SSP
Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

seafloor

Mass Transport Deposits – The smoking gun of submarine landslides

Mass Transport Deposits – The smoking gun of submarine landslides

When we think about landslides, we usually picture mountain slopes collapsing after heavy rain or earthquakes. Similar phenomena, often much larger, also occur beneath the sea along continental margins and across the deep ocean floor. Geologists refer to the deposits left behind by these collapses as Mass Transport Deposits, commonly abbreviated as MTDs. When several of these deposits form part of ...[Read More]

Sediment in the deep ocean. Part 2: thermohaline currents that shape the seafloor

Sediment in the deep ocean. Part 2: thermohaline currents that shape the seafloor

In Part 1 we differentiated between (1) shallow-marine tide-related currents from (2) purely gravitational sediment-laden currents. We could add that the former are periodic, as they are controlled by the effect of the Moon and Sun gravitational fields on the oceanic water as the Earth revolves, while the latter are sort of ‘spontaneous’ currents driven by the Earth gravitation field on sedi ...[Read More]