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Earth and Space Sciences · Glossary

What is Turbidity current, turbidite, graded bed?

Also known as: turbidity current · turbidite · graded bed

Definition 21.15 University Earth and Space Sciences — Year 1 · Chapter 21 — Clastic Sediments and Their Environments

A turbidity current is a current of water made denser than the water around it by the sediment it holds in suspension, which flows down a slope under that water, its grains kept in suspension by the turbulence that its own motion creates. A turbidite is the deposit of a turbidity current. A graded bed is a bed whose grain size decreases from its base to its top.

Left: the five divisions of the Bouma sequence, the width of each proportional to its grain size (schematic). Right: a turbidite bed of the Upper Devonian at Becke-Oese, Germany, with the divisions A to E marked by the photographer; the coin gives the scale. Photograph Jo Weber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Left: the five divisions of the Bouma sequence, the width of each proportional to its grain size (schematic). Right: a turbidite bed of the Upper Devonian at Becke-Oese, Germany, with the divisions A to E marked by the photographer; the coin gives the scale. Photograph Jo Weber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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