Seabed seismographs reveal duration and structure of longest runout sediment flows on earth

Baker, Megan L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8003-3587; Talling, Peter J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5234-0398; Burnett, Richard; Pope, Ed L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2090-2971; Ruffell, Sean C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8855-9452; Urlaub, Morelia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1116-636X; Clare, Michael A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-3878; Jenkins, Jennifer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8531-8656; Dietze, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6063-1726; Neasham, Jeffrey ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6059-9826; Silva Jacinto, Ricardo; Hage, Sophie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0010-4208; Hasenhündl, Martin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8971-7427; Simmons, Steve M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0519-1470; Heerema, Catharina J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6948-6243; Heijnen, Maarten S.; Kunath, Pascal; Cartigny, Matthieu J. B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6446-5577; McGhee, Claire; Parsons, Daniel R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5142-4466. 2024 Seabed seismographs reveal duration and structure of longest runout sediment flows on earth. Geophysical Research Letters, 51 (23). 10.1029/2024GL111078

Before downloading, please read NORA policies.

Preview

Text © 2024. The Author(s).This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Geophysical Research Letters - 2024 - Baker - Seabed Seismographs Reveal Duration and Structure of Longest Runout Sediment.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract/Summary

Turbidity currents carve the deepest canyons on Earth, deposit its largest sediment accumulations, and break seabed telecommunication cables. Powerful canyon-flushing turbidity currents break sensors placed in their path, making them notoriously challenging to measure, and thus poorly understood. This study provides the first remote measurements of canyon-flushing flows, using ocean-bottom seismographs located outside the flow's destructive path, revolutionizing flow monitoring. We recorded the internal dynamics of the longest sediment flows yet monitored on Earth, which traveled >1,000 km down the Congo Canyon-Channel at 3.7–7.6 m s−1 and lasted >3 weeks. These observations allow us to test fundamental models for turbidity current behavior and reveal that flows contain dense and fast frontal-zones up to ∼400 km in length. These frontal-zones developed near-uniform durations and speeds for hundreds of kilometres despite substantial seabed erosion, enabling flows to rapidly transport prodigious volumes of organic carbon, sediment, and warm water to the deep-sea.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1029/2024GL111078
ISSN:	0094-8276
Additional Keywords:	seismic monitoring, turbidity currents, ocean fluxes, ocean-bottom seismographs, organic carbon
Date made live:	09 Jan 2025 12:48 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/538670

Actions (login required)

View Item

Document Downloads

More statistics for this item...