An in situ study of abyssal turbidity-current sediment plumes generated by a deep seabed polymetallic nodule mining preprototype collector vehicle
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sciadv.abn1219.pdf
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1.13 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
f3023dec5bf6f71fc1c5b7e5d69020eb
Author(s)
Muñoz-Royo, Carlos
Ouillon, Raphael
El Mousadik, Souha
Alford, Matthew H.
Peacock, Thomas
Date Issued
September 23, 2022
Journal
Science Advances
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Citation
Carlos Muñoz-Royo et al. ,An in situ study of abyssal turbidity-current sediment plumes generated by a deep seabed polymetallic nodule mining preprototype collector vehicle.Sci. Adv.8,eabn1219(2022).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
An in situ study to investigate the dynamics of sediment plumes near the release from a deep seabed polymetallic nodule mining preprototype collector vehicle was conducted in the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean 4500-m deep. The experiments reveal that the excess density of the released sediment-laden water leads to a low-lying, laterally spreading turbidity current. At the time of measurement, 2 to 8% of the sediment mass were detected 2 m or higher above the seabed and were not observed to settle over several hours, with the remaining 92 to 98% below 2 m and some fraction of that locally deposited. Our results suggest that turbidity current dynamics sets the fraction of sediment remaining suspended and the scale of the subsequent ambient sediment plume. The implications of this process, which is characteristically overlooked in previous modeling efforts, are substantial for plume modeling that will lie at the heart of environmental impact statements for regulatory consideration.
Subjects
Multidisciplinary
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn1219
