Scientists are making progress on illuminating how undersea sedimentary deposits called turbidites form and on reconstructing the complex histories they record. But it’s not an easy task.
turbidity & turbidites
Deep-Sea Sand and Where to Find It
Ancient underwater avalanches carried sand into the ocean’s abyss during a time when some least expected it.
New Mechanism for “Giant” Greigite Growth in Deep-Sea Sediments
Understanding greigite formation pathways in sediments is a prerequisite for assessing the marine iron-sulfur-carbon cycle and yield reliable near-syn-sedimentary paleomagnetic records.
Disentangling River Water Turbidity and its Flow
A new study shows why fine sediments in rivers are not simply proportional to the water flow across the United States.
River Floods Can Trigger Powerful Underwater Landslides
A record-length turbidity current triggered by river flooding has revealed a new link between the surface and the deep sea.
The Simple Usefulness of the Secchi Disk
A centuries-old sailor’s hack enters the ecologist’s toolkit.
Mapping a River Beneath the Sea
A recent expedition mapped one of the world’s longest submarine channels, revealing previously undiscovered physical features and raising questions about its unusual origin and shape.
Swipe Left on the “Big One”: Better Dates for Cascadia Quakes
Improving our understanding of hazards posed by future large earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone requires advancements in the methods and sampling used to date and characterize past events.
Experimenting with Underwater Sediment Slides
Sediment-laden currents caused by breaching flow slides are hazardous to flood defenses and seabed infrastructure. New research shows that these phenomena must be accounted for in erosion simulations.
Submarine Rivers of Sediment
Turbidity currents move suspended sediment into the ocean. In general, the more sediment, the stronger the turbidity current, but one process may generate turbidity currents from very dilute rivers.