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THEME DESCRIPTIONS FOR SESSION TOPICS


Theme 1 –Mud matters; the influence of clay and silt on depositional processes, deposits, and architecture. Depositional models for deepwater deposits are historically biased towards sand. The presence of mud in sediment gravity flows has, however, been shown to dramatically impact sedimentary processes. Mud can control erosion of sediment in entirely different ways as sandy sediments, it can alter the nature of turbulence affecting the flow structure, it can coagulate leading to support of the sand suspended in flows, and all of this means that mud can determine when, where, and how sediment is deposited in deep water systems. This theme aims to display the latest advances in understanding of mud-related processes in deep water systems, and expressions of mud-presence in facies and architecture of deep water deposits.


Theme 2 –Process stratigraphy; process controls on deposits and architecture of channels, lobes, and transition zones. Process stratigraphy refers to the practice of using flow processes, and the hydraulics of sediment-laden flows, to analyse the nature and distribution of deep water deposits in the rock record. Combining processed-based models with observed deposit characteristics allows one to make predictions away from data control. When successful this approach leads to a narrower band of possibilities than purely empirical studies, and to reduced uncertainty. This theme invites contributions that use physics or process-based rules and models in combination with descriptions of the rock record. Key questions that can be addressed are: How does deposit architecture relate to flow processes? What is the present state-of-knowledge of process-control on vertical and lateral stacking of turbidite beds in submarine channels and fan lobe elements? To what extent are we successful yet in using process-stratigraphy for prediction of facies and architecture in submarine fans?


Theme 3 –Modern environments; modern marine and lacustrine data sets of gravity flows, bottom currents, and their deposits. Rapidly improving technology and means to monitor deepwater environments improves our knowledge of sedimentary processes in natural systems. Emerging datasets from monitoring of modern marine and lacustrine systems, and from the deposits immediately beneath the sea floor are a rich source of depositional models that are often more intricate and complex than models based on the ancient rock record. They also demonstrate that turbidity currents are commonly affected significantly by the dynamic conditions of the water bodies they flow into. The architecture of the resulting deposits often displays architectures that do not fit with depositional models defined solely from a gravity flow perspective, but necessitate integrated interpretations that combine the effects of gravity flow with ocean circulation phenomena such as internal tides, breaking internal waves, and contour currents. This theme will address the latest datasets obtained from modern deep water systems and offers a platform for the integration of gravity flows and bottom currents.


Theme 4 –Deep flux; submarine canyons and channels as conduits for fluxes of sediment, organic carbon, pollutants, and nutrients to deepwater basins. Canyons are the conduits for a wide array of fluxes to the deep marine basins. Historically the sedimentological community has emphasised the flux of siliciclastic sediment in turbidity currents. However, quantification of fluxes of organic carbon, pollutants, plastics, and solutes is gaining attention. This theme will bring together contributions that illustrate the importance of submarine canyons and channels as conduits for fluxes of materials other than siliciclastic sediment, which play a major role in the organic carbon cycle, pollutant dispersal and burial, the nutrient cycle, and water-mass overturning.


Theme 5 –Modelling; new approaches in numerical and physical modelling of deep water sedimentation. In the spirit of works of the late Philip Kuenen there is no understanding of the rock record without help of experiments. This theme addresses new and developing techniques to model deep water sediment transport processes and deposits. The session aims to give an overview of modelling approaches ranging from direct numerical simulation to simplified analytical models and laboratory experiments that can be used to tackle problems from the grain-scale up to basin-scale. A key question to be addressed is: Which approaches are fit for what purposes in 2022 and beyond? If a modelling study addresses one of the themes described above, the author can indicate a desire to present in the corresponding theme (1-4, or 6), rather than the modelling theme.


Theme 6–Petroleum and beyond; applied uses of deepwater sedimentology. This session aims to achieve two things: Firstly, we want to highlight economic applications of deepwater sedimentology that go beyond petroleum. The diversity of economic activities in ocean environments is ever increasing, and this brings with it opportunities to apply sedimentology in a broader economic context such as geohazardassessments, deep sea mining, and the seafloor cable industry. A key question to discuss is: which other aspects of the ocean economy can benefit from sedimentological input beyond the age of petroleum?  Secondly, deepwater offshore exploration is predicted to remain active as one of the final focus areas of the fossil-petroleum based energy economy, while the global energy landscape is changing on a timescale of a few decades. We want to bring together presentations that highlight new and developing research questions related to the deepwater petroleum industry. A key question to discuss is: Whichscientific deep water questions will remain pertinent in the coming 25 years of the fossil-petroleum age? What challenges to deep water exploration and production can sedimentology still help to address?

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