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Pulse propagation in turbidity currents
Author(s) -
Ho Viet Luan,
Dorrell Robert M.,
Keevil Gareth M.,
Burns Alan D.,
McCaffrey William D.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
sedimentology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.494
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1365-3091
pISSN - 0037-0746
DOI - 10.1111/sed.12397
Subject(s) - geology , turbidity current , merge (version control) , turbidite , flow (mathematics) , submarine , geomorphology , point bar , petrology , geophysics , oceanography , mechanics , sedimentary depositional environment , fluvial , sediment , physics , structural basin , computer science , information retrieval
Submarine turbidity currents are a key mechanism in the transportation of clastic sediments to deep seas. Such currents may initiate with a complex longitudinal flow structure comprising flow pulses (for example, by being sourced from retrogressive sea floor slope failures) or acquire such structure during run‐out (for example, following flow combination downstream of confluences). A key question is how far along channel pathway complex flow structure is preserved within turbidity currents as they run out and thus if flow initiation mechanism and proximity to source may be inferred from the vertical structure of their deposits. To address this question, physical modelling of saline flows has been conducted to investigate the dynamics of single‐pulsed versus multi‐pulsed density driven currents. The data suggest that, under most circumstances, individual pulses within a multi‐pulsed flow must merge. Therefore, initiation signatures will only be preserved in deposits upstream of the merging point and may be distorted approaching it; downstream of the merging point, all initiation signals will be lost. This new understanding of merging phenomenon within multi‐pulsed gravity currents broadens our ability to interpret multi‐pulsed turbidites.