Quantifying turbidity current interactions with topography

Abstract

This thesis advances our understanding of how transport properties of turbidity currents are mediated by interactions with seafloor topography, specifically channelized surfaces. Turbidity currents are responsible for crafting the morphology of continental margins. Unfortunately, very few direct observations exists defining turbidity current interactions with submarine channels and canyons because infrequent occurrence, great water depths, and high current velocities make measurements difficult to obtain. To overcome this problem, I utilize reduced scale laboratory experiments, remote sensing of the seafloor and subsurface deposits, and numerical analysis of transport processes. I focus on resolving the topography and composition of the evolving water-sediment interface with additional measurements that characterize the sediment transport and flow fields. I begin by quantifying interactions between turbidity currents and channel-bounding levees. Levees are the primary elements of self-formed channels and act to confine flows within channels, thereby increasing transport efficiency. I quantify the morphology and growth of levees in a submarine channel network offshore Borneo. Levee deposit trends are interpreted using laboratory observations and a morphodynamic model describing levee growth. Channel and levee deposits resulting from interactions between turbidity currents and sinuous submarine channels are then studied using reduced-scale laboratory experiments. Measurements of current superelevation in channel bends are used to illustrate the importance of current runup onto the outer banks of channel bends. This runup resulted in focused overbank flow and production of thick, coarse, steep levees at these sites.

(cont.) Additional laboratory experiments illustrate the importance of current-channel bend interactions to the runout length of turbidity currents. I observed enhanced mixing in channel bends that reduced proximal deposition rates in sinuous channels compared to straight channels. I hypothesize that a wholesale vertical mixing of suspended sediment within turbidity currents at channel bends is a necessary condition for the construction of submarine channels greater than 100 km in length. Finally, I document the deepening of submarine canyons under net depositional conditions using an industry-grade seismic volume from the continental slope offshore Borneo. Interpretation of seismic horizons suggests deposition resulted from sheet-like turbidity currents, highlighting the importance of unconfined currents to the evolution of seascapes.