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Bathymetry and Canyons of the western Solomon Sea

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Abstract

The floor of the western Solomon Sea (for new bathymetric map see inside back cover of this issue) is dominated by the arched and ridged basement of the Solomon Sea Basin, the partly-sediment-filled New Britain Trench, and a more completely filled trench, the Trobriand Trough. There is a deep basin where the trenches join (149° Embayment), and a silled basin west of the New Britain Trench (Finsch Deep). Submarine canyons descend from the west and south to the 149° Embayment. Abyssal fans and plains are structurally defined and locally disturbed by young faults. Probable submerged pinnacle reefs stand in water depths as great as 1,200 m.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Canberra, Australia

    H. L. Davies & J. E. Stuart

  2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    J. B. Keene

  3. Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, Yokosuka, Japan

    K. Hashimoto

  4. Geological Survey of Japan, Tsukuba, Japan

    M. Joshima

  5. CCOP/SOPAC, Suva, Fiji

    D. L. Tiffin

Authors
  1. H. L. Davies
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  2. J. B. Keene
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  3. K. Hashimoto
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  4. M. Joshima
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  5. J. E. Stuart
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  6. D. L. Tiffin
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Davies, H.L., Keene, J.B., Hashimoto, K. et al. Bathymetry and Canyons of the western Solomon Sea. Geo-Marine Letters 6, 181–191 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02239579

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02239579

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