Deep-Water Traction Current Deposits: A Study of Internal Tides, Internal Waves, Contour Currents and Their Deposits

A worldwide upsurge in research on deep-sea clastic deposits coincided with the advent of the theory of turbidity currents in the early part of the 1950s. Research during the following four decades led not only to the identification of many types of gravity-flow deposits but also to the recognition of deep-water traction current processes, their deposits and their importance. Deep-water traction current deposits can form good reservoir bodies, so the research has not only profound theoretical significance in the field of sedimentology and related subjects but also economic importance. Practical explorations have demonstrated that turbidities can be important hydrocarbon-bearing formations. Deep-water traction current deposits, by virtue of their long term winnowing, may have greater textural maturity and thus better developed primary interstices than turbidities and this their reservoir potential is much better. In addition, sand-sized contourites and internal-tide and internal-wave deposits typically are interbedded with deep-water fine-grained sediments that can form good traps. This book focuses on research by the authors in the last few years and discusses depositional features and mechanisms, distinguishing characteristics and depositional models for deep-water traction current deposits.