CEE 598, GEOL 593

TURBIDITY CURRENTS: MORPHODYNAMICS AND DEPOSITS

LECTURE 4
ANALOGIES BETWEEN RIVER AND TURBIDITY
CURRENT MORPHOLOGY

Image courtesy J. W Lauer http://coastalmap.marine.usgs.gov/GISdata/regional/

1
GoMex/gloria/sidescan/aea/gif/250m/mos13.gif
 GULLIES IN THE SUBAERIAL AND SUBMARINE
ENVIRONMENT

NEEDS REFERENCE

Monterey Submarine Canyon

http://www.estuarypress.com/
2
group4.html
CHANNEL NETWORKS:
Subaerial examples
Drainage networks in north-central California

3
 SUBAERIAL
CHANNEL
NETWORK OF
THE FLY-
STRICKLAND
NEEDS REFERENCE RIVER SYSTEM,
NEW GUINEA

4
 SUBAERIAL
CHANNEL
NETWORK OF
THE JHED NADI
WATERSHED,
INDIA

How dense does a

drainage network have
to be in order to "cover"
the catchment?

5
CHANNEL NETWORKS:
Submarine examples

Trinidad Submarine Canyon,

Northern California.

6
SUBMARINE CHANNEL
NETWORK JUST SOUTH
OF MONTEREY
SUBMARINE CANYON,
CALIFORNIA

7
Courtesy MBARI
SUBMARINE CHANNEL NETWORKS OF THE
NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO

NEEDS REFERENCE

8
From Liu and Bryant
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

NEEDS REFERENCE

Rain in the subaerial environment

9
ANOTHER EXAMPLE: TIDAL CHANNEL NETWORKS

Coastal South
Carolina

Image courtesy Tao Sun, Sergio Barnstable Salt

Fagherazzi and David Furbish
Marsh, Cape Cod, 10
Massachusetts
 CHANNEL NETWORK ON MARS

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http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect19/
 CHANNEL NETWORK ON TITAN

Image courtesy European Space Agency and NASA

rivers of liquid methane carrying sediment of water ice

12
SUBAERIAL CANYON: GRAND CANYON, COLORADO
RIVER

NEEDS REFERENCE

13
SUBMARINE CANYON: MONTEREY CANYON

NEEDS REFERENCE

14
 SUBAERIAL FAN
DOMINATED BY RIVER
FLOW (FLUVIAL FAN)

NEEDS REFERENCE
Kosi Fan, India

15
 HISTORY OF
MIGRATION OF
THE KOSI FAN

NEEDS REFERENCE

16
NEEDS REFERENCE

THE OKAVANGO FAN,

BOTSWANA: ANOTHER
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FLUVIAL FAN
 THE AMAZON
SUBMARINE FAN: A FAN
NEEDS REFERENCE
CREATED BY TURBIDITY
CURRENTS

18
 THE CONGO SUBMARINE FAN: A FAN CREATED BY
TURBIDITY CURRENTS

19
Vittori et al., 2000
SUBAERIAL FANS IN
DEATH VALLEY,
CALIFORNIA
CREATED BY DEBRIS
FLOWS

NEEDS REFERENCE

20
SUBAERIAL HARVEY
CREEK FAN, NEW
GUINEA, CREATED BY
DEBRIS FLOWS

21
BEAR ISLAND TROUGH
MOUTH SUBMARINE
FAN. CREATED BY
SUBMARINE DEBRISNEEDS REFERENCE
FLOWS

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 EXPERIMENTS ON
STACKED
SUBAQUEOUS DEBRIS
FLOWS, SAFL NEEDS REFERENCE

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SUBAERIAL INCISED MEANDERING

NEEDS REFERENCE

24
SUBMARINE INCISED MEANDERING

NEEDS REFERENCE

25
 SUBAERIAL ALLUVIAL MEANDERING

Buffalo River,
Minnesota

Muddy Creek.
Wyoming

NEEDS REFERENCE

26
SUBAERIAL ALLUVIAL MEANDERING:
FLY RIVER, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

27
 MEANDERING CHANNELS ON SUBMARINE FANS

Mississippi
Submarine Fan
(Weimer, 1991).

Indus Submarine Fan Amazon Submarine

(Kenyon et al., 1995) Fan (Pirmez, 1995)

28
Strickland River, New Guinea
MEANDER BEND
CUTOFFS IN RIVERS

NEEDS REFERENCE

Buffalo River, Minnesota

29
MEANDERING CHANNEL AND CUTOFFS ON THE
GANGES SUBMARINE FAN

Bengal Fan: Schwenk,

Spiess,Hubscher, Breitzke
30
(2003)
NATURAL LEVEES ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

31
 NATURAL
LEVEES ON
THE MIDDLE
FLY RIVER,
NEW GUINEA

Natural
levees

Day et al. 2008 32

 NATURAL
Upper forest reach
LEVEES ON
Kuambit
THE FLY
RIVER, NEW
GUINEA
Upper middle Fly
Ioke Creek

Middle Fly
Above Manda

Lower middle Fly

Natural Bosset

levees

Lower middle Fly

Obo

Day et al. 2008 33

 0
Elevation AHD
-2 NATURAL LEVEES ON THE FLY RIVER, NEW
-4
-6 GUINEA
-8
-10
-12
-14
0 100 200 300 400 500
Distance (m)

6 FR88 Cross Sections

4
Elevation AHD (m)

2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Distance (m)

6 FR90 Cross Sections

4
AHD (m)

2 Day et al. 2008 34

0
LEVEES ON SUBMARINE CHANNELS

Channel on Amazon
Submarine Fan
Damuth and Flood (1985)

Toyama Submarine Channel

Kubo and Nakajima (2002)

35
MORE LEVEES ON SUBMARINE CHANNELS

Submarine meandering channels contain themselves

between levees over 100’s ~ 1000’s of km and scores
~ 100’s of bends.

Bengal Fan: Schwenk,

Spiess,Hubscher, Breitzke 36
(2003)
 CHANNEL MIGRATION
AND SCROLL BARS:
RIVERS

Fly River, Papua New NEEDS REFERENCE

Guinea

Strickland River,
Papua New Guinea 37
CHANNEL MIGRATION AND SCROLL BARS: SUBMARINE
CHANNEL

An increasing body of
evidence suggests that
submarine meandering
channels do most of the
things that meandering
rivers do (but in different
degrees)

38
Abreu, Sullivan, Pirmez, Mohrig (2006)
 CONNECTED SUBAERIAL BASINS

Tien Shan, China; courtesy C. Stark 39

 CONNECTED SUBAERIAL BASINS

Tien Shan, China; courtesy C. Stark 40

CONNECTED SUBMARINE BASINS

NEEDS REFERENCE

41
 CONNECTED SUBMARINE BASINS

X channel

NEEDS REFERENCE

10 km
N
Niger margin: from Prather and Pirmez 42
 CONNECTED SUBMARINE BASINS

Downlap trends

N
Niger margin: from Prather and Pirmez 43
 CONNECTED SUBMARINE BASINS

<6m

~150 m

N
Niger margin: from Prather and Pirmez 44
REFERENCES NOT DONE

The depositional web on the floodplain

of the Fly River, Papua New Guinea.
Geoff Day1, William E. Dietrich2*, Joel C.
Rowland2, and Andrew Marshall3
Vittori, Prather and Pirmez, etc. etc.

PirmezDump: GCSSEPM Sikkima, Winker,

Vittori, Morris-Normark, Nelson, Pirmez,
Canals, Beaubouef, Brahmi, Badalini,

45