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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Turbidity currents regulate the transport and settling of microplastics in a deep-sea submarine canyon
ClearSedimentary Characteristics of Microplastics Transported by Turbidity Currents in a Straight Canyon Topography
Physical model experiments revealed that ocean turbidity currents — sediment-laden underwater flows — transport and deposit microplastics in predictable patterns within submarine canyons, with higher-concentration flows retaining more particles and depositing them preferentially in wave-shaped seafloor areas. This understanding helps predict where microplastics accumulate in the deep sea, which matters for assessing long-term ecological impacts in some of the ocean's most remote and poorly studied habitats.
Microplastics in turbidity currents: transport and sedimentation
Researchers investigated the transport and sedimentation behavior of microplastics within turbidity currents, examining how these high-density submarine sediment gravity flows carry MP particles from continental shelves to deep-sea environments and what controls where MPs ultimately deposit.
Direct Evidence That Microplastics Are Transported to the Deep Sea by Turbidity Currents
Researchers provided the first direct field evidence that underwater sediment avalanches, called turbidity currents, transport microplastics from shallow waters into the deep sea through submarine canyons. By monitoring water flow and sampling the seafloor, they confirmed that these natural events carry significant quantities of microfibers and plastic fragments to deep ocean environments. The discovery helps explain how microplastic pollution reaches even the most remote parts of the ocean floor.
Large volumes of microplastics are transported to the deep sea by turbidity currents
Researchers provided the first direct field-scale evidence that turbidity currents in submarine canyons transport large volumes of microplastics including microfibers into the deep sea, demonstrating this mechanism as a major pathway delivering anthropogenic particles to deep seafloor environments.
Microplastic transport, deposition and burial in seafloor sediments by turbidity currents
This conference abstract describes how turbidity currents — underwater avalanches of sediment-laden water — can transport microplastics from submarine canyon heads to deep seafloor basins, creating localized hotspots of plastic accumulation. This mechanism may explain why deep-sea sediments contain some of the highest microplastic concentrations measured anywhere on Earth.
The combined role of near-bed currents and sub-seafloor processes in the transport and pervasive burial of microplastics in submarine canyons
Researchers studied how near-bed currents and sub-seafloor processes interact in submarine canyons to transport microplastics to deep-sea sediments, finding that canyon systems record temporal trends in plastic pollution but that physical disturbance can obscure or rework the depositional signal.
Supplemental Material: Turbidity currents regulate the transport and settling of microplastics in a deep-sea submarine canyon
This study provides supplemental materials and methods for research examining how turbidity currents regulate the transport and settling of microplastics in a deep-sea submarine canyon.
Supplemental Material: Turbidity currents regulate the transport and settling of microplastics in a deep-sea submarine canyon
This study provides supplemental materials and methods for research examining how turbidity currents regulate the transport and settling of microplastics in a deep-sea submarine canyon.
Transport and accumulation of plastic litter in submarine canyons—The role of gravity flows
Manned submersible dives in a submarine canyon in the northwestern South China Sea found plastic litter accumulations concentrated in scoured zones roughly 150 km from the nearest coast. Gravity-driven sediment flows and bottom currents were identified as the main mechanisms transporting plastic debris to deep-sea canyon floors.
Transport and Fluxes of Microplastics to Deep-Sea Sediments via Turbidity Currents through the Congo Canyon
Researchers directly measured microplastics transported by turbidity currents through the Congo Canyon using real-time monitoring instrumentation, providing the first empirical dataset on how these submarine sediment flows — among the longest and most powerful on Earth — deliver terrestrial microplastics to deep-sea sediments.
Transport and Burial of Microplastics in Deep-Marine Sediments by Turbidity Currents
Researchers used flume experiments to investigate how underwater avalanches called turbidity currents transport and bury microplastics in deep-sea sediments. They discovered that microplastic fibers become preferentially trapped between settling sand grains during deposition, even though fragments are more concentrated at the base of the flow. The study suggests that these powerful ocean currents may be responsible for distributing and burying large quantities of microplastics on the seafloor.
Transport and Settling of Microplastics in Turbidity Currents
Researchers investigated the transport and settling behavior of microplastics in turbidity currents to help explain the 'missing plastic' paradox, where far less plastic remains at the ocean surface than the amount estimated to enter the ocean annually. The study found that turbidity currents efficiently transport microplastics to deep-sea sediments, providing a mechanism for the removal of plastic from surface waters.
Transport of microplastics driven by turbidity currents developing over bedforms
Researchers examined microplastic transport by turbidity currents developing over seafloor bedforms, investigating how bedform morphology influences the capacity of these submarine sediment flows to suspend and carry microplastics from coastal zones to deep-ocean depositional environments.
Avalanches of Microplastics Carry Pollution into the Deep Sea
Researchers observed submarine avalanche-like sediment flows transporting microplastics from shallow coastal areas into the deep sea, confirming a previously theorized mechanism for the vertical redistribution of surface microplastic pollution into deep ocean environments. The findings have significant implications for understanding the long-term fate and accumulation of microplastics in deep-sea ecosystems.
Circulation of hydraulically ponded turbidity currents and the filling of continental slope minibasins
Researchers studied how turbidity currents circulate within continental slope minibasins, which are natural depressions that trap sediment-laden flows carrying materials including microplastics. The study established new experimental methods revealing circulation cell structures within these basins, improving understanding of how pollutants are transported and deposited on the seafloor.
Transport and sedimentation of microplastics by turbidity currents: Dependence on suspended sediment concentration and grain size
Researchers used laboratory experiments to study how turbidity currents, underwater flows of sediment-laden water, transport and deposit microplastics on the ocean floor. They found that higher sediment concentrations carried microplastics farther, and finer sediment grains enhanced transport distances compared to coarser ones. The findings suggest that both the properties of the sediment flow and the shape and density of microplastic particles play important roles in determining where plastics end up in marine sediments.
A transport mechanism for deep-sea microplastics: Hydroplaning of clay-laden sediment gravity flows
Researchers used laboratory flume experiments to show that clay-laden sediment gravity flows can transport microplastics to deep-sea environments via hydroplaning, a mechanism distinct from sand-laden flows and capable of carrying particles much further into the ocean interior.
Influence of flow discharge and minibasin shape on the flow behavior and depositional mechanics of ponded turbidity currents
This study is primarily a sedimentology study of how turbidity currents behave in deep-sea minibasins; it mentions microplastics only in passing as an example of light fine-grained particles that may be fractionated and redistributed along seafloor transport pathways. The core findings concern ocean floor sediment dynamics rather than microplastic pollution specifically.
Seafloor microplastic hotspots controlled by deep-sea circulation
Researchers discovered that deep-sea ocean currents, not just vertical settling from the surface, play a major role in concentrating microplastics on the seafloor, creating pollution hotspots with the highest concentrations ever recorded in any seafloor setting. These thermohaline-driven bottom currents sort and accumulate microplastics in the same areas where they deliver oxygen and nutrients to deep-sea life. The findings suggest that the most biologically rich areas of the deep ocean floor are likely also the most contaminated with microplastics.
Plastic pollution in deep seafloor of the South China Sea
Researchers documented the abundance, distribution, and transport of plastics in the South China Sea using over 100 manned submersible dives combined with video analysis, finding that large plastics concentrate in canyon geomorphological units while microplastics predominate in coastal sediments via distinct transport mechanisms.
Interactions between internal tides and turbidity currents: an under-recognized process in deep-marine stratigraphy?
This is not about microplastics — it is a marine geology study investigating interactions between internal ocean tides and sediment-laden turbidity currents in submarine canyons and their effects on deep-sea stratigraphy.
Turbidity current processes and products in the fjords of British Columbia (Canada)
This study documents how turbidity currents transport sediments through British Columbia's fjords to the deep sea. Understanding these sediment transport pathways is relevant for tracking how plastic debris on land can eventually reach deep marine environments.
Ocean current modulation of the spatial distribution of microplastics in the surface sediments of the Beibu Gulf, China
Researchers conducted a large-scale survey of microplastics in seafloor sediments of the Beibu Gulf in China and found that ocean currents play a major role in where microplastics accumulate. The study provides important data on how water circulation patterns transport and concentrate microplastic pollution in coastal marine environments.
Distribution of microplastics in bathyal- to hadal-depth sediments and transport process along the deep-sea canyon and the Kuroshio Extension in the Northwest Pacific
Researchers mapped microplastic distribution from shallow to ultra-deep ocean sediments in the Northwest Pacific, including Sagami Bay and areas beneath the Kuroshio Extension current. The study found the highest microplastic concentrations in abyssal stations and suggests two distinct transport pathways: land-sourced microplastics move to hadal depths via turbidity currents along submarine canyons, while ocean-surface microplastics sink directly to the abyssal plains below.