Grain‐size characteristics of fine‐grained unflocculated sediments I:‘one‐round’ distributions

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Abstract
A simple physical model of gravitational settling from an unsorted, unflocculated source suspension is presented and an equation derived to describe the grain‐size spectra of the resulting bottom sediment. Results of grain‐size analyses of sediments from a variety of environments and geographical locations are shown to conform with the postulated model. The characteristic size spectrum, termed ‘one‐round’ sediment, identifies a deposit which has settled from suspension with no subsequent reworking resulting in modification of the grain‐size distribution. The distribution of settling rates of grains in the suspension may be inferred from an analytical form fit to the bottom sediment grain‐size spectrum, along with knowledge of certain physical characteristics of the fluid (e.g. mean velocity profile).