| The coarseness of the 10-63 m terrigenous silt (i.e., sortable-silt) fraction tends to vary independently of sediment supply in current-sorted muds in the world's oceans, with coarser sediments representing relatively greater near-bottom flow speeds. Traditionally, the coarseness of this size fraction is described using an index called sortable-silt mean size ( SS), which is an arithmetic average calculated from the differential volume or mass distribution of grains within the 10-63 m terrigenous silt fraction, where the relative weights of the individual size bins become increasingly disproportionate, with respect to the actual number of grains within those size bins, toward the coarse end of the size range. This not only increases the absolute value of... |
