Increased Marine Sediment Suspension and Fluxes Following an Earthquake
Earthquakes are commonly cited as one possible triggering mechanism for turbidity flows - dense sediment-water plumes that can transport large volumes of sediment great distances clown slope - in both marine and lacustrine settings. Heezen and Ewing were the first to make such a suggestion, attribut...
| Published in: | Nature |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
Digital Commons @ University of South Florida
1999
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/1180 https://doi.org/10.1038/18430 |
| Summary: | Earthquakes are commonly cited as one possible triggering mechanism for turbidity flows - dense sediment-water plumes that can transport large volumes of sediment great distances clown slope - in both marine and lacustrine settings. Heezen and Ewing were the first to make such a suggestion, attributing breaks in a sea-floor telephone cable in the North Atlantic Ocean to turbidity flows generated by the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake. A number of workers have consequently used sedimentary turbidite records to reconstruct the earthquake histories of various regions. Here we present direct observations of a seismically induced turbidity flow. Measurements of light scattering and sediment fluxes in the Cariaco basin indicate that the earthquake that occurred along the coast of northern Venezuela on 9 July 1997 resulted in considerable downslope displacement of sediments - probably > 105 tonnes into the deep part of the basin. In such a seismically active region, this mechanism of sediment transport may be responsible for a significant component of the long-term sediment accumulation in the basin. Furthermore, this process may result in the sequestration in deep sea sediments of large amounts of carbon initially deposited at shallow depths. |
|---|