Abstract
The discovery of erosional and depositional bed forms in the deep ocean provides a means for estimating some properties of the benthic boundary layer and also raises questions about secondary circulation near the bed. Previously unexplained hyperbolic echoes are now seen (using a deeply towed instrument package) to be caused by furrows on the sea bed. Small furrows are 1–4 m wide, ¾–2 m deep, and spaced 20–125 m apart; large furrows are 50–150 m wide, 20 m deep, and spaced 50–200 m apart. Analogy with shallow-water furrows and bed forms produced in deserts and in laboratory experiments suggest an origin for the furrows through interaction of large-scale helical vortices developed in the boundary layer with the sediments. The thickness of the bottom-mixed water layer should be about one-half the furrow spacing. Measurements show that mixed layer thickness (20–100 m) are of the correct order of magnitude.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, J. R. L., 1968, On the character and classification of bed forms, Geologie en Mijnbouw 47: 173–185.
Allen, J. R. L., 1969, Erosional current marks of weakly cohesive mud beds, J. Sed. Pet. 39: 607–623.
Amos, A. F., Gordon, A. L., and Schneider, E. D., 1971, Water masses and circulation pat-terns in the region of the Blake-Bahama Outer Ridge, Deep-sea Research 18: 145–165.
Angell, J. K., Pack, D. H., and Dickson, C. R., 1968, A Lagrangian study of helical circula-tions in the planetary boundary layer, J. Atmos. Sci. 25: 707–717.
Ballard, J. A., 1966, Structure of the lower continental rise hills of the western North Atlantic, Geophysics 31: 506–523.
Berggren, W. A., and Hollister, C. D., 1974, Paleogeography and the history of circulation in the Atlantic Ocean, in: (W. W. Hay, ed.), Studies in Paleo-oceanography, Soc. Econ. Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 20: Tulsa, Oklahoma, 126–186.
Bryan, G. M., and Markl, R. G., 1966, Microtopography of the Blake-Bahama Region, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Technical Report No. 8, CO-8–66, 44 pp.
Clay, C. S., and Rona, P. A., 1964, On the existence of bottom corrugations in the Blake-Bahama Basin, J. Geophys. Res. 69: 231–234.
Damuth, J. E., 1975, Echo character of the Western equatorial Atlantic floor and its rela-tionships to the dispersal and distribution of terrigenous sediments, Marine Geology 18: 17–47.
Davies, T. A., and Laughton, A. S., 1972, Sedimentary processes in the North Atlantic, in: U.S. Government Printing Office, Initial Reports of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project, Vol. 12: 905–934.
Deardorff, J. W., 1972, Numerical investigations of neutral and unstable planetary boundary layers, J. Atmos. Sci. 29: 91–115.
Dyer, K. R., 1970, Linear erosional furrows in Southampton Water, Nature 225: 56–58.
Dzulynski, S., 1965, New data on experimental production of sedimentary structures, J. Sed. Pet. 35: 196–212.
Ellett, D. J., and Roberts, D. G., 1973, The overflow of Norwegian Sea deep water across the Wyville-Thompson ridge, Deep-Sea Research 20: 819–835.
Ewing, M., Eittreim, S. L., Ewing, J. L, and LePichon, X., 1971, Sediment transport and distribution in the Argentine Basin. 3. Nepheloid layer and processes of sedimentation, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 8; 51–80.
Faller, A. J., 1963, An experimental study of the instability of the laminar Ekman boundary layer, J. Fluid Mech. 15: 560–576.
Flood, R. D., Hollister, C. D., Johnson, D. A., Southard, J. B., and Lonsdale, P. F., 1974, Hyperbolic echoes and erosional furrows on the Blake-Bahama Outer Ridge, Trans. Am. Geoph. Union 55: 284.
Folk, R. L., 1971, Longitudinal dunes of the northwestern edge of the Simpson Desert Northern Territory, Australia. 1. Geomorphology and grain size relationships, Sedi-mentology 16: 5–54
Hanna, S. A., 1969, The formation of longitudinal sand dunes by large helical eddies in the atmosphere. J. Appl. Meterology 8: 874–883.
Heezen, B. C, and Hollister, C. D., 1964, Deep-sea current evidence from abyssal sediments, Marine Geology 2:141–174.
Heezen, B. C, and Johnson, G. L., 1969, Mediterranean undercurrent and microphysio-graphy west of Gibraltar, Bull. Inst. Oceanogr.: 67.
Heezen, B. C., Tharp, M., and Ewing, M., 1959, The floors of the oceans. 1. The North Atlantic, Geological Soc. of Am., Special Paper 65: 122 pp.
Heezen, B. C, Hollister, C. D., and Ruddiman, W. F., 1966, Shaping of the continental rise by geostrophic contour currents, Science 151: 502–508.
Heezen, B. C., and Schneider, E. D., 1968, The shaping and sediment stratification of the continental rise (abs.), Marine Tech. Soc, Nat’l Symposium, Ocean Sciences and Engi-neering of the Atlantic Shelf Trans., March 19–20, 1968, Phila., Pa., Washington, D.C., pp. 279–280.
Hollister, C. D., Ewing, J. I., et al., 1971, Initial Reports of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project, (A. L. Gordon, ed.), Studies in Physical Oceanography, Vol. 2, Gordon and Breach, New York, pp. 37–66.
Hollister, C. D., Ewing, J. I., et al., 1971, Initial Reports of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project, Vol. 11, U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1077 pp.
Hollister, D. C, Silva, A. J., and Driscoll, A., 1973, A giant piston-corer, Ocean Engng. 2: 159–168.
Hollister, C. D., Flood, R. D., Johnson, D. A., Lonsdale, P. F., Southard, J. B., 1974a, Abyssal furrows and hyperbolic echo traces on the Bahama Outer Ridge, Geology 2: 395–400.
Hollister, C. D., Johnson, D. A., and Lonsdale, P. F., 1974b, Current-controlled abyssal sedimentation: Samoan Passage, Equatorial West Pacific. J. of Geology 82: 275–300.
Johnson, G. L., and Schneider, E. D., 1969, Depositional Ridges in the North Atlantic, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 6: 416–422.
Johnson, G. L., Vogt, P. R., and Schneider, E. D., 1971, Morphology of the northeastern Atlantic and Labrador Sea, Deutsche Hydrographische Zeitschrift 24: 49–73.
Jones, E. J. W., Ewing, M., Ewing, J. I., and Eittreim, S., 1970, Influences of Norwegian Sea overflow water on sedimentation in the northern North Atlantic and Labrador Sea, J. Geophys. Res. 75: 1655–1680.
Kuettner, J., 1959, The band structure of the atmosphere, Tellus 11: 267–294.
Kuettner, J., 1971, Cloud bands in the earth’s atmosphere, Tellus 23: 404–426.
Laughton, A. S., 1972, The Southern Labrador Sea: A key to the Mesozoic and early Tertiary evolution of the North Atlantic, in: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, Initial Reports of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project, Vol. 12: 1155–1179.
Lonsdale, P. F., 1973, Erosional furrows across the abyssal Pacific floor, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 54: 1110.
Markl, R. G., Bryan, G. M., and Ewing, J. I., 1970, Structure of the Blake-Bahama Outer Ridge, J. Geophys. Res. 75: 4539–4555.
McGeary, D. F. R., and Damuth, J. E., 1973, Postglacial iron-rich crusts in hemipelagic deep-sea sediment. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 84: 1201–1212.
McLeish, W., 1968, On the mechanism of wind slick generation, Deep-Sea Research, 15: 461–489.
Partheniades, E., 1965, Erosion and deposition of cohesive soils, Proc. ASCE, Jour. Hydrau-lics Division 91 (HY 1): 105–139.
Rona, P. A., 1969, Linear “lower continental rise hills” off Cape Hatteras, Jour. Sed. Petrol. 39: 1132–1141.
Ruddiman, W. F., 1972, Sediment distribution on the Reykjanes Ridge: seismic evidence, Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 83: 2039–2062.
Schneider, E. D., Fox, P. J., Hollister, C. D., Needham, D. H., and Heezen, B. C., 1967, Further evidence of contour currents in the western North Atlantic, Earth Plant. Sci. Letters 2: 351–359.
Spiess, F. N., and Mudie, J. D., 1970, Small scale topographic and magnetic features, in: (A. E. Maxwell, ed.), The Sea, Vol. IV(1), John Wiley and Sons, New York, pp. 205– 250.
Spiess, F. N., and Tyce, R. C., 1973, Marine Physical Laboratory deep-tow instrumentation system, Scripps Inst. Oceanogr. Ref. 73–4, La Jolla, Calif., 37 pp.
Stride, A. H., Belderson, R. H., and Kenyon, N. H., 1972, Longitudinal furrows and deposi-tional sand bodies of the English Channel, Mémoire du B.R.G.M. 79: 233–240.
Townsend, A. A., 1956, The Structure of Turbulent Shear Flow, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 315 pp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1976 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hollister, C.D., Southard, J.B., Flood, R.D., Lonsdale, P.F. (1976). Flow Phenomena in the Benthic Boundary Layer and Bed Forms beneath Deep-Current Systems. In: McCave, I.N. (eds) The Benthic Boundary Layer. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-8747-7_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-8747-7_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-8749-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-8747-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive