Information Page: Density Current
Play Laboratory
Density Current
Key Attributes
| Domain: | coastal, marine |
| Keywords: | turbidity current, subcritical flow |
| Model name: | Animation model name |
| Name: | Mike, Lamb |
| Where: | Earth Surface Dynamics Laboratory at CalTech |
| When: | Approximately 4 minutes. The movie is speeded up 2X for the head , and 8X for the body. |
Short Description
Grade level: Under graduate (13-16), Graduate / Professional
Statement: A density current in a flume. This process is studied to learn more about turbidity currents filling mini-basins along the continental shelf slope into the deep marine environment.
Abstract: You can see a tilted flume with two velocity measurement propellors at the start of the movie. Note the think layer of sediment on the bttom, which represents the sea floor sediment. Then the experimenters release a mix of water and sediment (it is colored pink for contrast) into the top of the flume. Because this mix is denser than the original water column, a density current forms and rapidly travels along the bottom slope of the flume. This current even is capable of eroding the original flume bed.This experiment mimicks the sediment transport of a turbidite along a deep-marine slope.
This experiment was implemented in the tilting flume in the Earth Surface Dynamics Modeling Lab at Caltech. https://esp.gps.caltech.edu/earth-surface-dynamics-laboratory
Theory
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References
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