns as an archive of the
underlying controls on deposit architecture (e.g., seismicity, climate
change, autocyclicity). Topics include modern and ancient deep-water
sedimentary environments, tectonic settings, and how basinal and
extra-basinal processes generate the typical characteristics of basin
slopes, submarine canyons, contourite mounds and drifts, submarine fans,
basin floors and abyssal plains.