The first run, done at last....

The first submarine fan was constructed over the course of a week in mid-December, thanks to the assistance of Will Schweller, Bill Lyons, Steve DiBenedetto and John Thurmond. The fan was composed of 21 runs of varying densities (probably somewhere between 2% and 5% over ambient). The deposit varied from 5 cm thick in the proximal/source area to just a few mm near the end of the platform. In the proximal reaches, ripples formed after just a few runs (about 5), which yielded incredible pictures of climbing ripples.

During the course of the runs, the flows exhibited unusual characteristics. The first 5-10 flows were approximately symmetric, due to their purely plume-like behavior and the lack of topography on the platform. However, once the fan began to build up, the flows tended to favor different places, depending on the initial density and the topography it was running over at the time. We found that the most of the denser flows favored the left side (from the flow's perspective) of the deposit, while lighter flows either remained symmetric or veered slightly to the right. The degree to which this occurred varied during the course of the experiment. Further, in the last few runs, a small channel formed a the far left edge of deposit. Flow typically. Though these results are only qualitative, experiment #2 will quantify not only the dependence on the initial density, but the flows will be videotaped and recorded for their symmetry and waning flow structure. Early results are particularly intriguing.

Fortunately, the Balotini used varied in color due to slight changes in grain size. Finer Balotini typically had a darker appearance while courser material appeared more white. This allowed, after the fan was cored, for a log to be taken to illustrate the distribution coarser material. An example of this is shown here, where the logs are hung from the top of run #4. Notice that the variation in thickness of each of the deposits increases further up the core. Also notice that the individual beds are thicker on certain sides than others and that they appear to shift intermittently up the core. Further, note that the total deposit thickness is less in 16 than , even though the percentage of coarser material is higher. These two facts indicate that the central-left side of the deposit seemed to focus flows, while the right side accumulated sediment, possibly in a levee-like fashion. Remaining cores can be found here. Processing of these logs will eventually be used to create a three-dimensional picture of the deposits.