Cyclic steps
≈ 2 min read
Names in other languages
No names in other languages are held for this entry yet.
Article bodies are English and are not machine-translated. A name in another language is not a translation of the article.
Cyclic steps are rhythmic bedforms associated with Froude super-critical flow instability. They are a type of sediment wave, and are created when supercritical sediment-laden water (turbidity currents) travels downslope through sediment beds. Each "step" has a steep drop, and together they tend to migrate upstream. On the ocean floor, this phenomenon was first shown to be possible in 2006, although it was observed in open-channel flows over a decade earlier. Geological features appearing to be submarine cyclic steps have been detected in the northern lowlands of Mars in the Aeolis Mensae region, providing evidence of an ancient Martian ocean.
Cyclic steps are rhythmic bedforms associated with Froude super-critical flow instability. They are a type of sediment wave, and are created when supercritical sediment-laden water (turbidity currents) travels downslope through sediment beds. Each "step" has a steep drop, and together they tend to migrate upstream. On the ocean floor, this phenomenon was first shown to be possible in 2006, although it was observed in open-channel flows over a decade earlier. Geological features appearing to be submarine cyclic steps have been detected in the northern lowlands of Mars in the Aeolis Mensae region, providing evidence of an ancient Martian ocean.
Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1317853052 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.