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Detailed monitoring reveals the nature of submarine turbidity currents

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 4, pages 642–658 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Seafloor sediment flows, called turbidity currents, form the largest sediment accumulations, deepest canyons and longest channels on Earth. It was once thought that turbidity currents were impractical to measure in action, especially given their ability to damage sensors in their path, but direct monitoring since the mid-2010s has measured them in detail. In this Review, we summarize knowledge of turbidity currents gleaned from this direct monitoring. Monitoring identifies triggering mechanisms from dilute river plumes, and shows how rapid sediment accumulation can precondition slope failure, but the final triggers can be delayed and subtle. Turbidity currents are consistently more frequent than predicted by past sequence-stratigraphic models, including at sites >300 km from any coast. Faster flows (more than ~1.5 m s–1) are driven by a dense near-bed layer at their front, whereas slower flows are entirely dilute. This frontal layer sometimes erodes large (>2.5 km3) volumes of sediment, yet maintains a near-uniform speed, leading to a travelling-wave model. Monitoring shows that flows sculpt canyons and channels through fast-moving knickpoints, and shows how deposits originate. Emerging technologies with reduced cost and risk can lead to widespread monitoring of turbidity currents, so their sediment and carbon fluxes can be compared with other major global transport processes.

Key points

  • Previously, submarine turbidity currents were thought to be impractical to monitor in action, mainly owing to their ability to damage sensors in their path, but detailed monitoring is now possible and is revealing major new insights.

  • Direct monitoring is identifying triggers for flows, such as very dilute river plumes, and consistently shows that turbidity currents occur much more frequently than predicted by past models such as sequence-stratigraphic models.

  • Owing to turbidity currents, the global burial efficiency of terrestrial organic carbon (28–45%) in marine sediments is substantially higher than previous estimates of 10–30%, and even higher (>60–80%) during glacial low-stands.

  • Fast (>1.5 m s–1) turbidity currents are driven by a dense (10–30% concentration) near-bed layer at their front, which must be included in flow models, whereas slower flows are entirely dilute.

  • This dense frontal layer sometimes erodes large sediment volumes (as for ignition), yet maintains a near-uniform speed (as for autosuspension), leading to a new, travelling-wave model for flow behaviour.

  • Direct monitoring reveals how flows sculpt canyons and channels, such as through supercritical bedforms and internally generated fast-moving knickpoints, and how deposits record flow processes.

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Fig. 1: Comparison between turbidity currents and other major global sediment transfer processes.
Fig. 2: Turbidity currents have a globally important role in organic carbon burial.
Fig. 3: Direct monitoring of turbidity currents.
Fig. 4: Insights into the causes of turbidity currents.
Fig. 5: Submarine fans and frequency of turbidity-current activity.
Fig. 6: Insights into the internal structure of turbidity currents.
Fig. 7: A new view of how turbidity currents behave.

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Acknowledgements

P.J.T. discloses support for this work from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (grant numbers NE/S010068/1, NE/R001952/1 and NE/K011480/1). K.L.M. acknowledges funding from NIWA Marine Geological Resources Programme and Marsden Grant 21-NIW-014). S.H. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 899546. M.A.C. acknowledges funding from NERC including National Capability Programme (NE/R015953/1) Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS), Environmental Risks to Infrastructure: Identifying and Filling the Gaps (NE/P005780/1) and New Field-scale Calibration of Turbidity Current Impact Modelling (NE/P009190/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham, UK

    Peter J. Talling

  2. Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham, UK

    Matthieu J. B. Cartigny, Ed Pope & Megan Baker

  3. Ocean BioGeosciences Group, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK

    Michael A. Clare

  4. School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Maarten Heijnen

  5. Geo-Ocean, University of Brest, CNRS, IFREMER, Plouzané, France

    Sophie Hage & Ricardo Silva Jacinto

  6. Energy and Environment Institute, University of Hull, Hull, UK

    Dan R. Parsons & Steve M. Simmons

  7. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, USA

    Charlie K. Paull & Roberto Gwiazda

  8. Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada

    Gwyn Lintern

  9. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    John E. Hughes Clarke

  10. Southern University of Science and Technology, Guangdong, China

    Jingping Xu

  11. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand

    Katherine L. Maier

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  1. Peter J. Talling
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Contributions

All authors researched data for the article. M.J.B.C., E.P., M.B., M.A.C., M.H., S.H., D.R.P., C.K.P., G.L. and P.J.T. contributed substantially to discussion of the content. P.J.T. wrote the article. M.J.B.C., E.P., M.B., M.A.C., M.H., S.H., D.R.P., C.K.P., R.G., G.L., R.S.J. and P.J.T. reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Peter J. Talling.

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Nature Reviews Earth and Environment thanks Chengliang Gong, Michele Rebesco and David Piper for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Glossary

Acoustic Doppler current profiler

Sensor emitting a sound-pulse that is scattered from sand and mud particles within a turbidity current, which measures the speed of those particles at different heights above the seabed to produce a velocity profile.

Autosuspension

A near-equilibrium state that occurs when the settling of sand and mud from a turbidity current is balanced by seafloor erosion, leading to near-uniform flow velocity.

Dissipation

A negative feedback loop leading to the deceleration of a turbidity current, as the settling of sand and mud causes the flow to become less dense and slower, causing further settling.

Frontal cell

The frontal part of faster-moving (more than ~1.5 m s–1) turbidity current that is faster than the rest of the flow, and contains a near-bed layer with high sediment concentrations.

Ignition

Positive feedback leading to the acceleration of a turbidity current owing to seafloor erosion that causes the flow to become even faster and denser, leading to more erosion.

Remineralization

The process by which organic carbon is turned into CO2.

Submarine canyon

A valley that is deeply incised into the seafloor through which turbidity currents flow, which is much deeper than a submarine channel.

Submarine channel

A channel incised into the seafloor (less deeply than a canyon) through which turbidity currents flow. Its upraised flanks (called levees) can lie above the surrounding seabed.

Submarine fan

A large-scale accumulation of sediment formed by turbidity currents that comprises a canyon, channel with levees (upraised flanks of a submarine channel that lie above the surrounding seafloor, formed by the overspill of turbidity currents from the channel), and a lobe (a region that lies beyond the end of a submarine channel, where turbidity currents expand, often characterized by unusually rapid sediment deposition and scours).

Supercritical flow

Flows can exist in two basic states: either thin and fast (‘supercritical’) flow or thick and slow (‘subcritical’) flow, which are separated by a hydraulic jump.

Turbidite

Layer of sand and mud that has settled out from a turbidity current to form a deposit on the ocean or lake floor.

Turbidity currents

Underwater avalanches of sediment and water that are denser than the surrounding water and thus move down-slope along the ocean or lake floor.

Varves

A varve is a thin layer of fine sediment that represents the deposit of a single year within a lake.

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Talling, P.J., Cartigny, M.J.B., Pope, E. et al. Detailed monitoring reveals the nature of submarine turbidity currents. Nat Rev Earth Environ 4, 642–658 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00458-1

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