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

9530396席尔瓦自然资源回收，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。 随着采矿业向海底过程复杂的大陆坡和陆坡移去，必须面对许多技术限制。 本研究项目的目标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。 该计划是理论以及现场，实验室和建模工作的综合结合。 在墨西哥湾西北部的海底选择了一条宽2000米、长100海里的走廊，从水深1000米延伸到3000米。 这条走廊包括一系列广泛的海底过程，包括物质消耗和蠕动、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进行两次研究性巡航考察：第一次是在走廊内获取详细的海底声学信息和侧扫声纳海底图像，第二次是获取25至30米深海底深处的大直径原状岩心样本，并进行现场地质技术测试。 综合实验室测试计划的重点是确定相关的岩土性能和研究分析/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，以表征各种沉积物的工程行为，包括非常缓慢的变形（蠕变）、静态应力应变特性和流动特性。 然后，将把这些材料模型和参数纳入现有的计算机模型，以描述和研究走廊地点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坡的海底进程范围。 ***

9530396 Silva 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 charac terize 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. ***