Mid-Holocene extinction of cold-water corals on the Namibian shelf steered by the Benguela oxygen minimum zone

An exceptionally large cold-water coral mound province (CMP) was recently discovered extending over 80 km along the Namibian shelf (offshore southwestern Africa) in water depths of 160–270 m. This hitherto unknown CMP comprises >2000 mounds with heights of up to 20 m and constitutes the largest CMP known from the southeastern Atlantic Ocean. Uranium-series dating revealed a short but intense pulse in mound formation during the early to...