First source-to-sink monitoring shows dense head controls sediment flux and runout in turbidity currents
Pope, Ed L.; Cartigny, Matthieu J.B.; Clare, Michael A.; Talling, Peter J.; Lintern, D. Gwyn; Vellinga, Age; Hage, Sophie; Açikalin, Sanem; Bailey, Lewis; Chapplow, Natasha; Chen, Ye; Eggenhuisen, Joris T.; Hendry, Alison; Heerema, Catharina J.; Heijnen, Maarten S.; Hubbard, Stephen M.; Hunt, James E.; McGhee, Claire; Parsons, Daniel R.; Simmons, Stephen M.; Stacey, Cooper D.; Vendettuoli, Daniela
(2022) Science advances, volume 8, issue 20, pp. 1 - 17
(Article)
Abstract
Until recently, despite being one of the most important sediment transport phenomena on Earth, few direct measurements of turbidity currents existed. Consequently, their structure and evolution were poorly understood, particularly whether they are dense or dilute. Here, we analyze the largest number of turbidity currents monitored to date from source
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to sink. We show sediment transport and internal flow characteristic evolution as they runout. Observed frontal regions (heads) are fast (>1.5 m/s), thin (<10 m), dense (depth averaged concentrations up to 38% vol), strongly stratified, and dominated by grain-to-grain interactions, or slower (<1 m/s), dilute (<0.01% vol), and well mixed with turbulence supporting sediment. Between these end-members, a transitional flow head exists. Flow bodies are typically thick, slow, dilute, and well mixed. Flows with dense heads stretch and bulk up with dense heads transporting up to 1000 times more sediment than the dilute body. Dense heads can therefore control turbidity current sediment transport and runout into the deep sea.
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Keywords: General
ISSN: 2375-2548
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Note: Funding Information: received from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant no. 725955). S.H. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 899546. C.J.H. and M.S.H. were funded under the Marie-Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 721403–ITN Slate. We acknowledge NERC funding (NE/M017540/1). Author contributions: M.J.B.C., M.A.C., P.J.T., D.G.L., S.H., S.A., L.B., N.C., Y.C., J.T.E., A.H., C.J.H., M.S.H., S.M.H., J.E.H., C.M., D.R.P., S.M.S., C.D.S., and D.V. collected the data. E.L.P., M.J.B.C., and M.A.C. analyzed the data. E.L.P., M.J.B.C., and M.A.C. wrote the manuscript and produced the figures, with contributions from all authors. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper are available online at the Dataverse (https:// doi.org/10.7910/DVN/7R5VWT). Funding Information: Acknowledgments: The crews and shipboard parties of the RV John Strickland and CCGS Vector are thanked for help in deploying and collecting the numerous moorings as part of this project. A. Densmore is thanked for looking over an early version of this manuscript. C. van Rhee and L. van Rijn are thanked for contributions with regard to applying the sediment transport models. We would like to thank the editor (P. Bierman), D. Piper, and two anonymous reviewers for the in-depth reviews that improved this manuscript. Funding: E.L.P. was supported by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2018-267). M.J.B.C. was supported by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship (DHF/R1/180166). M.A.C. was supported by the U.K. National Capability NERC CLASS program (NERC grant no. NE/ R015953/1) and NERC grants (NE/P009190/1 and NE/P005780/1). D.R.P. acknowledges funding Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 The Authors,
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