Middle to late Pleistocene palaeoceanography inferred from ridge-furrow structures on the continental slope offshore Angola

3D seismic reflection data have been used to map 784 enigmatic ridge-furrow structures in water depths of 0.8–1.7 km offshore Angola. The are characterised by asymmetric ridges with intervening furrows, typically <0.5–5.5 long, a sinuous bifurcating planform. furrows well-imaged on profiles, and range from 60 80 m width, up 10 amplitude, 0.1–1 wavelength. furrow sets aggrade downslope direction occur arrays that an internally consistent is either parallel, or slightly diverging converging. Two alternative origins considered: (1) dominantly erosional scours formed seafloor-incising currents flowing parallel the by-product erosion, (2) ridge-furrows bottom-current generated dune-type sediment waves. latter interpretation allows us reconstruct key component deepwater bottom-currents regime along this continental margin Middle Pleistocene present-day. most likely transport agent responsible for interpreted waves palaeo-bottom-current flow toward west-southwest/south-southwest, same wave migration. palaeo-bottom would then be expected very specific 1 < Frmax 2 may originate longshore cascading off shelf, Congo Canyon distal overflows, breaking internal combination these processes.