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Time-lapse surveys reveal patterns and processes of erosion by exceptionally powerful turbidity currents that flush submarine canyons: A case study of the Congo Canyon (2024)
Journal Article
Ruffell, S. C., Talling, P. J., Baker, M. L., Pope, E. L., Heijnen, M. S., Jacinto, R. S., Cartigny, M. J., Simmons, S. M., Clare, M. A., Heerema, C. J., McGhee, C., Hage, S., Hasenhündl, M., & Parsons, D. R. (2024). Time-lapse surveys reveal patterns and processes of erosion by exceptionally powerful turbidity currents that flush submarine canyons: A case study of the Congo Canyon. Geomorphology, 463, Article 109350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2024.109350

The largest canyons on Earth occur on the seafloor, and seabed sediment flows called turbidity currents play a key role in carving these submarine canyons. However, the processes by which turbidity currents erode submarine canyons are very poorly doc... Read More about Time-lapse surveys reveal patterns and processes of erosion by exceptionally powerful turbidity currents that flush submarine canyons: A case study of the Congo Canyon.

Globally significant mass of terrestrial organic carbon efficiently transported by canyon-flushing turbidity currents (2024)
Journal Article
Baker, M. L., Hage, S., Talling, P. J., Acikalin, S., Hilton, R. G., Haghipour, N., Ruffell, S. C., Pope, E. L., Jacinto, R. S., Clare, M. A., & Sahin, S. (2024). Globally significant mass of terrestrial organic carbon efficiently transported by canyon-flushing turbidity currents. Geology, 52(8), 631-636. https://doi.org/10.1130/g51976.1

Burial of organic carbon in marine sediments is a long-term sink of atmospheric CO2, and submarine turbidity currents are volumetrically the most important sediment transport process on Earth. Yet the processes, amounts, and efficiency of organic car... Read More about Globally significant mass of terrestrial organic carbon efficiently transported by canyon-flushing turbidity currents.

Morphometric fingerprints and downslope evolution in bathymetric surveys: insights into morphodynamics of the Congo canyon-channel (2024)
Journal Article
Hasenhündl, M., Talling, P. J., Pope, E. L., Baker, M. L., Heijnen, M. S., Ruffell, S. C., …Cartigny, M. J. B. (2024). Morphometric fingerprints and downslope evolution in bathymetric surveys: insights into morphodynamics of the Congo canyon-channel. Frontiers in Earth Science, 12, Article 1381019. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2024.1381019

Submarine canyons and channels are globally important pathways for sediment, organic carbon, nutrients and pollutants to the deep sea, and they form the largest sediment accumulations on Earth. However, studying these remote submarine systems compreh... Read More about Morphometric fingerprints and downslope evolution in bathymetric surveys: insights into morphodynamics of the Congo canyon-channel.

The Global Turbidity Current Pump and Its Implications for Organic Carbon Cycling (2023)
Journal Article
Talling, P. J., Hage, S., Baker, M. L., Bianchi, T. S., Hilton, R. G., & Maier, K. L. (2024). The Global Turbidity Current Pump and Its Implications for Organic Carbon Cycling. Annual Review of Marine Science, 16(1), https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-032223-103626

Submarine turbidity currents form the largest sediment accumulations on Earth, raising the question of their role in global carbon cycles. It was previously inferred that terrestrial organic carbon was primarily incinerated on shelves and that most t... Read More about The Global Turbidity Current Pump and Its Implications for Organic Carbon Cycling.

Carbon and sediment fluxes inhibited in the submarine Congo Canyon by landslide-damming (2022)
Journal Article
Pope, E. L., Heijnen, M. S., Talling, P. J., Jacinto, R. S., Gaillot, A., Baker, M. L., …Urlaub, M. (2022). Carbon and sediment fluxes inhibited in the submarine Congo Canyon by landslide-damming. Nature Geoscience, 15(10), 845-853. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01017-x

Landslide-dams, which are often transient, can strongly affect the geomorphology, and sediment and geochemical fluxes, within subaerial fluvial systems. The potential occurrence and impact of analogous landslide-dams in submarine canyons has, however... Read More about Carbon and sediment fluxes inhibited in the submarine Congo Canyon by landslide-damming.

Longest sediment flows yet measured show how major rivers connect efficiently to deep sea (2022)
Journal Article
Talling, P. J., Baker, M. L., Pope, E. L., Ruffell, S. C., Jacinto, R. S., Heijnen, M. S., …Hilton, R. J. (2022). Longest sediment flows yet measured show how major rivers connect efficiently to deep sea. Nature Communications, 13(1), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31689-3

Here we show how major rivers can efficiently connect to the deep-sea, by analysing the longest runout sediment flows (of any type) yet measured in action on Earth. These seafloor turbidity currents originated from the Congo River-mouth, with one flo... Read More about Longest sediment flows yet measured show how major rivers connect efficiently to deep sea.

Does sand promote or hinder the mobility of cohesive sediment gravity flows? (2022)
Journal Article
Baker, M. L., & Baas, J. H. (2023). Does sand promote or hinder the mobility of cohesive sediment gravity flows?. Sedimentology, 70(4), 1110-1130. https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.13072

Sediment gravity flows exhibit a large range of flow behaviours, making their flow dynamics hard to predict and the resulting deposits a challenge to interpret. Cohesive sediment gravity flows containing clay are particularly complex, as their behavi... Read More about Does sand promote or hinder the mobility of cohesive sediment gravity flows?.

Blood, lead and spheres: A hindered settling equation for sedimentologists based on metadata analysis (2022)
Journal Article
Baas, J. H., Baker, M. L., Buffon, P., Strachan, L. J., Bostock, H., Hodgson, D., …Spychala, Y. T. (2022). Blood, lead and spheres: A hindered settling equation for sedimentologists based on metadata analysis. Depositional Record, 8(2), 603-615. https://doi.org/10.1002/dep2.176

A revision of the popular equation of Richardson and Zaki (1954a, Transactions of the Institute of Chemical Engineering, 32, 35–53) for the hindered settling of suspensions of non-cohesive particles in fluids is proposed, based on 548 data sets from... Read More about Blood, lead and spheres: A hindered settling equation for sedimentologists based on metadata analysis.

Mixed sand–mud bedforms produced by transient turbulent flows in the fringe of submarine fans: Indicators of flow transformation (2020)
Journal Article
Baker, M. L., & Baas, J. H. (2020). Mixed sand–mud bedforms produced by transient turbulent flows in the fringe of submarine fans: Indicators of flow transformation. Sedimentology, 67(5), 2645-2671. https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12714

The fringe of fine‐grained deep‐marine systems often exhibits complex sedimentary facies and facies associations, because the presence of clay promotes the development of transient turbulent flows with complex depositional properties. Relatively litt... Read More about Mixed sand–mud bedforms produced by transient turbulent flows in the fringe of submarine fans: Indicators of flow transformation.