The nature of sediments forming the Torres Strait turbidity maximum

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
An area of persistently high relative water turbidity occurs in LANDSAT images from central Torres Strait. Analysis of water, suspended particulate and seabed sediment samples indicates that this turbidity maximum comprises mainly silt‐sized carbonate skeletal fragments derived from the erosion of surficial seabed deposits. Fluvial sediment is characterized by kaolinite, which only occurs in waters adjacent to the Fly Delta and in isolated seabed deposits of the southern Great North East Channel. Since montmorillonite is absent from the suspended sediment, erosion of montmorillonite‐bearing Pleistocene clay, which may crop out on the Torres Strait seabed, is unlikely to be an important source of the observed turbidity. A physical model, based upon frictional decay of tidal energy, is proposed to explain the occurrence of the turbidity maximum in Torres Strait.