The Official Magazine of 
View Issue TOC
Volume 28, No. 3
Pages 220 - 227
PDFPurpose of Activity
The goal of this exercise is to enable students to explore some of the controls on fluid flow by having them simulate turbidity currents using lock-gate exchange tanks while varying the bed slope and the turbidity. Observational data are compared with theoretical relationships known from the scientific literature. The exercise promotes collaborative/peer learning and critical thinking while using a physical model and analyzing results.
Ortiz, J.D., and A.A. Klompmaker. 2015. Turbidity currents: Comparing theory and observation in the lab. Oceanography 28(3):220–227, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2015.73.
» Lab Instructions and Worksheet (1.1 MB)
» Accompanying Spreadsheet (48 KB Excel spreadsheet): The Excel spreadsheet includes a table that can be used to solve Equations 8 and 9 in this lab exercise.
An, R.-D., and J. Li. 2010. Characteristic analysis of the plunging of turbidity currents. Journal of Hydrodynamics 22:274–282, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1001-6058(09)60055-X.
Boggs, S. Jr. 2006. Principles of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, 4th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 662 pp.
Bouma, A.H. 1964. Ancient and recent turbidites. Geologie en Mijnbouw 43:375–379.
Bouma, A.H., and A. Brouwer, eds. 1964. Developments in Sedimentology 3: Turbidites. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 264 pp.
Cantero, M.I., A. Cantelli, C. Pirmez, S. Balachandar, D. Mohrig, T.A. Hickson, T.-H. Yeh, H. Naruse, and G. Parker. 2012. Emplacement of massive turbidites linked to extinction of turbulence in turbidity currents. Nature Geoscience 5:42–45,https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1320.
Dade, W.B., and P.F. Friend. 1998. Grain-size, sediment-transport regime, and channel slope in alluvial rivers. The Journal of Geology 106:661–676, https://doi.org/10.1086/516052.
Gaudio, R., A. Miglio, and S. Dey. 2010. Non-universality of von Kármán’s κ in fluvial streams. Journal of Hydraulic Research 48:658–663, https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2010.507338.
Kneller, B., and C. Buckee. 2000. The structure and fluid mechanics of turbidity currents: A review of some recent studies and their geological implications. Sedimentology 47:62–94, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3091.2000.047s1062.x.
Meiburg, E., and B. Kneller. 2010. Turbidity currents and their deposits. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 42:135–156,https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-fluid-121108-145618.
Middleton, G.V. 1993. Sediment deposition from turbidity currents. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 21:89–114, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ea.21.050193.000513.
Pickering, K., D. Stow, M. Watson, and R. Hiscott. 1986. Deep-water facies, processes and models: A review and classification scheme for modern and ancient sediments. Earth-Science Reviews 23:75–174,https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-8252(86)90001-2.
Spalding, H.L., K.M. Duncan, and Z. Norcross-Nu’u. 2009. Hands-on oceanography: Sorting out sediment grain size and plastic pollution. Oceanography 22(4):244–250, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2009.117.
Udo, K., and A. Mano. 2011. Application of Rouse’s sediment concentration profile to aeolian transport: Is the suspension system for sand transport in air the same as that in water? The Journal of Coastal Research 64 (Proceedings of the 11th International Coastal Symposium):2,079–2,083, http://www.cerf-jcr.org/images/stories/2011_ICS_Proceedings/SP64_2079-2083_K._Udo.pdf.
This is an open access article made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format as long as users cite the materials appropriately, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate the changes that were made to the original content. Images, animations, videos, or other third-party material used in articles are included in the Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If the material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission directly from the license holder to reproduce the material.