Large-volume (150 km3) and highly energetic submarine flows that did not erode their soft substrate (original) (raw)
Submarine flows are frequent processes occurring across the seafloor, ranging from dilute turbidity currents, debris flows, and slides. However, our understanding of these flows and their erosive behaviour is limited by a paucity of high-resolution field data. Here we present two exceptionally detailed field datasets. The first uses a suite of shallow sediment cores to map out large-volume (>100 km3) individual turbidite beds for hundreds of kilometres across a basin-plain. The second uses high-resolution geophysical imagining coupled with a suite of shallow sediment cores to document a small-scale slide complex, off the coast of Norway. These two datasets document very different types of submarine flow, are situated in different geological settings and occur at different water depths. In both cases, the high-resolution field data enables individual event beds to be documented and the erosion beneath their deposits mapped out. We demonstrate that beneath the turbidite beds, found...