Turbidity currents and turbidites: towards quantitative interpretation and prediction of process and product.

Abstract:

Many decades of studies of deposits and seascapes formed by turbidity currents have established a robust observational framework that demonstrates that depositional and morphological patterns are repeated through time and space. The process-modeling community has similarly made progress in the understanding of the distribution of suspended sediment, velocity, and turbulence in turbidity currents, together shaping the “flow structure”. Thus, now is the time to integrate, and investigate in more detail how the process of sediment erosion, transport, and deposition by turbidity currents is related to observed systematics in the physical products preserved in the geological record.

Here we review recent breakthroughs in theoretical understanding of turbulent suspended sediment transport capacity. These breakthroughs allow us to understand the coupling between the flow field of turbidity currents, the kinematics of which have long been established, and the carrying capacity of sediment. This leads to robust first order estimators of the velocity and suspended sediment distribution within turbidity currents. These estimators can be applied straightforwardly to investigate natural systems. Two types of examples are explored: application to modern seafloor systems results in sediment budget estimations of natural turbidity current channels and canyons. Application to ancient turbidite deposits in the rock record displays how the present state of understanding can be used for quantitative process inversion from the product. This should ultimately lead to predictive capabilities of rock-body characteristics in the subsurface.