The Labrador Shelf and upper continental slope are commonly referred to as ‘Iceberg Alley’, a reference to the 2500–3000 icebergs transported southeastwards past Makkovik Bank (Fig. 1a) every year in the Labrador Current (Fig. 1b) from outlet glaciers in Greenland and eastern Arctic Canada (Miller & Hotzel 1984). The larger icebergs are known to contact the seabed from ship-based and satellite observations of stationary grounded icebergs in the midst of currents, winds and moving sea-ice. The bathymetric details of seafloor relief arising from multiple generations of iceberg–seabed interaction events are evident in multibeam images of the NW crest and flank of Makkovik Bank from less than 90 m to more than 250 m water depth.
Iceberg ploughmarks on Makkovik Bank, Labrador Shelf. (a) Multibeam image showing iceberg ploughmarks. Acquisition system Kongsberg EM1000. Frequency 95 kHz. Grid-cell size 7 m. White line is 140 m isobath. (b) Location of study area (red box; map from GEBCO_08). MB, Makkovik Bank; LMT, Labrador Marginal Trough. Yellow arrows show path of Labrador Current. (c) Bathymetric profile x–x′, located in (a). VE×22. (d) Bathymetric profile y–y′, located in (a). The seabed has relief of up to 7 m. VE×11. (e) Detailed image …
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