Submarine fans

Submarine fans

A submarine fan is a sedimentary deposit formed by debris flows and high-concentration turbidity currents in deeper water, slope apron, and submarine channel systems. These sediments are carried into deep water by turbidity currents and are less likely to be reworked by other currents, resulting in the formation of well-documented "turbidites" in deep-water submarine fans.From: Sedimentary Rocks in the Field [2019], Sedimentology in metamorphic rocks, the Willyama Supergroup, Broken Hill, Australia [2018]

Process-based approach on tidal inlet evolution – Part 1

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Published in C. Marjolein Dohmen-Janssen, Suzanne J.M.H. Hulscher, River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics: RCEM 2007, 2019

D.M.P.K. Dissanayake, J.A. Roelvink

1 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to produce net-erosional, self-sustaining turbidity currents in an experimental flume. Turbidity currents are a type of density flow. They constitute one of main processes transporting sediments from shallow to deep regions in the submarine environment (Kneller and Buckee, 2000). Turbidity currents are often sufficiently self-sustaining to flow several hundreds kilometers and form huge submarine fans (e.g. Walker, 1978). For instance, the 1929 Grand Banks turbidity current was sustained more than 13 hours (Piper et al., 1985).

Sedimentology in metamorphic rocks, the Willyama Supergroup, Broken Hill, Australia

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Journal Information

Published in Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2018

B. P. J. Stevens, G. M. Bradley

The classic turbidite model is now being modified and/or overturned by abundant new data from offshore petroleum exploration cores of submarine fan systems, and oceanographic measurement of deep-sea bottom currents (water depths 46–4200 m) (Shanmugam, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2012). In the classic turbidite paradigm, sequences typically exhibit graded bedding, load casts, flute and groove casts, and flame structures. It was thought that these sediments were carried into deep water by turbidity currents, where the ‘turbidites’ were less likely to be reworked by other currents, and such ‘turbidites’ are a well-documented component of deep-water submarine fans.

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Process-based approach on tidal inlet evolution – Part 1

Sedimentology in metamorphic rocks, the Willyama Supergroup, Broken Hill, Australia