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David J. W. Piper

Publications and source records attributed to David J. W. Piper.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2015

On the reconstruction of palaeo-ice sheets: Recent advances and future challenges

Reconstructing the growth and decay of palaeo-ice sheets is critical to understanding mechanisms of global climate change and associated sea-level fluctuations in the past, present and future. The significance of palaeo-ice sheets is further underlined by the broad range of disciplines concerned with reconstructing their behaviour, many of which have undergone a rapid expansion since the 1980s. In particular, there has been a major increase in the size and qualitative diversity of empirical data used to reconstruct and date ice sheets, and major improvements in our ability to simulate their dynamics in numerical ice sheet models. These developments have made it increasingly necessary to forge interdisciplinary links between sub-disciplines and to link numerical modelling with observations and dating of proxy records. The aim of this paper is to evaluate recent developments in the methods used to reconstruct ice sheets and outline some key challenges that remain, with an emphasis on how future work might integrate terrestrial and marine evidence together with numerical modelling. Our focus is on pan-ice sheet reconstructions of the last deglaciation, but regional case studies are used to illustrate methodological achievements, challenges and opportunities. Whilst various disciplines have made important progress in our understanding of ice-sheet dynamics, it is clear that data-model integration remains under-used, and that uncertainties remain poorly quantified in both empirically-based and numerical ice-sheet reconstructions. The representation of past climate will continue to be the largest source of uncertainty for numerical modelling. As such, palaeo-observations are critical to constrain and validate modelling. State-of-the-art numerical models will continue to improve both in model resolution and in the breadth of inclusion of relevant processes, thereby enabling more accurate and more direct comparison with the increasing range of palaeo-observations. Thus, the capability is developing to use all relevant palaeo-records to more strongly constrain deglacial (and to a lesser extent pre-LGM) ice sheet evolution. In working towards that goal, the accurate representation of uncertainties is required for both constraint data and model outputs. Close cooperation between modelling and data-gathering communities is essential to ensure this capability is realised and continues to progress.

Quaternary Science Reviews↗
USGS2009

Processes that initiate turbidity currents and their influence on turbidites: A marine geology perspective

How the processes that initiate turbidity currents influence turbidite deposition is poorly understood, and many discussions in the literature rely on concepts that are overly simplistic. Marine geological studies provide information on the initiation and flow path of turbidity currents, including their response to gradient. In case studies of late Quaternary turbidites on the eastern Canadian and western U.S. margins, initiation processes are inferred either from real-time data for historical flows or indirectly from the age and contemporary paleogeography, erosional features, and depositional record. Three major types of initiation process are recognized: transformation of failed sediment, hyperpycnal flow from rivers or ice margins, and resuspension of sediment near the shelf edge by oceanographic processes. Many high-concentration flows result from hyperpycnal supply of hyperconcentrated bedload, or liquefaction failure of coarse-grained sediment, and most tend to deposit in slope conduits and on gradients < 0.5° at the base of slope and on the mid fan. Highly turbulent flows, from transformation of retrogressive failures and from ignitive flows that are triggered by oceanographic processes, tend to cannibalize these more proximal sediments and redeposit them on lower gradients on the basin plain. Such conduit flushing provides most of the sediment in large turbidites. Initiation mechanism exerts a strong control on the duration of turbidity flows. In most basins, there is a complex feedback between different types of turbidity-current initiation, the transformation of the flows, and the associated slope morphology. As a result, there is no simple relationship between initiating process and type of deposit.

Journal of Sedimentary Research↗
USGS2009

Modelling of turbidity currents on Navy Submarine Fan, California Continental Borderland

Several Holocene turbidites can be correlated across much of Navy Fan through more than 100 sediment core localities. The uppermost muddy turbidite unit is mapped throughout the northern half of the fan; its volume, grain-size distribution and the maximum height of deposition on the basin slopes are known. These parameters can be related to the precise channel morphology and mesotopography revealed by deeptow surveys. Thus there is sufficient information to estimate detailed flow characteristics for this turbidity current as it moved from fan valley to distal basin plain. On the upper fan, the gradient and the increasing downstream width of the channel and only limited flow overspill suggest that the flow had a Froude number close to 1.0. The sediment associated with the channel indicates friction velocities of about 0.06 ms −1 and flow velocities of about 0.75 m s −1 . Using this flow velocity and channel dimensions, sediment concentration (≈︁2 × 10 −3 ) and discharge are estimated, and from a knowledge of the total volume of sediment deposited, the flow duration is estimated to be from 2 to 9 days. It is shown that the estimates of Froude number, drag coefficient, and sediment concentration are not likely to vary by more than a factor of 2. On the mid-fan, the flow was much thicker than the height of the surface relief of the fan and it spread rapidly. The cross-flow slope, determined from the horizontal extent of turbidite sediment, is used to estimate flow velocity, which is confirmed by consideration of both sediment grain size and rate of deposition. This again allows sediment concentration and discharge to be estimated. The requirements of flow continuity, entrainment of water during flow expansion, and observed sediment deposition provide checks on all these estimates, and provide an integrated picture of the evolution of the flow. The flow characteristics of this muddy turbidity current are well constrained compared to those for more sand-rich late Pleistocene and early Holocene turbidity currents on the fan.

California↗
USGS2006

Digital single-channel seismic-reflection data from western Santa Monica basin

During a collaborative project in 1992, Geological Survey of Canada and United States Geological Survey scientists obtained about 850 line-km of high-quality single-channel boomer and sleeve-gun seismic-reflection profiles across Hueneme, Mugu and Dume submarine fans, Santa Monica Basin, off southern California. The goals of this work were to better understand the processes that lead to the formation of sandy submarine fans and the role of sea-level changes in controlling fan development. This report includes a trackline map of the area surveyed, as well as images of the sleeve-gun profiles and the opportunity to download both images and digital data files (SEG-Y) of all the sleeve-gun profiles.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1991

Initiation processes and flow evolution of turbidity currents: Implications for the depositional record

Interpretations of sea-level change and source-area tectonism from the character of turbidite deposits require knowledge of the sediment source, the flow-initiation process, how the turbidity current evolved during flow, and what flow phases were associated with deposition. The flow responds to shape and size characteristics of both the erosional pathway and the morphology of previous deposits; these, in turn, reflect factors such as basin size, shape, and tectonic activity. The initiation of turbidity currents generally involves either transformation from mass failures or one of a variety of fluid-flow events involving ignitive flow. The variability of these initiating processes with geologic setting is illustrated by analysis of three case studies involving 1) initiation by storm surge on a carbonate-reef slope, 2) a seismically triggered failure of a line source within midslope sediment, and 3) a bedload delta showing both hyperpycnal flow of river bedload and failure of unstable prodelta sediment. General criteria for the initiation of turbidity currents are given. Depositional and erosional features of the turbidite deposits themselves allow recognition of changes in flow processes as the turbidity currents traverse the basin. High-concentration basal flow beneath the main turbulent turbidity current will leave a distinctive depositional record from more energetic flow, particularly in proximal and channel settings. Turbidity currents of different sizes and sediment distribution interact quite differently with local fan morphology. Many large, muddy turbidity currents are much thicker than levee-channel relief; the upper parts of such flows are "stripped off" across levees and can become rechannelized farther downslope. in restricted basins, the basin margin acts like a channel wall for larger flows, thus maintaining competence over long distances. Thinner, sandier flows flush out channel systems, and a large proportion of sediment in some turbidite deposits may be derived from bed erosion. A broad range of local bedforms, especially sediment waves and scours, reflects changes in the character of turbulence and competence within quasi-steady flows. This paper emphasizes the broad range of size, sediment distribution, and depositional processes in turbidity currents that largely reflects the variety of initiation processes. This variability means that caution is needed when interpreting depositional conditions of ancient turbidite sediment with ill-defined morphologic setting.

Book chapter↗
USGS1973

Late Quaternary sedimentation in the active eastern Aleutian Trench

Sediments originally deposited on the Alaskan Abyssal Plain have been depressed to form the eastern Aleutian Trench. Simultaneously, a wedge of horizontally bedded sediments, about 1 km thick at its axis, has been deposited in the trench. The time-transgressive facies change between this wedge of sediment and the abyssal-plain sediment sequence shows up as a discontinuity on seismic records. Sediment is being deposited up to 10 times faster in the trench than on the abyssal plain. Ninety percent of the sediment in the trench arrived there by moving down the trench wall as slumps or in turbidity currents, and has been partly redistributed by turbidity currents flowing in a channel along the trench axis; 7 percent has come from the Surveyor Channel distribution system on the abyssal plain; and 3 percent is pelagic (mainly ice rafted). Sediments pass from a sandy facies near the trench wall to a silt-mud facies on the abyssal plain. If a similar trench were exposed on land, the stratigraphic sequence would consist of sandstone grading transitionally downward into shale, and then into an abyssal-plain sequence. Sediment fill in the Aleutian Trench is abnormally thick as a result of Pleistocene glaciation; Neogene trench-fill sediments would be less than 800 m thick.

Alaska↗