NORTHERN GULF-OF-MEXICO CONTINENTAL-SLOPE

The hummocky continental slope in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico is the result of active salt tectonism and accompanying faulting. Fluid and gassy hydrocarbons rise through the sediment column and along faults causing the formation of gas hydrates, gassy sediments, mud volcanoes and mounds, chemosynthetic communities and authigenic carbonates, reefs, and hardgrounds. Salt activity coupled with processes associated with relative sea level fluctuations create a feedback relationship resulting in the above-mentioned phenomena as well as others such as seafloor erosion at great water depths.