Floc Dynamics and Facies Generation on the Margins of the Adriatic Sea

Abstract

The sand-mud transition is a fundamental stratigraphic boundary at which sediment size and sorting change dramatically and abruptly (Stanley et al., 1983). At the transition well-sorted sands give way to poorly sorted silts and clays. The change in sediment size and sorting makes the sand-mud transition recognizable acoustically as well as lithologically. Despite its importance, dynamical understanding of the transition is rudimentary. Understanding has evolved slowly because erosion, deposition, and transport of muds are affected strongly by the tendency of fine sediment particles to clump into large agglomerations of particles called flocs (Hill and McCave, 2001). The overall goal of our proposed research is to advance our process-based, mechanistic understanding of the sand-mud transition by building on the recent progress in understanding of floc dynamics.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA634874

Entities

People

  • Paul S. Hill
  • Timothy G. Milligan

Organizations

  • Bedford Institute of Oceanography

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adriatic Sea
  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Continental Shelves
  • Demographic Cohorts
  • Dynamics
  • Grain Size
  • Layers
  • Materials
  • Oceans
  • Particle Size
  • Particles
  • Sediments
  • Shear Stresses
  • Silt
  • Suspended Sediments
  • Transport Ships

Readers

  • Aerosol Science/Aerosol Physics
  • Geotechnical Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design