Special Issue Introduction: Sediment gravity flows - Recent insights into their dynamic and stratified/composite nature

摘要

The understanding of submarine sediment-laden flows is scientifically, socially and economically important. They are responsible for the bulk of sediment flux, downslope, from the continental shelf to deeper-water environments and include the largest sediment-carrying flow events on the planet. As a catastrophic process they pose a significant and potentially costly hazard to marine infrastructure, such as communication cables and drilling rigs. Their deposits host some of the largest oil and gas accumulations, many of which are in the subsurface of modern-day deep-water areas with high associated development costs. Hence, understanding the strati-graphic heterogeneity of these depositional systems is fundamental for reducing uncertainty and improving recovery from reservoirs.