Morpho-Bathymetric Map of the Eastern Mediterranean

Morpho-Bathymetric Map of the Eastern Mediterranean

This morpho-bathymetric synthesis of the Eastern Mediterranean has been constructed from a 100m Digital Terrain Model (DTM) based on bathymetry data from various vessels of peri-Mediterranean institutes and agencies, acquired from often different multibeam systems. Nevertheless, it can be estimated that beyond water depths of 2000m, more than 90% of the basin floor could be mapped in detail by these systems.

The map was essentially constructed to illustrate, through these precise data, the variety of active geological processes (sedimentary, tectonic, fluid escape, magmatic) that shape and leave their spectacular footprints on the seabed of the eastern Mediterranean basin.

The graphical choices favour the detailed representation of the morphologies resulting from these processes in the four major geologically active domains of the basin from west to east: a) the Calabrian Prism (north of the Ionian Sea), b) the Mediterranean Wrinkle (central domain), c) the Nile Cone (north of the Egyptian coast) and d) Mount Eratosthenes (south of the island of Cyprus)

Outside the areas covered by this DTM, the map was completed with data from GEBCO (http://www.gebco.net/data_and_products/gebco_digital_atlas/) and the EMODNET project (http://www.emodnet-hydrography.eu/).

Plusieurs artefacts provenant de l’utilisation de ces données (visibilité de la grille notamment) sont décelables sur la plupart des domaines de marges continentales non cartographiées par systèmes multifaisceaux, ainsi que dans le sud de la Mer Adriatique. Par ailleurs, il n’a pas été possible de corriger systématiquement l’ensemble des défauts non linéaires de calage en Z entre les divers jeux de données du MNT à 100m; ces défauts résultent soit de la juxtaposition de données provenant de systèmes de cartographie multifaisceaux différents (sondeurs fonctionnant à des fréquences différentes), soit de corrections non identiques de la vitesse du son dans l’eau.

Morpho-Bathymetric Map of the Eastern Mediterranean