Baas, JH, Best, J and Peakall, J orcid.org/0000-0003-3382-4578 (2021) Rapid gravity flow transformation revealed in a single climbing ripple. Geology, 49 (5). pp. 493-497. ISSN 0091-7613
Abstract
Sediment gravity flows demonstrate a wide range of rheological behaviors, and past work has shown how transformations between flow types generate spatiotemporal changes in the resultant sedimentary successions. We used the geometrical characteristics of a single climbing ripple to demonstrate how such flows can transform from a turbulent to a quasi-laminar plug flow, with the transitional clay flow sequence being manifested by abnormally large heterolithic sand-clay current ripples with small backflow ripples, and then abundant clay deposition associated with smaller ripples. Analysis of ripple size, angle of climb, grain size, internal erosional surfaces, and soft-sediment deformation suggests that transformation in the rheological character of the sediment gravity flow was rapid, occurring over a period of tens of minutes, and thus probably over a spatial scale of hundreds of meters to several kilometers. Our study indicates how the character of flow transformation can be elucidated from the details of a small-scale sedimentary structure.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 Geological Society of America. This is an author produced version of an article published in Geology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Applied Geosciences (IAG) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NER/A/S/2002/00824 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Nov 2020 14:14 |
Last Modified: | 08 Feb 2022 09:35 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Geological Society of America |
Identification Number: | 10.1130/G48181.1 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:167385 |