SEISMIC IDENTIFICATION OF THE HOLOCENE MUD CLINOFORM IN WESTERN YELLOW SEA

The instantaneous amplitude variation and instantaneous phase anomaly of the single channel seismic profiles reveal the form and distribution of the Holocene mud clinoform off the Shandong Peninsula. The mud clinoform is thick in middle and thin at wedge, while the seafloor where it is covered has obviously risen to the peak and then lean to the shoreward with a smaller angle. The horizontal bottom interface cuts the underlying strata. The γ-shaped mud clinoform surrounds the Shandong Peninsula, spreading to east and south from northeast Peninsula, and extending to south and southwest after bypassing eastern part of the Peninsula. It becomes thicker from the offshore to far shore, and the maximum thickness locations are in the northeast and southwest of Shandong Peninsula (more than 60 m), and with these two locations as centers it changes gradually thinner and thinner. It covers about 36 111 km2 of the seafloor, and with the volume about 440 km3 and mass about 527×109 t. The average sediment volume of the mud clinoform area may reach more than 0.37×109 t/a ever since 11 cal. ka BP.