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Bathymetry of the South African continental shelf

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Abstract

Detailed knowledge of shelf bathymetry is essential for understanding the long-term geological evolution of continental margins, the extent of the coastal plain as the shoreline moved in response to Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations, and for ecosystems management, resource exploration, and navigation. Although some areas have been mapped in detail, most South African shelf bathymetry is poorly resolved. This paper presents a bathymetric map of the South African continental shelf derived from digital single-beam echo-sounding data collected by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) that is at a significantly higher resolution than was previously available as presented by Dingle et al. (Annals of the South African Museum 98:1–27, 1987). The bathymetric dataset consists of approximately 7 million data sonar points collected by the Fisheries Division of DAFF over the last two decades, covering the entire South African continental shelf area of 541,000 km2 between the Orange River mouth on the West Coast and Kosi Bay on the East Coast. The new map not only resolves known shelf bathymetric features in greater detail but also reveals new features. The origin of some bathymetric features remains unknown, but many appear to relate to bedrock geology, sediment deposition (river drainage systems and ocean currents), and sea-level fluctuations.

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Acknowledgements

The single-beam bathymetric data were collected by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) during the last two decades, on board the vessels F.R.S. Africana II and F.R.S. Algoa, and we gratefully acknowledge their entire staff and crew for their skill, hard work, and dedication. We would especially like to thank Janet Coetzee and Dagmar Merkle from DAFF, as well as Rochelle Wigley, Hayley Cawthra, Michael MacHutchon, and Wilhelm Van Zyl of the Council for Geoscience Marine Geoscience Unit for their various contributions in the form of software licenses, datasets, professional help, and expertise. We thank the editor (Andrew Green) and the two reviewers for their valuable input and suggestions that significantly improved this paper.

Funding

This research project was funded by the Marine Research Institute (MARE) at the University of Cape Town in the form of a MARE Basics Bursary.

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  1. Marine Research Institute and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa

    Willem Myburgh de Wet & John S. Compton

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de Wet, W.M., Compton, J.S. Bathymetry of the South African continental shelf. Geo-Mar Lett 41, 40 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-021-00701-y

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