Deep Sea Sedimentary Systems Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering the drivers, components, and physics of deep-sea sedimentary systems based on lecture notes.

Grand Banks earthquake (1929)

An event that caused the severing of submarine telegraph cables up to $700\,km$ away, $13$ hours after the initial tremor, with recorded speeds reaching $7.7\,m/sec$.

Turbidite systems

The systems through which most deep-sea sediment is supplied.

Eustatic lowstand

A driver of slope sediment erosion tied to climatic changes or sea level drops.

Autocyclic migration

The movement of sheet sands and channels that changes dispersal systems on the basin floor.

Submarine canyons

Conduits for sediment deposition in the deep ocean, more commonly found on the steep slopes of active margins.

Upwards formation (Submarine Canyons)

The creation of canyons caused by headward erosion of the continental slope by mass wasting and retrogressive slumping.

Downwards formation (Submarine Canyons)

The creation of canyons through erosion by turbidity currents sourced from the continental shelf, often associated with riverine systems.

Submarine fans

Accumulations of sediment deposited at the termini of land-to-deep-sea sediment routing systems, such as the Indus Fan or Bengal Fan.

Slides

Mass movements involving large, intact blocks moving on a slippage plane.

Slumps

Mass movements similar to slides but characterized by blocks that may break up into smaller pieces.

Debris Flows

A type of mass movement where laminar flow leads to an unsorted deposit.

Turbidity Currents

Submarine flows characterized by turbulent flow that leads to sorted deposits, known as Bouma Divisions.

Reynolds Number ($R$)

The ratio of viscous to inertial forces used to determine if a flow is turbulent or laminar.

Laminar flow

A flow state that occurs when the Reynolds Number ($R$) is small and viscous forces dominate.

Turbulent flow

A flow state that occurs when the Reynolds Number ($R$) is large and inertial forces dominate.