Esther Sumner on Turbidity Currents

About this episode

Esther Sumner discusses her research on turbidity currents and her experiences with underwater instrumentation.

Though turbidity currents are massive and frequent underwater events, we have rarely observed them directly. Esther Sumner is one of the few researchers who has. In the podcast, she describes what it's like to instrument an active submarine canyon, what these flows have revealed about the way sediment moves across the seafloor — and the day her team accidentally flew an underwater robot into a live turbidity current in the Mendocino canyon off the coast of California. She is an Associate Professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Southampton.

People in this episode

Host: Oliver Strimpel

Guest: Esther Sumner

Topics covered

• turbidity currents
• submarine canyons
• sediment movement
• oceanography
• geology

Keywords

• turbidity currents
• submarine canyon
• sediment transport
• ocean currents
• geology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Southampton

Places: Mendocino canyon, California

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