Masthead of the Department of Geology


Week 1: Background Concepts

  • Laminar vs. Turbulent Flow
  • “Fluids” and “Plastics” Defined
  • Mass Transport Processes: There are too many different classification schemes. Not a problem, just recognize that different people use different names for things.

Mass transport processes take place in both subaerial and subaqueous environments. This seminar will focus on subaqueous sediment gravity flows, with an emphasis on subaqueous debris flows, grain flows, and turbidity currents (and the interactions and transformations between them).

Sediment Gravity Flows - a subset of mass transport processes

  • Debris Flows
    • cohesive (= “classic” debris flow)
    • cohesionless (= grain flow)
  • Liquified and Fluidized Flows (I often skip this, but we can get into it if people want)
  • Turbidity Currents
  • Flow Transformations (introduction)


Back to Sediment Gravity Flows

directory/faculty/rdorsey/sedflows1.txt · Last modified: 2008/04/01 12:40 by rdorsey

Department of Geological Sciences • 1272 University of Oregon • Eugene, OR 97403 • Phone: 541-346-4573 • Fax: 541-346-4692