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The seismic potential of the Lesser Antilles subduction zone is poorly known and highly debated. Only two damaging earthquakes have been reported in the historical period, in 1839 and 1843, but their sources and magnitude are still uncertain. Global Navigation Satellite Systems and coral data contradict each other, and no conclusion has been reached on the coupling ratio of the plate interface. Given the threat posed by the possible occurrence of a large megathrust earthquake, it is crucial to gain information on prehistorical events. We present the results of a submarine paleoseismological study that covers an exceptional ∼120 Kyr‐long period. We studied the sediments sampled in six up to 26 m‐long piston cores collected in deep fore‐arc basins located over the epicentral region of the 1843 earthquake. Using a multiproxy approach combining geophysical, geochemical, and sedimentological analysis, biostratigraphy and radiocarbon dating, we identified, characterized, and dated numerous event deposits that we then correlated with the sampled basins over an up to 160 km‐long area. We show that at least 33 earthquakes likely triggered these sediment remobilizations in the last 120 Kyr. Four of these events promoted exceptional deposits of turbidites + homogenites. From peak ground acceleration calculated for potential earthquakes occurring on various faults, and the absence of deposits linked to the historical earthquakes, we propose that the sources are likely megathrust earthquakes. Over the last 60 Kyr, we inferred at least three 15–25 Kyr‐long seismic cycles in which the recurrence times of earthquakes shortens from ∼5 to ∼2 Kyr. Key Points: Paleoseismology based on identification of turbidites and homogenites along the Lesser Antilles subduction zoneSeveral megathrust earthquakes have been highlighted over the last 120 Kyrs offshore GuadeloupeFour major earthquakes triggered up to 8 m‐thick homogenite deposits [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on an unusual data set comprises bathymetric data, backscatter imagery, seismic-reflection and Chirp profiles, and sediment cores, the Late Quaternary lobe at the mouth of the youngest turbidite channel off the western Nile deep-sea fan was investigated. The large-scale construction of the lobe through time and space is mainly controlled by 1) a pre-existing topography inherited from the downslope movement of Messinian evaporites, and 2) the type and nature of gravity flows delivered to the basin floor. The margins of the lobe are defined by high-backscatter acoustic facies that contrasts strongly with the low-backscatter facies from the surrounding abyssal-plain deposits. Within the lobe, low-backscatter facies characterise the main channel-levee systems and lobate bodies immediately beyond the end of the channels. Cores reveal that the high-backscatter facies corresponds to a series of extensive but thin debris-flow deposits with a fingered margin. These debrites comprise a muddy-sand matrix and dispersed clasts with diameter of 5 to 10cm. The lower backscatter facies at channel mouths corresponds to alternations of thin sandy turbidites and muddy hemipelagites. Extensive thin debris flows therefore traversed surprisingly low gradients to reach the distal fringes of the lobe complex but are never found in the lobate bodies just beyond the channel mouths. Although the Nile deep-sea fan is considered as a silt/mud-rich accumulation, sand-prone deposits exist within the lobe. This sand/mud segregation results either from the presence of channelized features in the lobe and/or from the hydrodynamic process of particle transport by debris flows and turbulent flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract New high-resolution multibeam mapping images detail the southern part of Exuma Sound (Southeastern Bahamas), and its unchartered transition area to the deep abyssal plain of the Western North Atlantic, bounded by the Bahama Escarpment extending between San Salvador Island and Samana Cay. The transition area is locally referred to as Exuma Plateau. The newly established map reveals the detailed and complex morphology of a giant valley draining a long-lived carbonate platform from its upper slope down to the abyssal plain. This giant valley extends parallel to the slope of Long Island, Conception Island, and Rum Cay. It starts with a perched system flowing on top of a lower Cretaceous drowned main carbonate platform. The valley shows low sinuosity and is characterized by several bends and flow constrictions related to the presence of the small relict isolated platforms that kept alive longer than the main platform before drowning and merging tributaries. Turbidite levees on either side of the valley witness the pathway of multiple gravity flows, generated by upper slope over steepening around Exuma Sound through carbonate offbank transport, some of them locally >15°, and resulting slumping. In addition, additional periplatform sediments are transported to the main valley through numerous secondary slope gullies and several kilometre-long tributaries, draining the upper slopes of cays and islands surrounding Exuma Plateau. Some of them form knickpoints indicating surincision of the main Exuma Valley which is consistent with an important lateral supply of the main Exuma Valley. Prior to reaching the abyssal plain, the main valley abruptly evolves into a deep canyon, 5 km in width at its origin and as much as 10 km wide when it meets the abyssal plain, through two major knickpoints named "chutes" with outsized height exceeding several hundred of meters in height. Both chutes are associated with plunge pools, as deep as 200-m. In the deepest pools, the flows generate a hydraulic jump and resulting sediment accumulation. When the canyon opens to the San Salvador abyssal plain, the narrow, deep, and strong flows release significant volume of coarse-grained calcareous sediments in numerous turbidite layers interbedded with fine mixed siliciclastic and carbonate sediments transported by the Western Boundary Undercurrent (WBUC) along the Bahama Escarpment. Carbonate gravity flows exiting the canyon decelerate at the abyssal plain level and construct a several-kilometre-wide coarse-grained deep-sea turbidite system with well-developed lobe-shape levees, partially modified by the flow of strong contour-currents along the Bahama Escarpment. Highlights • Giant carbonate canyon fed by longitudinal and lateral supply • Importance of gravity-driven processes in a deep-water carbonate canyons • Transition valley – canyon through gigantic chutes • Development of a large carbonate-fed turbidite system • Cenomanian flooding of the Bahamian platform and relicts drowned keep-up banks [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Late Quaternary turbidite system growth along the Makran convergent margin is investigated through a set of deep-sea cores from upper slope and piggy-back basins to deep basin plain settings. High-resolution stratigraphy in these various depositional environments permits reconstruction of the evolution of sand-to-mud ratio, sedimentation rates, frequencies, and thickness of turbidite deposits during the last 25ka BP. This study demonstrates how tectonics, climate and eustasy can interplay at high resolution (<20ka) and control the input of terrigeneous sediment along the tectonically active Makran convergent margin, in a source-to-sink perspective. The Makran turbidite system growth has been continuous throughout sea-level lowstand, transgressive, and highstand conditions. However, the frequency, rates, and nature of sediment supply varied in response to climate, sea-level, and tectonically induced changes in source-to-sink sediment dispersal modes. These changes include conditions of sediment production and availability in the drainage basin, capacity of transport from fluvial systems, and rates of sediment storage on the shelf and upperslope areas. Climate in the hinterland appears as a first-order control on the properties of turbidity currents that feed the turbidite system, controlling the average sand-to-mud ratio in the deep water deposits. The onset of sea-level highstand after ∼8ka BP resulted in a notable change in turbidite system growth, characterized by the occurrence of large volume, thick turbidity currents (>300m thick along the continental slope) originated from successive, multiple slide or slump-induced surges. Their related deposits have low recurrence intervals, close to those calculated from the large magnitude earthquake and tsunami record in the Makran area. Comparison with the Nile and Indus turbidite systems growth during the Late Quaternary provides an evaluation of the relative importance of shared forcing parameters (i.e. monsoon-induced phases of arid/humid conditions and post-glacial sea-level rise), in significantly different basin settings. The Indus fan appears mainly controlled by eustasy during the last 25ka. Inversely, similarities are found between the Nile and Makran turbidite systems, where sea-level changes are modulated by the climate impact on fluvial dynamics in the hinterland. However, the Makran turbidite system growth is continuous through times, because both the uplift in the coastal area and the fluvial dynamics of short, mountainous river systems allow high sediment transfer rates to the marine basin, even though arid conditions and associated low water fluxes. Earthquake-induced highstand turbidite deposits form a thick sedimentary succession in the Oman abyssal plain, and are significant in the geologic record. This study finally illustrates how the complex interplay between external (allogenic) forcings can complicate the interpretation of high-resolution sedimentary successions in turbidite-filled basins. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]