THICKNESS VARIATION OF LEVEES DANUBE SUBMARINE CHANNEL IN THE BIFURCATION AREA TO THE CHANNEL COMPLEX FROM THE MID-DANUBE FAN (BLACK SEA).

In the northwestern Black Sea the Danube deep sea fan has an extent of over 150 km and stretches from several hundred meters water depth down to the abisal plain at 2,200 m water depth. The most recent channel-levee system is connected to the Viteaz Canyon, wich is deeply (500 m) incised into the shelf with the head at about 24 km landward of the shelf edge. Viteaz Canyon is 2.4 to 4 km wide, trending northwest-southeast, with stepped flanks and meandering erosional V-shaped thalveg, slightly sinous and unleeved valley. At about 800 m water depth, the upper slope canyon changes into a large single-leveed channel - Danube submarine channel -- that is feeding a deep water fan. The channel is 2.4 km wide (between the top of the levees) and 270 m deep between the channel floor and the top of the levees, measured at about 1200 m water depth. Below 1400 m water depth, the fan morphology is modified by the bifurcation of this single channel and a new meandering channel on NW-SE direction. In this study we propose to estimate the thickness variation of seismic facies that supports changes in the bifurcation area of the Danube submarine channel. This is possible following the seismic sections proposed for study, defining the main sedimentary facies and get morphological and thickness maps using the software Petrel and applying seismo-stratigraphic method. We will analyze the initiation of new channel NW-SE direction on the seismic sections and thickness and morphologic obtained maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]