Morphology, evolution and fill: Implications for sand and mud distribution in filling deep-water canyons and slope channel complexes

A model is produced to explain the mechanism and expression of backfilling in a large deep-water canyon system whose hinterland has been flooded back since glacial drawdown of sea level in the eastern Rockall Trough area. This model explains how sand may be trapped in large volumes in the upper reaches of a canyon system, due to slumping from the canyon margins and nearby upper slope regions. The focusing of sand deposition in areas where this is not usually expected will have important implications for hydrocarbon explorationists who wish to map the distribution of potential reservoir sand bodies within large, confined deep-water canyon systems.