Factors Influencing Occurrence, Scale, Mobility, Runout, and Morphology of Mass Movements on the Continental Slope.

摘要

Our long term goals are to understand how geotechnical and physical properties develop in marine sedimentary deposits on continental margins as a result of various biological, geochemical and mechanical processes. From these considerations we also want to understand how these properties can influence sediment transport processes and the development of the final geomorphology. Our studies include predicting the stability of slopes within the continental terrace and distinguishing morphologic features caused by slope failure from those caused by other gravity-driven processes, including turbidity-current flow. A major component of the development of mobility is to understand the transition between initial slope failure and the development of debris flows and turbidity currents and predicting the rheological properties that determine the dynamics of such flows.