Non-cohesive silt turbidity current flow processes; insights from proximal sandy-silt and silty-sand turbidites, Fiordland, New Zealand

Abstract

Silt-rich turbidites are commonly interpreted as distal marine deposits. They are associated with interlaminated clay and silt deposition from the upper and rear portions of turbidity currents. Here, multibeam bathymetry and shallow sediment core data from the intra-slope Secretary Basin, Fiordland, New Zealand, located < 10 km from shore, are used to describe a suite of late Holocene proximal sandy-silt and silty-sand turbidites that contain negligible clay and a wide variety of vertical grading patterns. The steep, rugged catchment to the Secretary Basin is dominated by a complex tributary turbidite channel network that feeds the low gradient Secretary Basin floor intra-slope lobe. Sediment core T49 is located within the lobe and positioned between shallow channels that are prone to deposition from decelerating, silty-sand and sandy-silt turbidity currents. The wide variety of sedimentary structures and vertical grading patterns, dominated by inversely graded beds, implies a range of non-cohesive flow processes, with deposition from multiphase, mixed mode (turbulent and laminar) flows that have undergone a variety of up-dip flow transformations. Most flows were initially erosive followed by deposition of partitioned 2- or 3- phase mixed mode flows that include high-density transitional and laminar flows that can be fore- or after-runners to low-density turbulent flow sections. Turbulence is inferred to have been suppressed in high-density flows by increasing flow concentration of both sands and silts. The very fine and fine sand modal grain sizes of sandy-silt and silty-sand turbidites are significantly coarser than classical abyssal plain silt turbidites and are generally coarser than overbank silt turbidites. While the low percentage of clays within Secretary Basin sandy-silt and silty-sand turbidites represents a fundamental difference between these and other silt and mud turbidites, we suggest these beds represent a previously undescribed suite of proximal continental slope deposits.