Water-Escape Sea Floor Depressions

Water-escape sea floor depressions occur on glaciated shelves in: (1) ice proximal areas where glacial ice becomes buried by sediment and later melts; (2) areas of rapidly loaded sediments; and (3) fjords where ground water driven by large hydrostatic pressure from surrounding mountains enters from beneath the glacimarine sediments (Sadler and Serson, 1980). Seismic imagery was collected in 1982 in McBeth Fiord, Baffin Island, over a 535 m deep sea floor using an air gun (Fig. 1) and Huntec (DTS®) Boomer (Fig. 2). Survey lines were run at speeds of 4–5 kmhr-1, positioned by radar (Figs. 3 and 4).