The water depths range from about 66 meters in the southwest up to 308 meters in the northeast, with an average slope of approximately 0.4% (0.25 grades) to the east-northeast. The relief of the seabed is generally irregular and includes frequent scarps related with faulting and erosion.[1]
Geology
The seabed in general is composed mainly of very soft clays. The geologic features in this area include normal faults with northwest-southeast orientation, a system of exposed and buried reefs that cross the area from the
northwest toward the southeast, gas pockets trapped in faults and shallow strata at different levels of depth, paleo-channels, abrupt erosional slopes and scarps associated with submarine debris flows and faulting. Several side scan sonar targets are interpreted as scattered small debris.[2]
^Imbrie, J. y Van Andel, TH. (1964), “Vector analysis of heavy mineral data”. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 75 (11): 1131 – 1156.
^Deiros, D. Sackett, D. Malavé, G , Study of the shallow geological conditions, seabed and its potential impact for the development of the exploitation of natural gas in the Venezuelan Plataforma Deltana Geophysical Congress, Caracas (2002).