Collaborative Research: Sediment Dispersal from Vertically Divergent Plumes on a Mountainous Collision Margin: A New Paradigm for Continental Margin Sedimentation

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The PIs will test the production of hyperpycnal turbidity currents in a mountainous collision active margin setting. Such turbidity currents could be generated more frequently than it is currently thought. Sediment dispersal is governed by a decoupling process that divides the sediment plume into surface and bottom components, influenced by independent physical processes. Surface component is influenced by wind, waves, tidal and coastal currents forming a positively buoyant, hypopycnal plume. Bottom component is dominated by gravity, bottom morphology and boundary layer processes forming a negatively buoyant, hyperpycnal underflow. If proved correct, it could demonstrate that hypopycnal/hyperpycnal processes are important in creating turbidity deposits. The PIs will take water column measurements for hypopycnal processes, together with seabed monitoring. They will attempt coring to study the deposits related to underflows at the mouth of the Sepik River, off Papua New Guinea. The project is collaborative with Australian scientists.