Keynote Speech - Taking Physical Modelling of Deepwater Depositional Systems Forwards

We show how new scaling considerations, which we term Shields scaling, have opened up new avenues of investigation in the physical modelling of deepwater depositional systems. We demonstrate the added value of the new approach with two examples: A) Channel-levee relief development. B) Depositional patterns in a break-of-slope setting. The flow dynamics results of the experiments are consistent with the extensive body of previously published physical modelling results in both examples. The sediment distribution, however, shows a clear departure from the draping depositional behavior encountered predominantly in previous work. In contrast, the experimental deposits presented here display a subtle spatio-temporal interplay between erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment by turbidity currents, which results in a morphodynamic evolution that is a much better analogue for deepwater system development.