Offshore sands

Many middle and outer continental shelves around the world are covered, at depths from about 50 m to more than 200 m, with sand deposits, a few decimeters to more than 50 m thick. These sands are often remolded by tidal or unidirectional currents and/or storms and form longitudinal sand ridges (or sand banks of some authors) or transverse dunes. They may also appear as large sand sheets (with or without superimposed bed forms) forming a “sand belt” roughly parallel to the shelf edge. Understanding these deposits requires taking into account both present day sediment dynamics and Late Pleistocene glacio-eustatic and sediment flux changes. …