MORPHOMETRIC METHODOLOGY FOR CHARACTERIZING SUBMARINE DRAINAGE NETWORKS: EAST SCOTIAN SLOPE CANYON SYSTEM, OFFSHORE NOVA SCOTIA

Modern, clastic deepwater systems in low latitudes have been extensively studied based on their hydrocarbon potential, but less is known about pro-glacially influenced deepwater environments. This project will focus on detecting relevant morphological changes along the East Scotian Canyon System (ESCS), offshore Nova Scotia. Submarine drainage networks were extracted from a multi-beam bathymetry dataset of 25-meter grid size and were analyzed in ArcGIS to provide a morphometric methodology to characterize submarine drainage networks at fine resolution scales. Following the Horton-Strahler method, main morphometric parameters (number of streams, streams length, and axial slope gradient) were calculated for each stream segment. Quantitative analyses used for terrestrial fluvial drainage networks such as drainage area, drainage density, stream frequency, basin relief and accumulated stream length parameters were conducted to characterize the system. This work has the potential to expand existing models for deepwater processes and resulting submarine drainage networks to high-latitude margins influenced by proglacial sedimentary processes.