Deciphering the Record of Sediment Transfer and Deposition Across Continental Slopes and the Margins of Other Deep-Water Basins

世界上最深的海洋的底部可以说是地球上最不了解的陆地/海洋景观，主要是由于它们的不可接近性和相关的极端条件（例如，高压）。当我们寻求有关我们太阳系中其他行星（如火星）的信息时，我们的海洋仍然是地球上一个严重不足的前沿领域。已知大型水下雪崩或重力流会通过河流状通道在水深1至3公里或更深的大陆边缘广阔海底输送流体和沉积物。不幸的是，直接测量这些事件往往非常困难，我们被迫通过间接手段，包括破坏海底基础设施，如通信电缆和管道，来了解这些事件。更好地了解这些深海高能事件的另一种方法是研究它们的沉积物，这些沉积物可以在岩心中捕获，或者在古代的例子中，通过主要的构造事件上升到山区。拟议的研究将侧重于智利南部和不列颠哥伦比亚省西部露出地表的年代久远的深海矿床。塑造古代海景的巨大重力流的证据是存在的，其代表是与冲刷和水道相关的深侵蚀面、重力流经过某个区域时留下的独特单元，以及重力流失去能量时积累的厚厚的沉积物。并停止。这项研究需要绘制地质特征和岩石类型暴露在露头在每个领域的地区，然后将信息纳入三维计算机模型，揭示几何地貌特征（例如，通道）及其组成岩石类型的特征。通过研究智利和不列颠哥伦比亚省的这些古代沉积物，我们将深入了解可以说是地球最后一个真正的边界：我们的深海。这项研究的一个重要应用动机是更好地限制加拿大边缘和地球仪周围其他大陆斜坡的潜在含烃深水岩石。

The floors of the world's deepest oceans arguably represent the most poorly understood land-/sea-scape on the planet, owing primarily to their inaccessibility and associated extreme conditions (e.g., high pressure). As we seek information about other planets in our solar system such as Mars, our oceans remain a significantly understudied frontier on planet Earth. Large subaqueous avalanches, or gravity flows, are known to transport fluid and sediment through river-like channels across vast expanses of the seafloor on continental margins, in water depths of 1-3 km or more. Unfortunately, direct measurement of these events is often very difficult, and we are forced to draw insight about them from indirect means, including destruction of infrastructure on the seafloor such as communication cables and pipelines. Another means to better understand these high-energy events in the deep-sea is to study their deposits, which can be captured in drillcores, or in the case of ancient examples, uplifted into mountain belts by major tectonic events. The proposed research will focus on Cretaceous-aged deep-sea deposits that are exposed at the Earth's surface in outcrops of southern Chile and western British Columbia. Evidence for immense gravity flows that shaped the ancient seascapes are present, represented by deep erosion surfaces associated with scours and channels, distinctive units that were left behind as gravity flows passed over an area, and thick deposits that accumulated when gravity flows lost their energy and came to rest. The research entails mapping geological features and rock types exposed in outcrops in each field area, and then incorporating the information into three-dimensional computer models, which reveal the geometry of geomorphological features (e.g., channels) and the character of their component rock types. By studying these ancient deposits in Chile and British Columbia, we will gain insight into sediment transfer in arguably the last true Earthly frontier: our deep oceans. An important applied motivation for this study is to better constrain potential hydrocarbon-bearing deep-water rocks on the margins of Canada and other continental slopes around the globe.