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  • Submarine gravity flows entrained by ocean circulation: Processes and related sedimentary products - SWEPT

Submarine gravity flows entrained by ocean circulation: Processes and related sedimentary products - SWEPT

Tur­bi­di­ty cur­rents are gra­vi­ty-dri­ven flows in which se­di­ment is sup­por­ted by tur­bu­lence. They are one of the main con­du­its for trans­port of par­ti­cles from the shelf to the deep oce­an and are ca­pa­ble of trans­porting and de­po­sit­ing lar­ge vo­lu­mes of se­di­ment.

It is known from pre­vious stu­dies, that tur­bi­di­ty cur­rents can be stron­gly af­fec­ted by the oce­an cir­cu­la­ti­on, for­ming mi­xed tur­bi­di­te-con­tou­rite sys­tems. Howe­ver, the me­cha­nisms of such in­ter­ac­tion are still not well-stu­di­ed.

The main ob­jec­tive of the SWEPT pro­ject is to bet­ter un­der­stand how oce­an cir­cu­la­ti­on can af­fect gra­vi­ty flows (i.e. tur­bi­di­ty cur­rents), and thus the trans­fer of se­di­ment from the con­ti­nent to the deep sea. In or­der to achie­ve our main goal, we ap­p­ly a mul­ti­di­sci­pli­na­ry ap­proach that com­bi­nes in situ ob­ser­va­tions of na­tu­ral sys­tems using ocea­no­gra­phic mea­su­re­ments from moo­rings and geo­phy­si­cal in­ves­ti­ga­ti­ons of the seaf­loor, with nu­me­ri­cal mo­del­ling of se­di­men­ta­ry pro­ces­ses.

The re­sults of this pro­ject will im­pro­ve pa­laeo­cea­no­gra­phic re­con­struc­tions and will help pre­dict par­ti­cle trans­port and ac­cu­mu­la­ti­on in the sub­ma­ri­ne en­vi­ron­ment which would have im­portant im­pli­ca­ti­ons for deep-ma­ri­ne eco­sys­tems, dis­tri­bu­ti­on and fate of pol­lut­ants, and car­bon bu­ri­al.