Seabed Slope Processes in Deep Water Continental Margin, Northwest Gulf of Mexico

9530370邓拉普自然资源回收，包括近海石油和天然气，是美国专属经济区最重要的经济活动。随着该行业向大陆坡度和上升方向发展，必须面临许多技术限制，因为那里的海底过程复杂。这项研究项目的目的是了解斜坡沉积物的工程性质、环境强迫作用和下坡过程之间的基本联系，并发展预测海底过程范围的能力。该计划是理论上的，是现场、实验室和建模工作的综合结合。在墨西哥湾西北部选择了一条宽2000米、长100纳米的海底走廊，从1000米到3000米的水深延伸。这条走廊涵盖了广泛的海底过程，包括物质浪费和蠕动、断层作用、底辟作用、沉积物流动，以及与盐运动有关的流体排出和凹陷(盆地)等相关过程。第一年的实地工作需要两次研究巡航：第一次是在走廊内获取详细的海底声波资料和侧扫声纳海底图像，第二次是获取25米至30米深的大直径未受干扰的岩心样品，并进行现场岩土测试。综合实验室测试方案侧重于确定相关的岩土特性和研究分析/建模部分所需的参数。基本上，所有的仪器都可用于实验研究。实验室计划将包括确定本构模型，以表征来自非常缓慢的变形(蠕变)、静态应力应变特性和流动特性的各种沉积物的工程行为。然后，材料模型和参数将被合并到现有的计算机模型中，以描述和研究在走廊场地内遇到的各种海底过程。预期的结果将是能够预测墨西哥湾大陆斜坡上正在工作的海底过程的范围。***

9530370 Dunlap Natural resources recovery, including offshore oil and gas is the most important economic activity in the United States Exclusive Economic Zone. Many technical constraints must be faced as the industry moves toward sites on the continental slope and rise where seabed processes are complex. The objective of this research project is to understand the fundamental linkages between engineering properties of slope sediments, environmental forcing functions, and downslope processes; and to develop the capability of predicting the range of seabed processes. The program is theoretical as well as an integrated combination of field, laboratory, and modeling efforts. A corridor 2000m wide by 100 nm long, of the seabed in the northwest Gulf of Mexico has been selected extending from water depths of 1000 to 3000m. This corridor encompasses a wide range of seabed processes including mass wasting and creep, faulting, diapirism, sediment flows, and related processes such as fluid expulsion and depressions (basins) associated with halokinesis. The field work during the first year entails two research cruise expeditions: the first to obtain detailed acoustic subbottom information and side-scan sonar seafloor images within the corridor and the second to obtain large-diameter undisturbed core samples to depths of 25 to 30m subbottom and to conduct in situ geotechnical tests. The comprehensive laboratory testing program focuses on determining the pertinent geotechnical properties and parameters necessary for the analysis/modeling portion of the research. Essentially all the instrumentation is available for the experimental studies. The laboratory program will include determination of constitutive models to characterize the engineering behavior of the various sediments from very slow deformations (creep), static stress strain properties, and flow properties. The material models and parameters will then be incorporated in available computer models to chara cterize and study the full range of seabed processes that are encountered within the corridor site. The expected result will be the ability to predict the range of seabed processes at work on the continental slope of the Gulf of Mexico. ***