A study of the contourite depositional model of the middle slope of the Gulf of Cadiz is presented within the regional morphosedimentary and stratigraphic framework of the continental margin. The margin is characterized by: a) a lack of submarine canyons (except in the Algarve margin); b) a large slope in which the middle slope is dominated by along-slope processes related to the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) and generating the Contourite Depositional System (CDS) during the Pliocene and Quaternary; c) the dominance of down-slope processes across parts of the upper and lower slope and abyssal plain; d) the lack of true continental rise; and e) an active compressive structural context where the "Cadiz Allocthonous Unit" represents an unstable substratum for the late Miocene, Pliocene and Quaternary sedimentation. The CDS on the Gulf of Cadiz's middle slope comprises five major morphosedimentary sectors related to the progressive deceleration of the MOW, bathymetric stress on the margin, and the Coriolis force. The CDS of the Gulf of Cadiz can be interpreted as a mixed Contourite-turbidite system (a detached combined drift system), which has developed in a mid-slope setting. This is rather different from the principal contourite systems along parts of the Northwest Atlantic margins, where the along-slope processes are developed in a more distal part of the mixed system. There may be closer similarities with the drift systems along the NW Hebridean margin

VI Congreso Geológico de España, 12-15 julio 2004, Zaragoza.-- 4 pages, 3 figures

Peer reviewed