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    Sediment Gravity Flows

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    Ahana Bhattacharya
    Sediment gravity flows describe the flow of sediments or sediment-fluid mixtures driven by gravity. There are four main types defined by how sediment is supported: 1) turbidity currents where turbulence supports sediment, 2) fluidized flows where fluid escapes between grains, 3) grain flows with direct grain interactions, and 4) debris flows with a matrix of fluid and fine sediments providing yield strength. Gravity flows generally have three parts - a thicker sediment-rich head, a faster sediment-poor body, and a decelerating tail. Turbidity currents can produce inverse grading in deposits if coarser sediments lag behind and deposition occurs before they arrive at a location.

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    Sediment Gravity Flows

    Uploaded by

    Ahana Bhattacharya
    18 views4 pages
    Sediment gravity flows describe the flow of sediments or sediment-fluid mixtures driven by gravity. There are four main types defined by how sediment is supported: 1) turbidity currents where turbulence supports sediment, 2) fluidized flows where fluid escapes between grains, 3) grain flows with direct grain interactions, and 4) debris flows with a matrix of fluid and fine sediments providing yield strength. Gravity flows generally have three parts - a thicker sediment-rich head, a faster sediment-poor body, and a decelerating tail. Turbidity currents can produce inverse grading in deposits if coarser sediments lag behind and deposition occurs before they arrive at a location.

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    Sedimentary petrology

    Original Title

    Sediment Gravity flows

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    Sediment gravity flows describe the flow of sediments or sediment-fluid mixtures driven by gravity. There are four main types defined by how sediment is supported: 1) turbidity currents where turbulence supports sediment, 2) fluidized flows where fluid escapes between grains, 3) grain flows with direct grain interactions, and 4) debris flows with a matrix of fluid and fine sediments providing yield strength. Gravity flows generally have three parts - a thicker sediment-rich head, a faster sediment-poor body, and a decelerating tail. Turbidity currents can produce inverse grading in deposits if coarser sediments lag behind and deposition occurs before they arrive at a location.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    18 views4 pages

    Sediment Gravity Flows

    Uploaded by

    Ahana Bhattacharya
    Sediment gravity flows describe the flow of sediments or sediment-fluid mixtures driven by gravity. There are four main types defined by how sediment is supported: 1) turbidity currents where turbulence supports sediment, 2) fluidized flows where fluid escapes between grains, 3) grain flows with direct grain interactions, and 4) debris flows with a matrix of fluid and fine sediments providing yield strength. Gravity flows generally have three parts - a thicker sediment-rich head, a faster sediment-poor body, and a decelerating tail. Turbidity currents can produce inverse grading in deposits if coarser sediments lag behind and deposition occurs before they arrive at a location.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
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    Sediment Gravity flows

    The term sediment gravity flow was introduced to describe the major flow types involved in
    resedimentation processes and was defined as the flow of sediments or sediment–fluid
    mixture in which the interstitial fluid is driven by the grains moving under the action of
    gravity.

    Four distinct types of sediment gravity flow based on dominant sediment-support


    mechanism:

    1. Turbidity current, in which the sediment is supported by the upward component of fluid
    turbulence;

    2. Fluidized sediment flow, in which the sediment is supported by the upward flow of fluid
    escaping from between the grains as the grains are settled out by gravity; Liquidization
    followed by fluidization.

    3. Grain flow, in which the sediment is supported by direct grain-to-grain interactions;

    4. Debris flow, in which the sediment is supported by a matrix (mixture of interstitial fluid
    and fine sediments) having finite yield strength.

    Initiation of sediment gravity flow-two processes:

    1. Occurrence of catastrophic events-sediment remobilizes instantaneously


    2. Continuous river supply in which the river discharge is connected into water body
    (usually reservoirs, lakes and oceans) generating plumes and/or hyperpycnal flows
    due the density difference (positive or negative)

    Generally, gravity currents are divided geometrically into three distinct parts: head, body and,
    tail.
    The head or front of the current is roughly shaped as a semi-ellipse. In most cases, the head is
    thicker than the body and tail, because of the resistance imposed by the ambient fluid (fluid
    resistance) to its advance.

    The most advanced point of the front is called nose and it is located slightly above the bottom
    surface, as a result of the no-slip condition at the bottom as well as the resistance (shear) at
    upper surface.

    In the head, two types of instabilities are the main responsible for mixing with the ambient
    fluid (entrainment).

    1. The first type of instability is a complex pattern of lobes and clefts caused by second
    order gravitational instabilities at front surface,
    2. The second type of instability is a series of billows associate to Kelvin-Helmholtz
    instabilities

    Generally, the velocity of the body is greater than the head velocity by 30% or 40%.

    In order to the flow maintain its constant rate of advance, the current increases the velocity of
    the body to compensate the deficit of density created.

    The body gets divided into two zones:

    1. Near the bottom zone, where the density is higher; and


    2. Above this, a suspended/mixing zone, where the mixing with the fluid ambient
    occurs.

    The interface between these two zones is reflected by an abrupt gradient of velocity,
    concentration and viscosity.

    The third part of sediment gravity flow is characterized by a deceleration zone and final
    dilution stage of the current, normally called tail.

    Turbidity currents and Bouma Sequence


    Theory of inverse grading in turbidite deposits

    The coarse sediment fractions are transported mores lowly than fine fractions. In a turbidity
    current, a sufficiently heterogeneous mix of sediment sizes should undergo streamwise size
    segregation as the coarsest fractions lag behind. If deposition begins before the coarsest
    fraction that will reach a particular station has arrived, the lower part of the resulting deposits
    should be inversely graded. A similar mechanism may produce inversely graded intervals in
    pyroclastic flow deposits.

    Because the head of a turbidity current typically travels only about 0.83 as fast as flow
    velocity in the body a short distance behind the head, the coarsest grains able to keep up with
    the front of the flow are those having transport velocity Vsed≈0.83Vbody. If coarser size
    fractions are available, they will arrive later than the head, permitting the development of
    inverse grading. This mechanism will not operate when the coarsest size fraction travels as
    fast as (or faster than) the head of the flow, or when onset of deposition is delayed until after
    the coarsest size fraction has arrived.

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