Submarine canyons are prime conduits for sediment-laden flows that link terrestrial sediment sources with deep-marine depocenters. If the distance between the canyon head and the shore is short, terrestrial sediment, associated pollutants and organic carbon is efficiently delivered to the deep ocean. The efficiency of sediment routing from land to the ocean depends on the position of submarine canyon heads with regard to terrestrial sediment sources. However, the detailed controls on why a submarine canyon is incised into the shelf or why it remained connected or became disconnected from terrestrial sediment supply during rising sea level are poorly understood.
In this dataset, we identified 4717 canyon heads a long the major continents between 50°N and 50°S (excluding islands). We assigned 55 variables to these submarine canyon heads, including terrestrial and marine topographic variables, oceanographic variables, lithologic variables of the onshore catchments, and canyon topographic variables. These data can be used to better understand the geomorphology and extent of submarine canyons and their connectivity to terrestrial sediment sources.