{"id":1628,"date":"2022-06-13T12:13:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T12:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/pufins-at-sea\/?p=1628"},"modified":"2022-06-13T12:13:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T12:13:56","slug":"what-is-in-the-mud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/pufins-at-sea\/what-is-in-the-mud\/","title":{"rendered":"What is in the Mud?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Diagram showing the 5 ways sediment is deposited in the ocean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to unravel the story in the mud, scientists need to have good understanding of how the mud got there and the processes that deposited the sediment.\u00a0 This way when they see changes in the composition or other physical characteristics, they can use their knowledge of the processes involved to propose an interpretation.\u00a0 The ocean is a very dynamic system and it is hard to speak in absolutes, but I am going to attempt to explain the five majors ways sediment gets to the ocean bottom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

River Input<\/h3>\n

Look all the way to the left on the above diagram and you will see a blue streak that represents continental rivers.\u00a0 Erosion of terrestrial rocks contributes a massive amount of sediment to rivers.\u00a0 Some of this sediment will be deposited on land, but a large amount will be transported to the edge of continents and deposited on the continental shelf (see my previous post on ocean bathymetry<\/a>).\u00a0 It is extremely hard to measure the exact amount, but some studies estimate that rivers bring around 13.5 x 109 <\/sup>tons of sediment to the ocean each year<\/a>.\u00a0 Once the rivers meet the ocean, the water loses most of its energy and drops most of the sediment at the mouth of the river.\u00a0 This is how deltas are formed.\u00a0 All the larger sized particles (i.e. pebble and sand size) will be deposited close to the shore.\u00a0 The smaller particles (i.e. silt and clay size) are able to stay in suspension for a little longer and can settle a little farther away from the mouth of the river.\u00a0 However, this sediment supply is restricted to the continental shelf.<\/p>\n

Wind Blown<\/h3>\n

Global wind patterns also affect the sediment that gets deposited in the deep-ocean.\u00a0 Strong steady winds are able to pick up and suspend silt<\/p>\n

\"\"
Core collected on this cruise showing several dark black ash layers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and clay sized particles and transport them 1,000\u2019s of km from their point of origin.\u00a0 Once the wind dies down, the particles will settle through the atmosphere and into the deep-ocean.\u00a0 This is a well-documented phenomenon with Saharan dust, and can be seen from space.\u00a0 Ash from volcanic eruptions can also be transported this way.\u00a0 One of the cores we collected on this cruise had visible ash layers from some ancient volcanic eruption.<\/p>\n

Biogenic Material<\/h3>\n

The ocean is full of primary producers that use photosynthesis or chemosynthesis to build their skeletal material.\u00a0 Microorganisms, such as foraminifera and coccolithophores, produce calcium carbonate shells, whereas diatoms, radiolarians, siliceous sponges, and silicoflagellates produce bodies made of silica.\u00a0 When these microorganisms die, their bodies settle through the water column and get deposited on the deep-sea floor.\u00a0 This process occurs all over the ocean, but is most noticeable in the deep-ocean where there is not as much terrestrial material to dilute the sediment.\u00a0 Sediments rich (>30%) in calcium carbonate are called carbonate or calcareous oozes, and ones high in silica are called siliceous oozes.\u00a0 If you have ever seen a picture of the White Cliffs of Dover, these huge white outcrops were made by carbonate rich sediments being deposited in the deep-ocean over millions of years.<\/p>\n

Icebergs<\/h3>\n

Glaciers, or large bodies of ice in the mountains or covering continents, act as huge bulldozers as they grow and move over land.\u00a0 As they move, all sizes of rock and sediment are picked up and incorporated into the ice.\u00a0 Glaciers are extremely powerful and can move sediment as small as silt and clay, to boulders the size of cars.\u00a0 As glaciers continue to grow, they will eventually reach the edge of continents and large pieces of ice will fall off into the ocean in a process called calving.\u00a0 Once the ice is in the water it will start to float away from its source, slowly melting along the way.\u00a0 As it melts, the sediment trapped in the ice will become dislodged and fall to the ocean floor.\u00a0 This sediment is called Ice Rafted Debris or Detritus, or IRD for short.\u00a0 IRD can be found 1,000\u2019s of km away from their source and scientists use the changes in the amount of this sediment to track the transition from glacial to interglacial periods in the past.<\/p>\n

Downslope Transport<\/h3>\n
\"\"
3.5 kilohertz seismic profile showing a turbidite deposit. Bottom picture has layers colored in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes sediments do not stay where they were originally deposited.\u00a0 Sediments can be redistributed by bottom water currents or by slope failure events.\u00a0 Large amounts of sediment can be transported along the Continental Slope through turbidites.\u00a0 These are essentially large underwater landslides that deposit large lopes of sediment on the Continental Rise and Abyssal Plain.\u00a0 We have seen many of these deposits on the 3.5 kilohertz seismic profiles that are taken to help determine a coring location.\u00a0 Check out the side by side pictures of the 3.5 where I have outlined the turbidite deposit.\u00a0 I also drew a diagram of this profile with the interpretation of the sediments.\u00a0 Although the<\/p>\n

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Diagram explaining 3.5 kilohertz profile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

turbidite on the seismic profile might not look very big, it actually represents close 25 m (~82 feet) of sediment. In our case these types of deposits are bad because the slope failure mixes up all the sediments and they no longer contain the nicely layered mud that we need to conduct climate studies.\u00a0 There may be beautiful layers beneath this deposit, but the coring methods we are using on this cruise cannot recover mud that deep.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s it.\u00a0 Well\u2026 sorta.\u00a0 Like I said at the top, the ocean is a dynamic system and sediments are constantly being reworked and deposited.\u00a0 It is up to geologists, oceanographers, and scientists to decipher the story hidden in the mud.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In order to unravel the story in the mud, scientists need to have good understanding of how the mud got there and the processes that deposited the sediment.\u00a0 This way … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2204,"featured_media":1637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-updates-from-sea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is in the Mud? - PUFINS at Sea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/pufins-at-sea\/what-is-in-the-mud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is in the Mud? - PUFINS at Sea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In order to unravel the story in the mud, scientists need to have good understanding of how the mud got there and the processes that deposited the sediment.\u00a0 This way … Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/pufins-at-sea\/what-is-in-the-mud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PUFINS at Sea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-13T12:13:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/pufins-at-sea\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/791\/2022\/06\/sedimenttypes-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren N. 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