Dilution of sediment gravity currents or- the generationof turbidity currents from debris flows

Time:	November 15, 2005, 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Lecturer:	Maarten Felix, Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Wasserbau, Lehrstuhl für Hydromechanik und Hydrosystemmodellierung
Venue:	Pfaffenwaldring 61, Raum U1.003 (MML), Universität Stuttgart
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Abstract:Sediment gravity currents are a subclass of densitycurrents, which are currents driven by the densitydifference with the ambient fluid. In sediment gravitycurrents this density difference is caused by sediment.Such flows occur in many different environments, bothsubaerially and subaqueously, but the flows consideredin this talk will be subaqeous only. Sediment concentrationin sediment gravity flows can range from dense (debrisflows with 60-70 % volumetric concentration of sediment)to dilute (turbidity currents with less that 1 %sediment).Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain how denseflows can transform into dilute flows, but none appearto be entirely satisfactory. In this talk, results willbe presented from laboratory experiments, numericalsimulations and from field work, aimed at gaining abetter understanding of dilution/transformation processes.