The Seafloor Morphology Offshore Cide-Sinop, Southern Black Sea

Abstract

Summary The multi-beam echosounder data were collected in the southern Black Sea shelf between 2002 and 2008 by the Turkish Navy, Department of Navigation, Hydrography and Oceanography and studied under the research project of Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Project no. TUBITAK-114Y057). Multi-beam ASCII data were exported to vector points. The data covers an area of 2.59 km2 and elevations range from −2 to −503 m. The multi-beam points were interpolated into DEM of pixel size 5 m, using Topo-to-Raster interface of ArcGIS software. The bottom morphology offshore Cide-Sinop shelf is quite smooth plain with an approx. 25 km wide and −100 m water depth. The continental shelf edge is around −120 m isobath. Slope angles from 0 to 1 degree at the shelf plain, increases about to 40 degrees along the shelf slope. Some landslides are mapped in this zone. The shelf plain is widely characterized by sand dunes with an average height of 10 m. These hills are separated from each other by flat plains. The hills and plains are interpreted as the sand dunes and submarine plains which probably evolved during aeolian processes. These results are thought that the shelf plain was once a terrestrial landscape.