Runout and fine‐sediment deposits of axisymmetric turbidity currents

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Abstract
We develop a model that describes the runout behavior and resulting deposit of a radially spreading, suspension‐driven gravity current on a surface of negligible slope. Our analysis considers the separate cases of constant‐volume and constant‐flux sources. It incorporates expressions for the conservation of volume, a Froude number condition at the current front, and the evolution of the driving suspension due to settling of particles to the underlying bed. The model captures the key features of a range of experimental observations. The analysis also provides important scaling relationships between the geometry of a deposit and the source conditions for the deposit‐forming flow, as well as explicit expressions for flow speed and deposit thickness as functions of radial distance from the source. Among the results of our study we find that, in the absence of information regarding flow history, the geometries of relatively well‐sorted deposits generated by flows with source conditions of constant volume or constant flux are virtually indistinguishable. The results of our analysis can be used by geologists in the interpretation of some geologically important gravity‐surge deposits. Using our analytical results, we consider three previously studied, radially symmetric turbidites of the Hispaniola‐Caicos basin in the western Atlantic Ocean. From gross geometry and grain size of the turbidites alone we estimate for the respective deposit‐forming events that upon entry into the basin the initial sediment concentrations were approximately 3% by volume and the total volumes were roughly between 30 km3 and 100 km3. Each of the suspension‐driven flows is inferred to have spread into the basin with a characteristic speed of 3–5 m s−1, and reached its ultimate runout length of about 60–75 km while laying down a deposit over a period of about 10–12 hours.

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