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Hage, Sophie; Cartigny, Matthieu J.b.; Sumner, Esther J.; Clare, Michael A.; Hughes Clarke, John E.; Talling, Peter J.; Lintern, D. Gwyn; Simmons, Stephen M.; Silva Jacinto, Ricardo; Vellinga, Age J.; Allin, Joshua R.; Azpiroz‐zabala, Maria; Gales, Jenny A.; Hizzett, Jamie L.; Hunt, James E.; Mozzato, Alessandro; Parsons, Daniel R.; Pope, Ed L.; Stacey, Cooper D.; Symons, William O.; Vardy, Mark E.; Watts, Camilla. |
Rivers (on land) and turbidity currents (in the ocean) are the most important sediment transport processes on Earth. Yet, how rivers generate turbidity currents as they enter the coastal ocean remains poorly understood. The current paradigm, based on laboratory experiments, is that turbidity currents are triggered when river plumes exceed a threshold sediment concentration of ~1 kg.m‐3. Here we present direct observations of an exceptionally dilute river‐plume, with sediment concentrations one order of magnitude below this threshold (0.07 kg.m‐3), which generated a fast (1.5 m.s‐1), erosive, short‐lived (6 min) turbidity current. However, no turbidity current occurred during subsequent river‐plumes. We infer that turbidity currents are generated when... |
Tipo: Text |
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Ano: 2019 |
URL: https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00514/62594/66952.pdf |
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