North Sea 2

Sedimentology (2000) 47, 3170
Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation

(Lower Cretaceous), North Sea: a new perspective
on the turbidity current and debris ow problem
DO NALD R. LOWE* and MARTIN GUY 1
*Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
(E-mail: lowe@pangea.stanford.edu)
Chevron (UK) Ltd, Royfold House, Hill of Rubislaw, Aberdeen AB15 6GZ, UK
(E-mail: Martin.Guy@btinternet.com)
ABSTRACT
The Lower Cretaceous Britannia Formation (North Sea) includes an assemblage

of sandstone beds interpreted here to be the deposits of turbidity currents,
debris ows and a spectrum of intermediate ow types termed slurry ows.
The term `slurry ow' is used here to refer to watery ows transitional between
turbidity currents, in which particles are supported primarily by ow
turbulence, and debris ows, in which particles are supported by ow
strength. Thick, clean, dish-structured sandstones and associated thinbedded sandstones showing Bouma Tbe divisions were deposited by highand low-density turbidity currents respectively. Debris ow deposits are
marked by deformed, intraformational mudstone and sandstone masses
suspended within a sand-rich mudstone matrix. Most Britannia slurry-ow
deposits contain 1035% detrital mud matrix and are grain supported.
Individual beds vary in thickness from a few centimetres to over 30 m. Seven
sedimentary structure division types are recognized in slurry-ow beds: (M1)
current structured and massive divisions; (M2) banded units; (M3) wispy
laminated sandstone; (M4) dish-structured divisions; (M5) ne-grained,
microbanded to at-laminated units; (M6) foundered and mixed layers that
were originally laminated to microbanded; and (M7) vertically water-escape
structured divisions. Water-escape structures are abundant in slurry-ow
deposits, including a variety of vertical to subvertical pipe- and sheet-like uidescape conduits, dish structures and load structures. Structuring of Britannia
slurry-ow beds suggests that most ows began deposition as turbidity
currents: fully turbulent ows characterized by turbulent grain suspension
and, commonly, bed-load transport and deposition (M1). Mud was apparently
transported largely as hydrodynamically silt- to sand-sized grains. As the ows
waned, both mud and mineral grains settled, increasing near-bed grain
concentration and ow density. Low-density mud grains settling into the
denser near-bed layers were trapped because of their reduced settling
velocities, whereas denser quartz and feldspar continued settling to the bed.
The result of this kinetic sieving was an increasing mud content and particle
concentration in the near-bed layers. Disaggregation of mud grains in the nearbed zone as a result of intense shear and abrasion against rigid mineral grains
caused a rapid increase in effective clay surface area and, hence, near-bed
cohesion, shear resistance and viscosity. Eventually, turbulence was suppressed
in a layer immediately adjacent to the bed, which was transformed into a
Present address: 39 Little Woodcote Lane, Purley, Surrey CR8 3PZ, UK
2000 International Association of Sedimentologists
31
32
D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

cohesion-dominated viscous sublayer. The banding and lamination in M2 are
thought to reect the formation, evolution and deposition of such cohesiondominated sublayers. More rapid fallout from suspension in less muddy ows
resulted in the development of thin, short-lived viscous sublayers to form
wispy laminated divisions (M3) and, in the least muddy ows with the highest
suspended-load fallout rates, direct suspension sedimentation formed dishstructured M4 divisions. Markov chain analysis indicates that these divisions
are stacked to form a range of bed types: (I) dish-structured beds; (II) dishstructured and wispy laminated beds; (III) banded, wispy laminated and/or
dish-structured beds; (IV) predominantly banded beds; and (V) thickly banded
and mixed slurried beds. These different bed types form mainly in response to
the varying mud contents of the depositing ows and the inuence of mud on
suspended-load fallout rates. The Britannia sandstones provide a remarkable
and perhaps unique window on the mechanics of sediment-gravity ows
transitional between turbidity currents and debris ows and the textures and
structuring of their deposits.
Keywords Debris ows, slurry ows, turbidites, turbidity currents.
INTRODUCTION
Turbidity currents and debris ows are widely
recognized as the main processes by which coarse
sediment is transported and deposited in the
deep sea (Carter, 1975; Middleton & Hampton,
1976; Lowe, 1979, 1982; Nardin et al., 1979).
Recently, there has been some controversy
regarding the relative importance of these
processes in depositing thick-bedded deep-water
sandstones (e.g. Shanmugam & Moiola, 1995,
1997; Shanmugam, 1996; Lowe, 1997; Slatt et al.,
1997), and there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the criteria by which the deposits
of turbidity currents (turbidites) and debris ows
(debris-ow deposits or debrites) can be recognized and distinguished in the geological record.
At least part of the confusion reects ambiguities
in the denitions of these sediment-ow types.
Two sets of denitions are in common use,
referred to here as the sedimentological and
rheological denitions. Geologists and sedimentologists working with ancient, principally marine
deposits generally dene end-member sediment
ow types based on the inferred particle-support
mechanisms (Middleton & Hampton, 1976; Lowe,
1979, 1982; Nardin et al., 1979). Turbidity currents are ows ìn which the sediment is supported mainly by the upward component of uid
turbulence' (Middleton & Hampton, 1976, p. 198).
Debris ows are ows ìn which the larger grains
are supported by a ``matrix,'' a mixture of interstitial uid and ne sediment that has a nite
yield strength' (Middleton & Hampton, 1976,
p. 198). These denitions reect the existence of

structures and textures in sedimentary deposits,
such as the common mud matrix-supported texture of debris-ow deposits and the presence of
traction-produced structures in turbidites, that can
be related with some degree of condence to the
mechanisms by which the particles were supported and how they behaved during sedimentation.
A second set of denitions, widely used by
engineers and sedimentary geologists studying
laboratory ows and modern, mainly subaerial,
gravelly debris ows, is based on ow rheology or
properties that directly affect rheology, such as
sediment concentration. Turbidity currents are
generally regarded as dilute ows of Newtonian
uids, whereas debris ows are ows of Bingham
plastics, thixotropic substances and/or materials
that exhibit a nite yield strength (Johnson, 1970;
Pierson, 1985; Pierson & Costa, 1987). Iverson
(1997) denes debris ows as ows within which
both `solid and uid forces vitally inuence the
motion' through frictional and cohesive interactions and by imparting strength to the soliduid
mixture. Concentration-based denitions include
those of Vallance & Scott (1997) and Mohrig et al.
(1998), who dene debris ows as ows with
subequal proportions of debris and water.
This paper uses the denitions of Middleton &
Hampton (1976) and Lowe (1979), but an essential part of the analysis will involve interpretation
of ow rheology, especially during sedimentation. Many ows are turbidity currents or debris
ows according to both sedimentological and
rheological denitions, and there is usually little
2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170
Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea

ambiguity in distinguishing their deposits. In
other instances, however, sedimentological and
rheological denitions conict, and turbidity
currents in one scheme are the debris ows of
the other. For example, watery ows that possess
strength resulting from the presence of clays but
are turbulent throughout much of their existence
may be rheological debris ows but sedimentological turbidity currents. Middleton & Hampton
(1976), Lowe (1979, 1982), Iverson (1997) and
many others have pointed out that many if not
most sediment-gravity ows, especially where
sediment concentrations are above 10%, are
inuenced by more than one particle-support
mechanism. High-concentration ows are likely
to be vertically stratied and/or laterally differentiated, and the sediment-choked and/or mudrich lower parts may behave as debris ows,
whereas less muddy or more dilute upper parts
behave as turbidity currents (Postma et al., 1988).
Traction carpets at the bases of turbidity currents,
for instance, are near-bed layers in which particle
support is dominated by grain collisions, while
particles in the overlying ow are supported
largely by turbulence (Lowe, 1982; Hiscott,
1994; Sohn, 1997).
Chemical engineers commonly use the term
slurry ow to describe any two-phase, soliduid
ow (Shook & Roco, 1991). Wood & Smith (1959)
and Burne (1970, 1995) used the term `slurry
beds' to refer to deposits showing features suggestive of both cohesive and turbulent behaviour,
and the terms slurries, slurry ows, slurry breccias and slurry sandstones have been applied by a
number of investigators to watery debris ows or
muddy turbidity currents and their deposits
(Hampton, 1972; Carter, 1975; Hiscott & Middleton, 1979; Strong & Walker, 1981; Pierson & Costa,
1987; Jordan et al., 1991). In the present study,
the term slurry ows will be used to refer to
muddy sand-rich sediment ows that exhibit both
turbulent and cohesive sediment support and are
transitional between end-member turbidity currents and cohesive debris ows. The deposits of
slurry ows are termed slurry-ow deposits,
slurried beds or slurry beds. As dened here,
slurry ows are more dilute and less cohesive
than ows termed slurry ows by Pierson & Costa
(1987), which show sufcient yield strength that
they are not turbulent, commonly contain suspended gravel-sized clasts, and from which
coarse and ne particles settle together without
relative movement and size fractionation (Pierson
& Costa, 1987, p. 7). They are more like subaerial
hyperconcentrated streamows (Pierson & Costa,
33
1987), although these are generally not turbulent,

an essential and commonly dominant trait of
submarine slurry ows as dened here. Actual
particle concentrations that characterize these
various behaviours depend on the nature of the
particles, varying from a few percent, where
highly cohesive, ne-grained clay such as smectite is involved, to 4050% for non-cohesive
sand-sized grains (Pierson & Costa, 1987). Gravelly ows tend to show higher particle concentrations, are generally dominated by frictional
rather than cohesive interactions (Iverson, 1997)
and are therefore less likely to be turbulent.
Whether slurry ows as dened here are regarded as a subclass of debris ows, a subclass of
turbidity currents or a separate class of sediment
ows is less important than the recognition that
they can form deposits with a suite of distinctive
textures and structures by which the properties
and evolution of the depositing ows can be
recognized from deposits in the geological record.
The Britannia Field (Figs 1 and 2) is a major
North Sea gas and condensate eld (Jones et al.,
1999). Reservoir rocks are Lower Cretaceous
(Aptian) sandstones (Fig. 3), previously termed
Kopervik sands, which are included in the upper
Valhall and lower Sola Formations (Jensen et al.,
1986; Bisewski, 1990; Guy, 1992). These sandstones have been assigned more recently to the
Britannia Formation (Johnson & Lott, 1993). Guy
(1992) interpreted the Britannia sandstones to be
the deposits of sediment gravity ows, including
both low- and high-density turbidity currents,
liqueed ows and debris ows. Although these
ows undoubtedly involved the complex
interaction of inertial forces, cohesive strength,
viscous forces, gravity forces, grain collisions
and buoyancy, as inferred to characterize
experimental, modern and ancient sediment
ows (Johnson, 1970; Hampton, 1975; Middleton
& Hampton, 1976; Postma, 1986; Iverson &
Denlinger, 1987; Pierson & Costa, 1987; Takahashi, 1991; Coussot & Piau, 1994), evidence
will be presented that they were deposited by
sand-rich watery ows, termed here slurry ows,
in which sedimentation was inuenced by both
ow turbulence and cohesion.
BRITANNIA FORMATION
Geological setting
Sediments of the Britannia Formation in the
Britannia Field were deposited at the eastern
34
Fig. 1. General map of the central

part of the North Sea petroleum
province showing the main structural features and the location of the
Britannia Field. Structural highs are
shaded.
end of the Witch Ground Graben and the western

edge of the Fisher Bank Basin at the junction of
the Central, South Viking and Witch Ground
Grabens (Fig. 1). The structural framework of the
area was established during Late Jurassic rifting,
which created a complex series of deep grabens
and half-grabens separated by high-standing
horsts and tilted blocks (Kent, 1975; Beach,
1984, 1985; Glennie, 1990). The eastern end of
the Witch Ground Graben was a sub-basin representing an asymmetric half-graben, the deepest
part of which lay along the southern bounding
fault against the Renee Ridge (Fig. 1). This
sub-basin was bounded on the north-east by the

Fladen Ground Spur, a southward salient of the
East Shetland Shelf that bordered the Witch
Ground Graben on the north. To the north and
north-west, the sub-basin was bounded by an
eastwest-trending fault block, informally termed
the Àxial High', which extended from near the
southern tip of the Fladen Ground Spur into and
nearly across the Witch Ground Graben (Fig. 1).
Sedimentation in the Late Jurassic and earliest
Cretaceous largely lled the deepest part of the
Witch Ground Graben, so that by the time the
Britannia Formation was deposited, it apparently
Fig. 2. Map of the Britannia Field showing block boundaries and locations of the wells examined as part of the
present study.
35
been assigned even numbers from bed 2 (zone 10)

to bed 86 (top zone 50). The principal reservoirs in
the western part of the eld, in blocks 15/29 and
15/30, are relatively clean, turbiditic sands in zone
20. To the east, in block 16/26, the principal gas
reservoirs are mud-rich, slurry-ow sandstones in
zones 40, 45 and 50 (Fig. 3).
Petrology of Britannia Formation sandstones

Methodology
Fig. 3. Stratigraphic subdivision, zonation and gamma

log proles of the Britannia Formation in wells 16/26-9
and 16/26-24 in the Britannia Field.
formed a broad, shallow, more or less symmetric,

eastwest-trending basin, although downdropping of the basin along the southern bounding
fault continued into the Late Cretaceous (Beach,
1984). The Britannia Field is located along the
northern margin of this basin near the northern,
updip pinch-out of the Britannia sandstones
against the Axial High in the 15/29 and
15/30 blocks and the Fladen Ground Spur in the
16/26 and 16/27 blocks (Fig. 2). The Axial High
was largely buried during Britannia deposition,
and sediment moved into the basin from all
directions.
Stratigraphy
Within the Britannia Field (Fig. 2), the Britannia
Formation has been divided into seven informal
biostratigraphic and lithological zones termed,
from the base upwards, zones 7, 10, 20, 30, 40, 45
and 50 (Fig. 3). Zone 30 is distinguished only in the
15/29 and 15/30 blocks in the western part of the
eld, and zone 7 is missing through erosion in a
number of wells (Fig. 3). To facilitate identication
and correlation, individual sandstone beds have
The lithology, stratigraphy and sedimentology of

Britannia sandstones in the Britannia Field have
been analysed through the study of wireline logs
and cores from 22 exploration and appraisal
(E&A) wells and 17 predrill production wells
(Fig. 2), direct examination and measurement of
over 2016 m (6613 feet) of conventional core,
study of high-quality core photographs from most
E&A and 17 predrill wells and examination of
over 2000 thin sections, most of which have been
point counted using a standard grid technique.
Predrill wells are labelled with the letter `B' or `M'
in Fig. 2 (e.g. B2, M5); the remaining wells are
E&A wells. Mineralogy was determined for all
grains, cements and matrix materials. Grid counting on each section proceeded until a total of 300
quartz and feldspar grains were counted and
measured. This resulted in a total compositional
count of 450550 points per thin section.
In addition, the longest grain dimension (the à'
intercept) of 300 (E&A wells) or 100 (predrill
wells) quartz and feldspar grains was measured
and averaged to calculate the mean grain size for
each sample. Each thin section was also examined to note sediment unimodality or bimodality
and to measure the largest quartz and feldspar
grains. For the E&A wells, the à' and `b' (longest
dimension perpendicular to à') intercepts were
measured for each of the ve largest grains in
each thin section. An average diameter, (a + b)/2,
was calculated for each grain, and these were
averaged for each section. This measurement is
termed max5. For the predrill wells (Table 1),
which were point counted by an independent
contractor, the max5 was calculated as above but
with the `b' intercept dened as the shortest grain
diameter in thin section and the à' intercept as
the longest dimension perpendicular to `b'. This
measure is 1020% less than the max5 as measured in the E&A wells. The max5 in Table 1 is
based entirely on measurements from the predrill
wells in the 16/26 block using the latter technique
for its calculation.
36
Table 1. Properties of slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation from predrill wells 16/26-B1, B2, B3, B4, B5,
B6, B7, B8 and B10.
Mean grain
size (mm)
max5
(mm)
No. unimodal/No.
uncertain/No.
bimodal
Division
Block
Zone
Mean mud
content
(vol.%)*
M1
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
209
167
214
118
123
(25)
(27)
(12)
(1)
(3)
041
044
035
030
033
129
136
114
109
108
0/0/25
1/1/25
0/1/11
0/0/1
0/0/3
M2a
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
274
228
200
(0)
233
(4)
(6)
(27)
023
028
030
077
094
100
0/2/2
3/3/0
1/6/20
(8)
031
113
0/0/8
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
253
173
185
(0)
164
(17)
(14)
(8)
022
033
028
076
095
089
4/8/5
2/2/10
1/3/4
(9)
037
127
0/0/9
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
233
182
160
(0)
186
(43)
(15)
(5)
023
035
044
072
096
143
12/15/16
1/5/9
0/0/5
(2)
036
123
0/0/2
M2 (total)
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
241 (64)
187 (35)
192 (40)
(0)
(0)
023
033
031
073
095
103
16/25/23
M3
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
203 (25)
155 (49)
176 (19)
91 (4)
113 (10)
019
027
028
033
035
053
066
078
110
100
15/6/4
25/19/5
6/7/6
0/0/4
1/1/8
M4
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
188
141
141
107
123
(10)
(70)
(49)
(24)
(44)
021
032
036
034
036
056
089
093
099
109
5/3/2
18/10/42
4/16/29
0/2/22
0/3/41
M5
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
282 (11)
211 (14)
(0)
(0)
(0)
015
020
041
047
7/4/0
11/3/0
M6
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
362 (3)
271 (3)
(0)
(0)
(0)
015
015
041
037
0/3/0
2/1/0
M7
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
16/26
50
45
40
20
10
259 (1)
159 (14)
156 (6)
70 (1)
101 (4)
021
028
032
037
037
068
069
083
098
098
0/0/1
9/2/3
3/3/0
0/0/1
0/1/3
M2b
M2c
*Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of samples used to calculate mean values.
Grains
Britannia sandstones are subarkosic or feldspathic arenites, containing (in QFL terms)
1030% feldspar (mean 156% for 480 thin
sections), including both potassium feldspar and
plagioclase; 6085% quartz (mean 837%), principally monocrystalline unstrained quartz but
including up to 3% equant and stretched polycrystalline quartz derived from metasedimentary
rocks; and 05% (mean 08%) other lithic grains,
mainly sedimentary and metasedimentary detritus but including a trace of mac volcanic grains.
Glauconite, reworked fossil debris, coarse micas,
including biotite, muscovite and chlorite, and a
heavy mineral assemblage dominated by apatite,
zircon, garnet, tourmaline and rutile are trace
constituents. The sediments were derived mainly
from quartzose sedimentary and metasedimentary
rocks and K-feldspar- and plagioclase-bearing
plutonic rocks, with minor contributions from
mac volcanic rocks. The ubiquitous presence of
relatively fresh glauconite, shell fragments from
shallow-water molluscs and sparse benthic foraminifera indicate that the sands passed through a
shallow-marine shelfal setting before being redeposited by sediment ows in deeper water.
Matrix
Clay components in Britannia sandstones include
heterogeneous, ne-grained, brownish detrital
mud, silt- to sand-sized clots of clear authigenic
microcrystalline kaolinite, glauconite, sand-sized
mica-rich lithic grains, including what appear to
be fragments of older mudstone, and intraformational claystone and mudstone rip-up clasts. Only
the rst of these will be discussed here. Detrital
mud is a major component of most Britannia
sandstones. It constitutes from as little as 2% by
volume of some thick-bedded, dish-structured
sandstones interpreted to represent the deposits
of high-density turbidity currents to 1035% of
grain-supported sands interpreted to be slurry
ow deposits (Figs 4 and 5) to over 40% of most
matrix-supported debris ow deposits. XRF and
XRD analyses indicate that phyllosilicate components of this brownish material include iron-rich
chlorite, smectite and illite. Chlorite, much of
which represents degraded biotite, is generally
the most abundant (Carpenter et al., 1998).
Smectites are common in mudstones of zones
30, 40, 45 and 50, as evidenced by their swelling
properties, and bentonitic ash layers occur
throughout the formation.
37
The distribution and properties of the mud

matrix in Britannia sandstones indicate that it is
of detrital, not authigenic, origin. The mud is a
heterogeneous mixture of cryptocrystalline
phyllosilicates, opaque carbonaceous particles,
including plant matter, degraded biotite and
chloritized biotite, and silt-sized quartz and
feldspar grains (Figs 4 and 5). The abundance of
micas, carbonaceous matter and ne quartz and
feldspar grains argues strongly that the matrix is
detrital in origin. There is, moreover, a lack of
recognizable authigenic phyllosilicate components, except discrete patches of clear, homogeneous, pore-lling kaolinite. Britannia sands also
lack sand-sized labile lithic components, such as
glassy volcanic rock fragments, which could
have altered to authigenic mud or pseudomatrix
(Dickinson, 1970). This lack is evident in thick,
clean, low-mud sands deposited by high-density
turbidity currents in zone 20, block 15/30, and in
water-escape channels from which the mud was
elutriated by early escaping pore uids within
slurry beds. These clean sandstones show the
same modal compositions as the slurry-ow
deposits, except that they lack mud, including
an absence of labile lithic grains, indicating that
such components were rare to absent in all
Britannia sands. Mud contents also vary widely
within individual beds as a function of sedimentary structures and inferred sedimentation
style. Dish-structured sands typically have less
than 15% mud, whereas banded sandstones in
the same bed with the same mean grain size
commonly have mud contents of 20% or more
(Table 1). Water-escape paths within the sandstones, including those developed beneath dish
structures and vertical uid-escape conduits, are
commonly virtually mud-free and characterized
by syntaxial quartz overgrowths or carbonate
cements, reecting the elutriation of the detrital
muddy matrix present in adjacent sands along
uid ow paths during water escape. The fractionation of mud within the deposits as a
function of depositional mechanics and water
escape indicates unambiguously that the mud
is a primary detrital component of Britannia
sandstones.
The optical density (translucence/opacity) of
the mud matrix in Britannia sandstones varies as
a function of original mud content and later
compaction. In many beds, mud occurs as a lightbrown, semi-translucent interstitial matrix,
commonly containing nely divided carbonaceous matter and degraded and crushed altered
biotite (Fig. 4A). This mud readily soaks up the
38
Fig. 4. Photomicrographs of sandstones of the Britannia Formation showing representative types of mud matrix.
Scale bar in (A) is 020 mm long and is the same in all photographs. (A) Slurry-ow deposit showing pore spaces
largely lled by low-density mud matrix containing ne, disseminated carbonaceous matter. (B) Slurry-ow deposit
with pore spaces completely lled by moderate-density mud matrix. Sample lacks visible compaction effects.
(C) Slurry-ow deposit showing high-density mud matrix lacking anisotropic compaction effects. (D) Slurry-ow
deposit showing high-density, strongly compacted mud matrix preserved as thin seams and septa between quartz
and feldspar grains in dark wispy lamination (right) and light-layer sediment (left) containing low- to moderatedensity mud matrix.
Fig. 5. Photomicrograph of slurry-ow deposit showing dark, high-density, sand-sized detrital mud grains
mixed with similarly sized quartz and feldspar. Scale
bar is 020 mm long.
blue-dyed epoxy used as a mounting medium and

is a brownish-green or brownish-blue colour in
dyed thin sections. It is termed here low-density
mud. Samples containing low-density mud matrix tend to be loosely packed with 2535%
intergranular space, lack pressure-solution features and commonly contain some open pore
spaces within which quartz grains show syntaxial
quartz overgrowths.
In many samples, mud occurs as a medium- to
dark-brown, poorly translucent to nearly opaque
matrix (Fig. 4B). Where the matrix is medium
brown and uniformly developed, there is
commonly little evidence of compaction (Fig. 4B).
This type of mud matrix is termed moderatedensity mud. Dark-brown to opaque mud matrix is
termed high-density mud. High-density mud is

especially common along the dark laminations in
wispy laminated beds and is widespread in dark
bands of banded units. Although some units
containing high-density mud show few compaction effects (Fig. 4C), in most beds, dark-brown
opaque mud is conned to narrow septa or seams
between grains, which have commonly been
strongly affected by pressure-solution along
stylolitic seams parallel to stratication (Fig. 4D).
These samples have been strongly compacted.
Many Britannia sandstones are extremely heterogeneous, showing patches of largely matrixfree sand interspersed at a sub-thin-section scale
in sandstone that has pore spaces fully clogged
with mud. Most of the nearly mud-free patches
and wisps tend to be coarser grained and better
sorted than surrounding mud-rich sediments and
appear to be water-escape conduits from which
mud has been winnowed by escaping pore uids.
Other low-mud areas may represent cleaner,
somewhat denser sediments that have foundered
into underlying muddy layers by loading.
Determining the original form and weight
percentage of mud in the Britannia sandstones
is complicated by the variable character of the
mud, locally variable compaction effects and
dewatering heterogeneities. In many samples,
mud does not completely ll the pore spaces,
whereas in more mud-rich samples, it does.
Where mud only partially lls the intergranular
pore space, it commonly occurs as sand-sized
grains or clots (Fig. 5). The volumetric content of
mud has been greatly reduced by compaction in
many samples, and it seems likely that some
mud-rich sandstones could have been weakly
matrix supported at the time of deposition and
have become grain supported during subsequent
early compaction. The mud contents listed in
Table 1 are the present volumetric determinations made by point counting but do not provide
accurate estimates of the weight percentage of
mud in these samples. Inasmuch as the mud
matrix contains abundant nely divided organic
matter, TOC analyses provide a means of comparing the weight percentage of mud in Britannia
samples. Analyses of closely spaced light and
dark bands in two Britannia wells, M2 and B6
(Fig. 2), suggest that the dark bands contain two
to four times more mud by weight than the light
bands (Table 2 and Carpenter et al., 1998).
Cements
The principal authigenic components in Britannia sandstones are syntaxial quartz overgrowths
39
Table 2. TOC contents of light and dark bands from

wells M2 and B6*.
Well
Depth (feet)
Colour
Organic C
(wt%)
M2
M2
B6
B6
M2
M2
B6
B6
13
13
13
13
13
13
13
13
Light
Light
Light
Light
Dark
Dark
Dark
Dark
015
015
017
019
026
031
034
047
8724
875
609
6083
875
8705
6048
6062
*From Carpenter et al. (1998).
on quartz grains, carbonate cement and replacement material and crystalline kaolinite (Guy,
1992). Syntaxial quartz overgrowths are widely
developed, particularly in cleaner, low-mud
sandstones and cleaner sandstone patches marking water-escape paths. Authigenic carbonate and
kaolinite have formed both as pore-lling
cements and as replacement materials.
General sedimentology
Sandstones of the Britannia Formation are interpreted to have been deposited by: (1) high- and
low-density turbidity currents; (2) debris ows;
and (3) slurry ows.
Turbidites
Beds in the Britannia Formation interpreted to be
the deposits of low-density turbidity currents
(Fig. 6) are composed of ne-grained micaceous
sandstone to coarse siltstone, range from a few
millimetres to as much as 1 m in thickness and
are characterized by Bouma (1962) turbidite Tb,
Tc, Td and Te divisions. They were deposited
mainly by traction (Tb, Tc and Td) from ows of
declining velocity. These deposits make up less
than 5% of the Britannia sandstones and occur
mainly as thin layers within mudstone-dominated
sections. The mud contents of low-density
turbidity current deposits is highly variable,
commonly 10% to 35% in Tb and Tc divisions.
In many of these turbidites, current-structured
sandy layers representing Tb and Tc grade
upwards into thick, medium- to dark-grey, atlaminated caps, commonly thicker than the
underlying Tbc divisions, composed largely of
mud mixed with very ne-grained sand to siltsized quartz and feldspar (Fig. 6). These appear to
40
Fig. 6. Deposits of low-density

turbidity currents in the Britannia
Formation. (A) Cross-laminated (Tc)
and at-laminated (Tb and Td)
divisions (light) in thin-bedded
turbidite showing numerous
uctuations in ow velocity. The
darker, at-laminated units are Tb
and/or Td divisions containing a
high percentage of detrital mud. The
abundance of mud intermixed with
sand and silt is consistent with the
presence of mud as sand- and siltsized detrital particles. (B) Cyclic,
very thin Tce and Tde turbidites that
have been disturbed by later
bioturbation. The scales along the
cores are in units 01 feet.
represent unusually thick Td and Te divisions

formed primarily of sand- and silt-sized mud
grains. Their presence and thickness support the
inference that the ows were transporting large
quantities of mud as particles hydraulically
equivalent to ne sand and silt.
Deposits interpreted to represent high-density
turbidity currents are especially well-developed
in zone 20 in the western part of the Britannia
Field. They are made up of clean, light-grey,
thick-bedded, ne- to medium-grained sandstone
that is either massive or shows dish structures
(Fig. 7). Measured mud contents range from less
than 2% to about 16% by volume, averaging 8%
to 10% for wells within the 15/30 block. These
sediments, which include both unimodal and
bimodal intervals, correspond to S3 divisions of
Lowe (1982). Most beds are more than 3 m thick,
and some reach 40 m in thickness. Thicker beds
appear to represent amalgamated layers deposited
by numerous individual ows without clear
boundaries between sedimentation units. The
beds have sharp, possibly erosive bases and
equally sharp tops. They do not contain or grade
upwards into deposits of low-density turbidity
currents. In addition to dish structures, many
units, particularly towards their tops, show vertical to subvertical water-escape conduits and
sandstone dykes.
Debris-ow deposits
Debris-ow deposits and incompletely mixed
slumps and slide masses are present in most
sections of the Britannia Formation, and evidence
Fig. 7. Dish-structured sandstone representing S3

division of sandy, high-density turbidity-current
deposit. Scales in units of 01 feet.
for post-depositional owage and soft-sediment

mixing is present in most mudstone layers in
zones 40, 45 and 50. Some debris ows are
characterized by heterogeneous, contorted masses
of mudstone and thin turbiditic sandstone. Others
are composed largely of massive mudstone
containing deformed sandstone masses and clasts
of mudstone of contrasting texture and/or colour.
The most common type of debris-ow deposits
41
Slurry-ow deposits
Units in the Britannia Formation interpreted to
represent slurry-ow deposits show a wide variety of primary sedimentary structures, structure
sequences, textures, mud contents and waterescape structures. Although many were initially
interpreted as turbidites (Guy, 1992), most show
high mud contents (1035%) for sandy turbidites
that lack primary labile components, and most
contain unusual primary sedimentary structures,
especially thick sequences of centimetre-scale,
lightdark banding, and unusual water-escape
structures. Although these beds are present
throughout the Britannia Formation, they make
up the bulk of the sandstones in zones 40, 45 and
50 in blocks 16/26 and 16/27. Their description
and interpretation will be discussed in the
following sections of this paper.
SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURE DIVISIONS

OF BRITANNIA SLURRY-FLOW
DEPOSITS
Fig. 8. Part of a thick debris-ow deposit composed of
grain- to weakly matrix-supported, mud-rich, negrained sandstone or sandy mudstone containing a
variety of oating, and often contorted and stretched,
chunks of black to medium- and light-grey claystone
and mudstone. Well 16/26-B3, zone 20. Scale in units
of 01 feet.
are medium- to dark-grey layers composed of

subequal proportions of mud and ne-grained
sand to coarse silt (Fig. 8). The layers range from a
few centimetres to over 5 m thick, contain
abundant oating dark-grey to black mudstone
clasts and vary from grain to weakly mud matrix
supported. Because many of these beds are grain
supported or nearly so, they may represent ows
in which the grains could settle freely through the
muddy matrix during sedimentation to form a
grain-supported framework. Under these circumstances, the ows could have ranged from true,
matrix-supported debris ows to muddy slurry
ows or turbidity currents. It is probable, however, that many of these beds were matrix
supported when deposited and that early
compaction and dewatering decreased the mud
volume to the point at which the quartz and
feldspar grains were in loose or partial contact,
forming a rigid grain framework that resisted
further compaction.
Sandstone beds in the Britannia Formation interpreted as slurry-ow deposits range from about
1 m to over 50 m thick, with most in the range 4
15 m thick. All consist of medium- to negrained, moderately sorted, grain-supported
sandstone, with an overall mean grain size of
about 035 mm but with individual sample means
ranging from about 015 mm to 050 mm. Many
beds show bimodal sand-grain populations, with
a coarse population of grains generally between
1 mm and 4 mm in diameter (Fig. 9), and most
show well-developed normal size grading in both
mean and largest grain sizes (Fig. 9). Slurry beds
contain between 10% and 35% mud matrix
(Table 1).
The most distinctive features of slurry beds are
their unusual sedimentary structures, including
both primary ow-related and post-depositional
water-escape and soft-sediment deformation
structures. One striking feature of Britannia
slurry-ow beds and turbidites is the virtual
absence of thick, massive, structureless beds.
Over 95% of Britannia sandstone beds are nely
structured, and very few massive zones or layers
exceed 1 m thick. Britannia slurry-ow beds are
divided here into seven divisions, termed M
divisions, each characterized by a distinctive
assemblage of primary and/or water-escape
structures. Five of these divisions are interpreted
to represent primary sedimentary structure
42
Fig. 9. Lithological column and petrographic textural data for zone 45 slurry-ow sands in well 16/26-24 (Fig. 3).
The log shows the general sedimentary structures in thick sandy slurry-ow beds. The companion textural logs show
whether the sediments are unimodal, bimodal or indeterminate, mean grain size and max5 grain size. Note that
clearly bimodal sediments occur mainly in the lower parts of individual slurry-ow beds.

divisions: (M1) a division of current-structured
and/or massive sandstone; (M2) banded divisions;
(M3) wispy laminated divisions; (M4) dish structured divisions; and (M5) divisions composed of
microbanded to nely laminated sandstone. Two
additional widespread division types represent
later, post-depositional modications of primary
division types: (M6) layers consisting of contorted
masses of ne- to very ne-grained laminated
sandstone that have foundered into and been
sheared and mixed with dark-grey mudstone; and
(M7) units of sandstone dominated by vertical
water-escape structures.
(M1) Traction-structured and massive

divisions
Description
Many slurry beds contain layers from a few
centimetres to about 1 m in thickness of currentstructured and/or massive sandstone. Termed M1
divisions, these layers occur almost exclusively at
the bases of individual beds, are generally less
than 50 cm thick and, in all cases, comprise less
than 25% of the total bed thickness. Current
structures include large-scale cross-stratication,
sweeping low-angle cross-stratication and at
lamination (Fig. 10). Where sweeping or crossstratication is present, contacts with underlying
units are typically erosive; where M1 shows at
lamination or is massive, evidence for erosion at
the base of the divisions is generally absent.
These divisions lack water-escape structures and
soft-sediment foundering features. Most M1 divisions are bimodal (Table 1). The mean mud
content is 181% for 39 samples in zones 40 and
45 and 209% for 25 samples in zone 50.
Sedimentology
M1 divisions are interpreted to reect deposition
from fully turbulent ows. Their development at
the bases of beds and their thinness compared
with total bed thickness suggest that M1 divisions
represent active sand veneers on the pre-existing
beds, exchanging sediment with the overlying
ow but with little net deposition. The ows and
sediment loads were, overall, relatively steady
and uniform, although initial sedimentation
was beginning. Where ows were particularly
energetic, large-scale turbulence reached to and
commonly eroded the bed and formed crossstratied sandstone. Where the lower portions of
the ows were less turbulent and/or near-bed
43
turbulence was suppressed, perhaps by the high

sediment loads, at-laminated sand or massive
layers, usually lacking evidence of bed erosion,
were deposited.
(M2) Banded divisions

Description
Many slurry-ow beds include layers of sandstone that show cyclic, alternating light and dark
bands or laminations. Individual darklight band
couplets range from only a few millimetres to
over 50 cm in thickness (Figs 1114). These
layers, termed banded divisions, are the most
characteristic and the most complex, variable and
heterogeneous divisions of Britannia slurry beds.
Three types of banded divisions are distinguished
based on couplet thickness: (M2a) divisions
showing band couplets that exceed 50 cm in
thickness are termed megabanded divisions,
where bands are present, and mixed slurried
divisions, where they are composed exclusively
of dark-band sediment; (M2b) band couplets
1050 cm thick are termed macrobands; and
(M2c) couplets 110 cm thick are termed mesobands. Band couplets thinner than 1 cm, microbands, are poorly developed within banded
divisions. Although some mesobanding grades
downwards in scale to crude microbanding, it is
generally wispy microbanding and, much more
commonly, mesobanded divisions grade into
wispy laminated divisions. Well-developed
microbands less than 1 cm in thickness occur
primarily interbedded with nely laminated
sands in M5 divisions. In addition to band types
dened on couplet thickness, two banding types
can be distinguished based on the relative thickness of light and dark bands: argillaceous
couplets, in which the dark bands exceed the
light bands in thickness, and arenaceous
couplets, in which the light bands are thicker.
Mixed slurried, megabanded and many macrobanded divisions tend to be argillaceous, whereas
mesobanded divisions are generally arenaceous.
(M2a) Mixed slurried and megabanded

divisions
Some layers consist almost entirely of mud-rich,
medium- to dark-grey sandstone containing no
(Fig. 11) or widely spaced (Fig. 12) light bands.
Mixed slurried and megabanded divisions form
layers as thin as 50 cm and as thick as 8090 m. A
mean mud content of 205% was obtained for 33
samples of mixed slurried and megabanded
44
Fig. 10. Sedimentation units and sedimentary structure sequences of sandy slurry-ow deposits in well 16/26-9,
12 64112 653 feet, Britannia Field. The core shows parts of four sedimentation units, labelled 14 to the right of the
core segments. Unit 1, only the top of which is included in the photograph, includes dish-structured sandstone (M4)
passing upwards into sandstone showing lighter, deformed sets of sheet-like water-escape channels that cut across an
earlier generation of dish structures and are, in turn, cut by late-stage dish structures. Unit 2 consists of dishstructured sandstone (M4). The lower parts of units 3 and 4 are marked by M1 divisions showing cross-stratication
and scoured bases that cut at high angles into underlying layers. In unit 3, M1 is succeeded by wispy laminated
sandstone of M3 that shows very regular dark layers approaching mesobands in the lower part. Sharp, ne, at dish
structures are present within thicker dark wispy laminations and locally run through light bands above 12 645 ft.
Fine, subvertical water-escape channels are well-developed throughout unit 3 but, between 12 644 and 12 6475 feet,
they are cemented by carbonate and are especially visible. Large water-escape structure sets are developed at the tops
of units 1 and 2. These show increasing inclination and shearing towards the tops of the beds, probably reecting
shearing associated with either the nal stages of deposition of the sedimentation units of which they are a part or the
initial stage of deposition of the overlying sedimentation unit. Scales in units of 01 feet.
sandstone in zones 40 and 45 and 274% for four

samples in zone 50 in the 16/26 block (Table 1).
Mixed slurried divisions are composed of
medium- to dark-grey sandstone that commonly,
but not always, contains irregular streaks, blobs
and ptygmatic masses of light-grey sandstone
(Figs 11 and 12) that probably represent waterescape channels and possibly some foundered
and disrupted light bands. Megabanded divisions
are similar but contain layers, generally less than
10 cm thick, of light-grey, massive to laminated
sandstone or foundered and disrupted light
45
Mixed slurried divisions are common as discrete beds but rarely occur interbedded with other
divisions in sandy slurry-ow deposits. Where
present as part of thicker beds, they are at most
12 m thick.
(M2b) Macrobanded and (M2c)

mesobanded divisions
Fig. 11. Thick, single, M2a mixed slurried unit from its
base at 12 5066 ft. (A) to its top at 12 5005 ft. (B). The
unit shows a faintly laminated base (possibly an M1
division) overlain by massive mud-rich sandstone in
which the abundance of light-coloured water-escape
streaks increases upwards. The upper part of the bed,
from 12 503 to 12 501 feet, shows a pronounced subvertical fabric produced by water escape (M7 division).
The absence of such a fabric and the horizontal character of deformed water-escape channels in the topmost
07 feet of the bed are thought to reect the lateral owage of sediment at the bed surface during the late
stages of water escape. Well 16/26-9. Scales in units of
01 feet.
sandstone layers (Fig. 12). They also typically

show cross-cutting vertical to subvertical,
commonly ptygmatically folded uid-escape
channels lled by light-grey, quartz- or carbonate-cemented sandstone with little or no mud
matrix. Dispersed mud chips, generally less than
05 cm long, occur in most units.
Two main types of macrobanding and mesobanding can be distinguished, here informally termed
types 1 and 2. Type 1 bands, by far the most
common, are characterized by light and dark
bands that have sharp contacts, unless blurred
by loading or shearing, and contrasting mud
contents and suites of sedimentary structures.
Type 2 bands tend to have gradational contacts
between light and dark bands, which commonly
differ only in the presence or absence of a single
sedimentary feature, such as dish structures. Type
2 bands will not be discussed further in this paper.
Type 1 macrobanding and mesobanding are
characterized by light and dark bands that contrast strongly in mud content and sedimentary
structures (Figs 13 and 14). Band sequences can
reach over 10 m thick. Light bands are composed
of light- to medium-grey, ne- to medium-grained
muddy sandstone that commonly shows crude
at lamination (Figs 13 and 14). Most have sharp
tops and sharp, mixed or deformed lower contacts
with the adjacent dark bands. Load structures are
common along the bases of light bands (Figs 13
and 14), indicating that the light sand was denser
and often foundered into the soft, muddy sand of
the underlying dark bands. Many light bands also
show sets of parallel, vertical to steeply inclined
lighter grey streaks representing two-dimensional,
sheet-like water-escape structures (Figs 13 and
14). These structures are the same as those
illustrated by Klein et al. (1972), Cook & Johnson
(1970), and Lowe (1975; gs 4D, 10 and 16). They
have been interpreted as fault sets (Klein et al.,
1972), but appear to form through the elutriation
of ne, dark carbonaceous debris and clays along
sets of parallel, planar uid-escape paths in
hydroplastic sediments (Lowe, 1982). They are
truncated at the tops of the light bands, indicating
that they formed before deposition of the overlying dark bands. In many beds, the at laminations
in the light bands continue weakly across the
vertical water-escape structures, indicating that
water escape did not always involve wholesale
uidization and sediment mixing along the uidow paths (Fig. 14). The water-escape structures
generally contain little mud and are commonly
46
Fig. 12. Part of a thick slurry-ow

deposit consisting mainly of megabanded M2a divisions made up
largely of heterogeneous, dark, mudrich sandstone showing waterescape structures and abundant
evidence of bedding parallel to
inclined shear. Widely spaced light
bands showing basal load structures
and light, water-escape channels are
distributed throughout the dark,
muddy sandstone, indicating that
this section represents a megabanded
sequence in which the dark bands
are developed almost to the exclusion of the light bands. Shearing has
locally disrupted the light bands
and mixed light- and dark-band
materials (12 683712 6843 feet),
but most light bands show no evidence of shearing. Well 16/26-9.
Scales in units of 01 feet.
preferentially cemented by carbonate or syntaxial

quartz overgrowths. Light bands form from 20%
to 70% of the couplet thickness.
Dark bands range from massive to very heterogeneous. They are composed of medium- to
dark-grey muddy sandstone that commonly hosts
disconnected and deformed wisps, streaks and
blobs of cleaner, lighter grey sandstone. These
appear to represent pillows and sheared pillows,
formed by loading of the overlying light bands into
the darker bands, deformed water-escape conduits
from which most mud has been elutriated during
water escape and masses of lighter sand detached
by shearing from the underlying light bands
(Figs 13 and 14). Masses of lighter coloured sand
tend to be most abundant towards the tops of the
dark bands, immediately below the overlying light
bands, and decrease in abundance and size
towards the bases of the dark bands (Fig. 13).
Many dark bands show evidence of bedding-parallel shear, especially near their bases.
Shear-produced features include (1) dark, bedding-parallel shear layers characterized by strong
planar fabrics, including parallel alignment of
micas, other platy components and greatly elongated and stretched masses of light sandstone;
(2) abundant, bedding-parallel, lenticular streaks
of light sandstone formed by shearing of foundered
masses of low-mud sand from the overlying light
bands (Figs 13 and 14); (3) lenticular masses of
sandstone sheared off of underlying light bands
(Fig. 14); and (4) shear-induced deformation of
originally vertical water-escape structures at the
tops of some light bands, with the amount of shear
increasing towards the base of the overlying dark
bands (Fig. 14). The presence of well-dened
shear layers within mud-rich sediments showing
signicantly less shear effects, and their common
47
Fig. 13. Part of a thick, slurry-bed sequence dominated by macrobands (M2b division). This core segment shows the
upward transition from argillaceous macrobands (12 589212 596 feet) to arenaceous macrobands and mesobands
(12 58412 5892 feet). The dark bands in the macroband couplets show small, irregular, light-grey sandstone streaks
and blobs representing foundered and sheared sandstone masses detached from the overlying light bands and
vertical to subvertical, often deformed water-escape channels. Many dark bands can be divided into two layers: (a) a
lower layer with a well-developed horizontal shear fabric and greatly stretched and deformed light sandstone streaks;
and (b) an upper layer with more abundant and larger sandstone masses, most of which have been distended
horizontally by shearing; but less than in layer (a). Most of the sandstone masses in the (b) layers probably originated
as material sinking into the tops of the dark bands from the overlying light bands (c). Well-developed shear layers are
present in the lower parts of most dark bands (arrows). Later small water-escape channels (lightest streaks in dark
bands) cross-cut both shear layers and sheared and deformed, foundered light-band material. Light bands show crude
horizontal layering and cross-cutting but non-disruptive water-escape-channel sets characterized by lighter coloured,
low-mud, carbonate-cemented sandstone. Early cementation of these water-escape channels combined with later
compaction of surrounding sediments locally left the cemented channels as bulges in the light bands (1). Well
16/26-9. Scales in units of 01 feet.
truncation or deformation by undeformed latestage water-escape and load structures (Figs 13

and 14), suggest that shearing and deformation
occurred during or very closely following sedimentation and that the shear layers are not postdepositional compaction effects. Upwards within
individual dark bands, the abundance of shear

layers tends to decrease, loaded masses of sandstone become more abundant and less deformed
and water-escape structures generally retain their
original vertical or subvertical orientation. These
features indicate that dark bands were zones of
48
Fig. 14. (A and B) Well-developed M2b argillaceous macrobands. The light bands are characterized by sharp tops and
loaded bases. They also show subvertical light streaks, formed during hydroplastic stretching and water escape, that
are truncated at the tops of the light bands. The dark bands show abundant blebs, blobs and streaks of light sandstone
representing intact and sheared water-escape channels and detached masses of loaded sandstone from the immediately overlying light bands. Shear laminations and textures are well developed in the dark bands, especially near
their bases (arrows), and shearing has locally detached lenticular masses of sand from the underlying light bands (a).
The dark bands contain abundant faint light-sandstone streaks and wisps. These sandstones masses are thinner and
more stretched and elongate in zones of higher shear (b) and shorter and more equant in zones of less shear (c). The
tops of the water-escape structures in the light band in (B) have been sheared out along the base of the overlying dark
band, which shows a strong shear fabric indicated by intensely stretched and elongated sandstone streaks, with the
amount of shearing decreasing downwards within the light band. The youngest, generally lightest water-escape
channels in the dark bands truncate shear laminations and deformed light sandstone masses in the surrounding
sediment. Well 16/26-9. Scales in units of 01 feet.
late-stage, bedding-parallel shear after the overlying light bands had started to accumulate and that
late-stage shearing was commonly most intense
near the bases of the dark bands.
Forty-two samples from macrobanded (M2b)
and mesobanded (M2c) divisions in the 16/26
block average 177% muddy matrix by volume
(Table 1). Sixty macrobanded and mesobanded
samples from zone 50 in the 16/26 block averaged
239% mud matrix. No clear systematic grain-size
or volumetric mud-content differences have been
identied between dark and light bands. However, Hickson (1999) reports that the light band in
a single very thoroughly studied band couplet
was signicantly coarser (021 mm) than the
underlying dark band (0193 mm), and more
careful studies are necessary before grain-size
differences between and grading trends within
light and dark bands are known. In the dark
bands, the interstitial mud matrix is typically
dark brown to nearly opaque and does not absorb
blue-dyed epoxy. Mud in the light bands is
mostly low-density, light- to very light-brown,

semi-translucent mud that readily absorbs epoxy.
Moreover, the light bands commonly include
signicant open pore space and syntaxial quartz
cement, both of which are rare to absent in the
dark bands. These features suggest that mud in
the dark bands is more highly compacted than
that in the light bands and that the absolute clay
contents of the darker bands are considerably
greater. TOC analyses of closely spaced light and
dark bands (Table 2) suggest that there are two to
four times more organic matter and, if organic
matter is related to mud content, mud by weight
in the dark than in the light bands (Carpenter
et al., 1998).
Sedimentology
The origin of banded divisions is key to understanding the dynamics of slurry ows and
the structuring of slurry-ow deposits, but is
particularly problematic because of the absence of

experimental or observational evidence on which
to base interpretations. However, banded divisions show a rich assemblage of sedimentary
structures and textures that aid in constraining
interpretations of depositional mechanics. In the
following discussion, an origin for Britannia M2
divisions and their characteristic banding is
proposed based on these sedimentary structures
and textures. Some of the key features include the
following:
1 There is a continuous gradation in band/
couplet thickness from M2a, with band couplets
greater than 50 cm thick and few or no light
bands, to M2b, showing bands of subequal thickness ranging from 50 to 10 cm thick, to M2c,
dominated by the light bands and with band
couplets 110 cm thick, to wispy lamination or
wispy microbanding. This spectrum suggests that
there is a common process or interplay of processes responsible for the formation of all of these
band and lamination types.
2 Evidence for erosion and scour is absent in
banded divisions.
3 The lower parts of many light bands have
foundered into the underlying dark bands. Load
features are absent at the tops of the light
bands.
4 The dark bands widely show evidence of
bedding-parallel shear, especially near their bases
(Figs 13 and 14). Sheared masses of sandstone
formed by foundering of overlying light-band
sediment are abundant in the upper parts of
many dark bands (Fig. 13). Light bands show
minor, if any, shear effects.
5 Water-escape structures in the light bands
terminate against the overlying dark bands.
6 Dark bands contain signicantly more mud
by weight than light bands, based on the darker,
more opaque character of the interstitial mud and
TOC analyses, although both band types show
grain-supported textures and roughly the same
volumetric mud contents.
7 Light bands commonly show crude at laminations, suggesting possible deposition from the
bed load of turbulent ows.
8 Stacks of band couplets, rather than individual couplets themselves, appear to represent the
deposits of individual ows. This is suggested by
(a) the presence of regular ning-upward trends
across entire banded units and (b) the absence of
mud layers within banded units and between
band couplets, which should mark pauses in
sedimentation or intervals between ows in the
absence of scour within banded units.
49
9 Much, if not most, of the mud in slurry beds

was probably transported as silt- and sand-sized
grains, probably as occules and/or rip-up clasts.
This conclusion is suggested by (a) the common
presence of mud as sand-sized grains and clots in
slurry beds where mud does not form a continuous matrix (Fig. 5); (b) the abundance of detrital
mud in all sand-dominated slurry-ow divisions,
including coarse, current-structured M1 divisions
(Table 1), where it was moved and deposited as
particles hydraulically equivalent to associated
quartz and feldspar grains; and (c) the probable
transport of most mud within submarine settings
as occules or clay-particle aggregates (Krone,
1978; Kranck, 1984; McCave, 1984).
These observations and the collective properties of M2 divisions suggest the following
sequence of events in the formation of individual
band couplets (Fig. 15):
(i) During deposition of M1 or immediately
preceding deposition of M2, where M1 is absent,
the ows are fully turbulent and either eroding
the underlying bed or depositing an active veneer
of M1 sand (Fig. 15A). A high, but as yet
unknown, proportion of the grains are sand- and
silt-sized mud occules, pellets or rip-up clasts.
The ows at this stage are sedimentological
turbidity currents. Their rheology is not constrained, although the settling of individual
particles suggests that cohesion, if any, is sufciently low that it does not support the sand-sized
detritus.
(ii) As the ows decline and particles settle,
ow stratication intensies as particle concentration and ow density near the bed increase
(Fig. 15A and B). Quartz and feldspar grains
settling into the sediment-enriched lower part of
the ow continue to settle, although at reduced
settling velocities, and are deposited on the bed,
forming part of the underlying light band. Settling
mud grains, although similar in size to the quartz
and feldspar grains, have a considerably lower
density. As a result, they tend to slow and
accumulate within the lower, denser part of the
ow, increasing its mud content relative to that of
quartz and feldspar.
(iii) As mud concentration increases in the
lower part of the ow, interparticle collisions,
abrasion of mud grains against rigid quartz and
feldspar grains and high near-bed shear rates
cause disaggregation of the more fragile mud
particles (Fig. 15B). Similar effects have been
interpreted previously to occur within the
boundary layers of low-density muddy turbidity
50
Fig. 15. Interpreted origin of banding in M2 divisions. (A) During deposition of M1, ow is fully turbulent, and a thin
active layer of bed-load sediment showing at lamination or cross-stratication is deposited. Somewhat higher
suspended-load fallout rates may result in the deposition of a thin massive bed. The lower part of the ow shows a
strongly concave-upwards velocity prole characteristic of turbulent ows. (B) As the ow wanes, the settling of
sand-sized mud and mineral grains increases ow stratication and sediment concentration in the lower part of the
ow. Quartz and feldspar settling into the higher density near-bed zone slow but continue to settle to the bed, but
lower density mud grains are retarded and ultimately retained, increasing the mud content of the basal layers. A
combination of increasing sediment concentration, rising mud content and mud-particle disaggregation increases the
viscosity, shear resistance and cohesive strength of the near-bed layer, eventually forming a cohesive viscous sublayer beneath the turbulent ow. The velocity prole near the bed attens (prole 1) but is transitional at the top into
the overlying ow as long as a discrete interface does not form and the layers exchange momentum as a result of
turbulent diffusion. Where the viscous sublayer itself shows strong particle grading, the bed may essentially grade
upwards into the ow, and the velocity prole may appear convex upwards near the bed (prole 2). (C) Increasing
viscosity and strength in the viscous sublayer result in the appearance of a dynamic interface at the top of or within
the upper part of the viscous sublayer. Below this interface, the cohesive strength of the viscous sublayer prevents
settling of mud, quartz and feldspar grains, whereas above this interface, denser grains, mainly quartz and feldspar,
are still settling towards the bed. Sediment accumulation at this interface initiates plug formation within the ow
and deposition of light-band plug sediment on top of the viscous sublayer. Foundering of these early deposited lightband sediments into the underlying, still-shearing sublayer increases the particle content and strength of the upper
part of the sublayer. Freezing of the sediment-charged upper part of the viscous sublayer may also contribute to plug
development. Schematic velocity proles 13 show velocity evolution within the ow and viscous sublayer as the
plug forms and, later, as sediment accumulates on and thickens the plug, in part by forcing compaction and freezing
in the underlying shearing sublayer (proles 2 and 3). (D) Settling mud and sand continue to accumulate on top of the
plug. Brief working as bed load beneath the overlying turbulent ow forms the crudely layered sandstone of light
bands. This current-deposited sandstone continues to load into the underlying mud-rich plug/viscous sublayer.
Deposition on top of the plug eventually causes collapse, freezing and deposition of the entire viscous sublayer. At
this point, the bed surface jumps to the top of the light band accumulating on top of the viscous sublayer at the base
of the turbulent ow, and the depositional cycle begins again.
currents (Stow & Bowen, 1980) and may reect

the progressive breakdown of mud aggregates and
of aggregates of aggregates (Krone, 1978).
Although the silt- and sand-sized mud particles
behave as largely cohesionless grains within the
main body of the ow because of their small
effective surface area and possible armouring by
ner rigid grains, their disaggregation into smaller

particles signicantly increases the ne clay
content and cohesiveness of the near-bed layer.
(iv) As the density, cohesion and viscosity of the
near-bed layer increase as a result of increasing
particle concentration, rising mud content and
mud-particle disaggregation, and overall shear
51
Fig. 16. Wispy laminated M3 divisions. (A) M3 division showing weak, discontinuous, irregular, anastomosing
wispy laminations cross-cut by vertical, light water-escape structures and a late, through-going sandstone dyke. (B)
M3 division with relatively at wispy laminations that are mud-rich zones from less than 1 mm to 34 mm thick
showing ne internal crenulated hairline laminations that are, at least in part, microstylolites. The light and dark
laminations are cut by short, vertical water-escape channels. The regularity of the laminations indicates transitional
character into banding. (C) M3 division with thick, well-dened, cyclic wispy laminations transitional into mesobanding. Scales in units of 01 feet.
rates decline as the ows decelerate, turbulence is

gradually suppressed in the near-bed layer, which
evolves into a cohesive viscous sublayer to the
overlying turbulent ow (Fig. 15B).
(v) When the cohesive strength of the viscous
sublayer exceeds the gravity forces exerted by
individual quartz and feldspar grains, these
denser grains also cease to settle within the
sublayer. At this point, the sublayer has evolved
into a sedimentological and rheological debris
ow driven downslope by shear provided by the
overlying turbulent ow. Mud particles and
denser quartz and feldspar grains settling within
the overlying turbulent ow begin to accumulate
on the upper surface of the viscous sublayer.
Although individual particles do not settle or
settle only very slowly within the sublayer,
sediment accumulating on its surface will tend
to founder and sink through bulk loading. These
loaded masses will tend to be deformed and
dismembered as they sink into the shearing
sublayer, forming the sheared sandstone streaks
and masses that are present in the upper parts of
many dark bands (Fig. 13).
(vi) Enrichment of the upper part of the viscous
sublayer in foundered sand further increases its
particle concentration and strength. As the
strength of the sublayer rises, sand deposited on
its upper surface founders more slowly and
accumulates to greater thickness. Eventually,

because of both sand accumulation on top of the
sublayer and rising strength within the upper part
of the sublayer, a plug forms. This plug probably
includes a layer of light, low-mud sand that has
been deposited on top of the sublayer and the
upper part of the sublayer itself, where the
strength of the sediment has surpassed the shear
supplied by the overlying ow.
(vii) As the shear resistance within the viscous
sublayer increases as a result of both the addition
of sand through foundering and the increasing
thickness of the surcial plug through sedimentation from above, a point is eventually reached
when the shear rate in the viscous sublayer
beneath the surcial plug drops below the yield
strength of the still-shearing sediment, and the
sublayer freezes. The kinematics of freezing
depend on several factors, including the mud
and grain concentrations and concentration
gradients within the sublayer. If the still-shearing
part of the sublayer shows a relatively uniform
sediment concentration and strength, it will tend
to behave as a Couette ow (Middleton & Southard, 1984), show a linear velocity prole and be
deposited through en masse freezing as long as
coarser particles are not free to settle. If there are
concentration and strength gradients in the stillshearing part of the sublayer, it will tend to depart
52
from simple Couette ow and may show more

complex freezing behaviour. Once shearing has
ceased within the viscous sublayer, the sublayer
has been transformed into a dark band. The
overlying layer of sediment accumulating beneath
the turbulent ow represents the lower part of the
succeeding light band.
(viii) The accumulating light sand layer at the
base of the turbulent ow increases the load on
the underlying mud-rich dark band, both during
the late stages of shearing within the viscous
sublayer and after shearing has ceased. This
loading causes gradual compaction of the mudrich dark band, water loss, decreasing thickness
and increasing strength. Water moving upwards
from the consolidating dark band forms waterescape structures in the overlying, still-accumulating light-band sediment.
(ix) Freezing or full sedimentation of the
viscous sublayer shifts the bed surface to the top
of the overlying light sediment layer (Fig. 15D).
This could correspond to the base of the turbulent
ow or to the base of a new, developing viscous
sublayer. If the overlying ow is turbulent, sedimentation could continue to deposit light-band
sediment until another mud-enriched viscous
sublayer forms. This process has the potential to
repeat to form multiple band couplets.
A somewhat different evolutionary path may
characterize especially mud-rich ows, which are
interpreted to have been responsible for the
deposition of Britannia M2a divisions. Such
ows, which may be sedimentological and rheological debris ows throughout much of their
existence, may be deposited en masse through
freezing, with little or no differential particle
settling, because of high cohesive forces, or
through the progressive rise of a sedimentation
interface, where nal settling occurs, to form
massive mixed slurried units. Where sedimentation occurs through the formation and sedimentation of a succession of thick, viscous, cohesive
sublayers, some probably exceeding a metre in
thickness, the deposits are megabanded. They
consist of stacks of thick, mud-rich dark bands
without intervening light bands or separated by
thin light bands that have been largely destroyed
by foundering into the underlying muddy layers.
(M3) Wispy laminated divisions

Description
Many slurry-ow sandstone beds in the Britannia
Formation are characterized by ne `fuzzy',
discontinuous, commonly crenulated layers and

laminations, termed here wispy laminations
(Figs 10 and 16). Wispy laminations form dark,
mud-rich zones from less than 1 mm to about
1 cm thick that commonly contain ne,
sharp, anastomosing microstylolites (Fig. 10).
They are separated by thin layers and lenses of
lighter coloured sandstone (Figs 10 and 16).
A few wispy laminated divisions also contain
wispy microbands, characterized by cyclic, at,
more or less equally spaced laminations that are
continuous across the core, but these are developed primarily in separate M5 divisions that lack
wispy laminations. Many M3 divisions also
contain dish structures (Fig. 10), and there is a
gradation from wispy laminated to dish-structured divisions. There is also a gradation between
wispy laminated and mesobanded divisions
(Fig. 10).
In thin section, the dark laminations contain
dark-brown, high-density, pore-lling mud
matrix and common bedding-parallel, pressuresolution seams, stylolites and presolved quartz
grains. The light layers between the dark laminations contain mainly moderate- to low-density
mud and commonly some open pore spaces,
and show little or no compaction and pressuresolution features. The mud contents of wispy
laminated divisions in zones 40 and 45 of the
16/26 block averaged 161% for 69 samples. In
zone 50 of the 16/26 block, 25 samples averaged
203% interstitial mud.
Wispy laminated divisions are also characterized by a suite of distinctive water-escape structures (Figs 10 and 16). Many at wispy laminations
show gradations into curved laminations that have
been modied by water escape and then into wispy
dish structures. Most wispy laminated divisions
also show sets or swarms of short, straight, parallel,
vertical to steeply inclined streaks of clean, lightgrey sand about 1 mm wide, from a few millimetres
to several centimetres long, and spaced from a few
millimetres to 12 cm apart (Figs 10 and 16).
These structures appear to represent ne, pipe- to
sheet-like water-escape conduits from which most
mud has been washed during water escape. They
are generally randomly distributed within wispy
laminated beds (Fig. 16B) but, in some, are concentrated in sets along the light laminations. In
many units, swarms of parallel water-escape pipes
progressively change orientation in a uid-like
pattern vertically within the beds. A few beds show
similar swarms of small uid-escape pipes but are
otherwise massive or show only sparse, faint wispy
laminations.

The sand within the water-escape pipes is
commonly slightly coarser and better sorted than
surrounding sand, lacks a muddy matrix and
contains open pore spaces or is cemented by
syntaxial quartz overgrowths or by carbonate. In
addition, M3 divisions are locally cut by larger,
irregular, dyke- or sill-like water-escape structures lled with homogenized, low-matrix sand
that is commonly cemented by carbonate.
Sedimentology
Wispy laminated divisions form one end of the
spectrum of slurry-ow divisions characterized
by decreasing band/lamination thickness from
mixed slurried to macrobanded to mesobanded to
wispy laminated units. This decrease in couplet
thickness is accompanied by a decrease in the
proportion of each couplet represented by the
dark bands and, hence, in the weight percentage
of mud in the couplets. The model for band
development discussed above implies that darkband thickness is related to the thickness of the
cohesion-dominated viscous sublayers developed
at the base of ow during sedimentation. The
thinness of wispy laminations suggests that only
very thin viscous sublayers developed and that
only very thin light layers accumulated before
new cohesive sublayers formed.
The absence of ne textural sorting of quartz
and feldspar grains within both light and dark
laminations suggests that wispy laminations and
microbands are not just varieties of at lamination. This absence of textural sorting within
wispy laminated divisions, the thinness of the
laminations, the common presence of dish-like
curved wispy laminations and the ne interlayering of dish structures and wispy lamination in
many beds suggest that wispy laminations form
under conditions of high suspended-load fallout
rates. The thinness of the dark layers is consistent
with their formation through near-bed fractionation of mud and sand grains within thin, shortlived viscous sublayers that were rapidly buried
beneath settling sand grains. High sedimentation
rates are also suggested by the pervasive, closely
spaced water-escape pipes characteristic of wispy
laminated divisions.
Individual wispy laminations are highly discontinuous, even within the limited lateral exposure
provided by core. Most probably have a lateral
extent of less than 1 m, although some laminations
may have been disrupted during late water escape.
This lateral discontinuity suggests that the thin,
cohesive viscous sublayers were both short-lived
53
and widely, but discontinuously, developed,

perhaps reecting the response of the near-bed
layer to the scale and nature of turbulence in the
immediately overlying turbulent ow.
(M4) Dish-structured divisions

Description
Many layers in slurry-ow deposits show dish
structures (Fig. 17). They vary from sharp to
wispy and nearly at (Fig. 17A) to strongly
concave upwards. A few beds show complex,
irregular, anastomosing and cross-cutting dishes
that vary from short, truncated streaks to long,
commonly irregular or concave-upwards dishes.
Cross-cutting sandstone dykes representing later
vertical water-escape conduits are common.
The mean grain size of 119 dish-structured
samples from zones 40 and 45 of the 16/26 block
is 034 mm (Table 1). Volumetric mud contents of
these same 119 samples is 141%. The mean grain
size and mud contents of 10 samples of dishstructured divisions from zone 50 in the 16/26
block are 021 mm and 188% respectively.
Sedimentology
M4 dish-structured divisions form when the
suspended load settles at a rate too rapid for the
accumulating sediment to be moved, sorted and
structured within the bed-load layer and where
mud contents are sufciently low that mud does
not act to increase cohesion and retard overall
sand and mud sedimentation rates. Dishstructured divisions have signicantly lower
mud contents than banded or wispy laminated
divisions, suggesting that they formed from ows
or during stages of ow evolution characterized
by lower net mud contents. Deposition was
largely through direct suspension sedimentation.
The only sedimentary structures developed are
water-escape structures, including dish structures
and water-escape pipes and sheets. Sandstone
dykes are abundant towards the tops of M4
divisions and, in many beds, the top 50 cm have
been thoroughly homogenized by water escape,
forming M7 divisions.
(M5) Microbanded and at-laminated

divisions
Description
M5 divisions are characterized by ne, even,
cyclic microbands and at laminations (Fig. 18).
54
Fig. 17. Dish-structured M4 divisions. (A) Nearly at dish structures.

(B) Gently to moderately concaveupward dish structures. Scale in
units of 01 feet.
They lie at the tops of thick slurry-ow beds and

are rarely interstratied with divisions showing
thicker band types. Two types of M5 divisions can
be recognized (Fig. 18A): (M5a) divisions of wispy
microbands; and (M5b) divisions of sharp, nonwispy microbands and laminations that grade
continuously upwards into mudstone.
M5a divisions (Fig. 18A) show at, continuous
wispy microband couplets or more irregularly
alternating light and dark, at, even wispy laminations. In other respects, wispy microbands are
like wispy laminations. M5a divisions, like wispy
laminated divisions, contain swarms of ne,
vertical to subvertical light, clean sand streaks
that mark water-escape paths. Most M5a divisions
are overlain with sharp contact by M5b divisions
(Fig. 18A). The contact is commonly marked by a
thin muddy layer (Fig. 18A), suggesting a pause
or break in sedimentation.
M5b divisions show ne, sharp, non-wispy
microbands and at laminations. There is usually
a strong colour contrast between light and dark
layers (Fig. 18A and B). They commonly grade
from ne, even microbands at the base, often
containing a few mesobands, upwards into
increasingly muddy microbands and at laminations. Where undisturbed by later soft-sediment
mixing, M5b divisions grade progressively
upwards into mudstone through a decrease
in the size and abundance of quartz and feldspar,
a decrease in band/lamination thickness and
an increase in the proportion of mud (Fig. 18A
and B). Many M5b divisions contain or
grade upwards into M6 divisions (Fig. 18B
and C). M5b divisions generally lack water-escape

structures.
Mean grain sizes for the sandy parts of both
types of M5 divisions range from 020 to 015 mm
(Table 1), and the sediments are unimodal. Fourteen samples of M5 divisions from zone 45 in
wells in the 16/26 block have a mean mud content
of 211%; 11 samples from zone 50 have a mean
mud content of 282%.
Sedimentology
M5 divisions mark the tops of many thick slurryow beds (Fig. 18) and are distinctly ner grained
than underlying divisions. These relationships
suggest that they form in the waning stages of
ow during the sedimentation of ner sand and
silt. The absence of cross-lamination, even within
M5b divisions that grade continuously upwards
from sandstone into mudstone (Fig. 18A and B),
the high mud contents and the presence of ne
microbanding and rare mesobanding suggest that,
during the deposition of M5 divisions, the viscosity and strength of near-bed ow layers were
still affected by the presence of mud. High mud
and particle contents apparently suppressed the
formation of ripples and dunes (Allen & Leeder,
1980). Perhaps all, or at least the upper parts, of
M5b divisions may have been deposited from
relatively low-density ows. If so, the upward
transition from microbanded and at laminated
very ne sandstone and siltstone to mudstone
may be mechanically equivalent to the Tb, Td and
Te divisions in classical turbidites, without an
55
Fig. 18. M5 and M6 divisions. (A) Thick M5 division. Below 16 3904 feet, M5a consists of wispy microbanded and
wispy at laminated, ne- to very ne-grained sandstone. M5a is abruptly overlain at 16 3904 feet by a thin muddy
layer marking the base of an M5b division of ne, sharply laminated and microbanded, very ne-grained sandstone
and siltstone. M5b is disrupted by foundering and shearing to form an M6 division between 16 389 and 16 390 feet. At
the top, there is additional mixing, and the bed grades upwards into mudstone. Bed no. 78, zone 50, well 16/26-B7.
(B) Simple, thin M5b division (13 5017513 5022 feet) showing very regular, at laminations and cyclic microbands
in very ne-grained sandstone grading upwards into laminated siltstone and mudstone. A mass of sand from the M5b
division has foundered into the underlying dish-structured sand (arrow). Bed no. 82, zone 50, well 16/26-B4.
(C) Well-developed M6 division (below 16 4941 feet) showing foundered and sheared masses of laminated
sandstone and siltstone in muddy matrix grading upwards into sheared and disrupted mudstone. This unit is the
uppermost part of a thick M5/M6 cap (bed no. 60), dominated by nely laminated to microbanded M5a sandstone (not
shown) to a thick M4 dish-structured sandstone (bed no. 58) in well 16/26-B7, zone 45. These same beds can be seen
in well 16/26-24 (Fig. 9). Scale in units of 01 feet.
56
intervening Tc. The sharp contact between M5a

and M5b may reect a break in coarse-sediment
deposition between high-density and low-density
stages of sedimentation.
(M6) Foundered and mixed sandstone/

mudstone divisions
Description
Many Britannia slurry-ow beds include layers of
deformed laminated sandstone, siltstone and
mudstone (Fig. 18A and C). Most occur at the
tops of M5, mainly M5b, divisions or occupy the
upper parts of thick slurry beds in place of M5
divisions. The sandstone is typically ne to very
ne grained and occurs as rounded to lenticular
masses, from less than 1 cm to 10 or 15 cm across,
within which the laminations have been plastically deformed, microfaulted and/or largely obliterated by shearing. The sandstone masses are
separated by darker, mud-rich septa, streaks or
masses that commonly show evidence of shearing, such as greatly elongated ne sandstone
streaks and drag features in adjacent laminated
sandstone masses. Mixing and foundering commonly extends across graded sandstone to mudstone transitions at the tops of slurry-ow beds,
and the divisions commonly retain, rather than
homogenize, the overall size grading (Fig. 18C).
Three samples of M6 from zone 45 in block 16/26
have a mean mud content of 271%; three from
zone 50 have a mean mud content of 362%. The
mean grain size of both sample sets is 015 mm
(Table 1).
Sedimentology
M6 divisions appear to have formed through
vertical foundering and loading in response to
density instabilities within extremely watery M5,
mainly M5b, divisions. The presence of subhorizontal lenticular sandstone streaks and lenses,
truncated along subhorizontal shear zones
(Fig. 18A), and local incorporation of deformed
masses of laminated sandstone into the overlying
mudstone suggest that deformation commonly
involved downslope owage and shearing.
(M7) Divisions structured by vertical

water escape
Description
Many layers of sandstone have been intensely
mixed by vertically escaping pore uids (Fig. 19).
Fig. 19. A thick M7 division at the top of a slurry-ow

bed shows an upper zone (13 892613 894 ft) of weak
vertical streaking caused by water escape and a lower
zone of steeply inclined dish structures (13 89413 897
feet). These layers pass downwards into dishstructured sandstone at about 13 897 feet. Bed no. 12,
zone 10, well 16/26-B6. Scale in units of 01 feet.
Such divisions range from about 10100 cm thick

and from nearly massive layers to units characterized by well-developed vertical to steeply
inclined dish structures and/or streaks, wisps
and laminations marking ow-path boundaries.
Late-stage sandstone dykes are common, many
containing dispersed ne mud chips. In some M7
divisions, the top 110 cm consists of massive or
faintly stratied sandstone with a sharp or loaded
57
generally horizontal contact with underlying

water-escape-structured sandstone.
Sedimentology
M7 divisions mark zones that have been pervasively restructured by upward-escaping uids.
They are best developed at the tops of beds,
because such pervasive restructuring by water
escape is most likely where the conning lithostatic pressure is low and complete uidization is
possible. The topmost massive to faintly horizontally laminated layers are interpreted to be sand
extruded through sand volcanoes. M7 divisions
are rare or absent at the tops of macrobanded and
mesobanded divisions, but are not uncommon in
megabanded and mixed slurried divisions.
Interow sedimentary layers

Slurry-ow sandstones in the Britannia Formation
are separated by a variety of predominantly muddy
deposits. In zone 10 and lower zone 20, intervening layers are mainly ne, laminated to rhythmically layered mudstones and claystones and
include highly carbonaceous claystones deposited
under conditions of regional anoxia. Overlying
mudstones are less carbonaceous and show
extremely cyclic interlayering of grey, brownish
and greenish mudstones, many showing ne
bioturbation. Bright red oxidized claystone units
are locally present towards the top of zone 20.
In the 16/26 block, thick heterogeneous debrisow deposits up to 15 m thick widely mark the
top of zone 20 and the base of overlying zone 40
(Fig. 8). Higher units in zones 40, 45 and 50 are
dark grey, micaceous and silty mudstones and
debris-ow deposits containing rare thin-bedded
turbidites. Major debris-ow deposits are present
at the base and top of zone 45 over wide areas,
and even in apparently intact sections, intervening mudstone beds, most of which are less
than 2 m thick, commonly show evidence of
post-depositional owage and mixing.
SEDIMENTOLOGY OF SLURRY-FLOW
BEDS IN THE BRITANNIA FORMATION
Vertical arrangement of divisions

In order to determine whether the sedimentary
structure divisions making up Britannia slurryow beds show a preferred stacking or regular
vertical arrangement, similar to the Bouma
sequence of thin-bedded turbidites (Bouma,
Fig. 20. Probability matrix showing frequency with

which individual sedimentary structure divisions (left)
are directly overlain by other division types (top). IF,
interow sedimentary layers, including shale, claystone, mudstone and debris-ow deposits.
1962) and to that described by Lowe (1982)

from thick-bedded turbidites, a Markov chain
analysis was performed using core photographs
from nine predrill wells: 16/26-B1, B2, B3, B4,
B5, B6, B7, B8 and B10 (Fig. 2). These wells
show virtually complete slabbed core throughout the Britannia Formation, with separate
photographs for wet and dry core. For the
purposes of this analysis, eight unit types were
distinguished in terms of the sedimentary structure divisions discussed above: M1, M2, M3, M4,
M5, M6, M7 and IF, the last denoting mudstone
or other ne-grained layers separating slurryow beds, including debris-ow deposits. The
core photographs were logged, and all transitions between structure divisions, where the
divisions are greater than 10 cm thick, were
recorded. The resulting transition probability
matrix is shown in Fig. 20, and a generalized
transitions tree, starting and ending with IF
intervals, is given in Fig. 21.
These results indicate that mudstone or other
beds between sandstone layers are most commonly overlain by massive or current-structured
(M1) sandstone [probability (P) 053], dishstructured sandstone (P 011) or banded sandstone (P 029). In all cases, the contacts are
sharp. M1 divisions, which comprise a minor
proportion of the total thickness of most beds, are
most commonly succeeded transitionally by
banded (P 052) or dish-structured (P 043)
58
Fig. 21. Transitions tree showing frequency with

which individual structure divisions are overlain by
other division types. Arrows point towards the upper
division, and boxed numbers indicate the proportion of
occurrences of the lower division that are succeeded
directly by the upper division.
divisions. Hence, with a probability of 095,

banded (M2) or dish-structured (M4) divisions
are present at the bases of beds or immediately
above thin M1 divisions. Within the main bodies
of the beds, banded, dish-structured and wispy
laminated divisions can succeed one another
with little or no preferred arrangement, although
there is a tendency for wispy laminated divisions
and dish-structured divisions to be interbedded
with each other more frequently than they are
with banded divisions. About 23% of all beds
show banding and lack wispy laminations and
dish structures entirely. In such beds, banded
divisions lie at the bases of beds or are underlain
only by massive or current-structured divisions
and are overlain directly by sharp contact with
mudstone or pass upwards into microbanded/
laminated (M5) or foundered laminated sandstone
and mudstone (M6) units, which are in turn
overlain by mudstone.
About 35% of all beds lack banded divisions.
Such beds consist largely of dish-structured
sandstone or interlayered dish-structured and
wispy laminated sandstone and may include a

thin current-structured or massive division (M1)
at the base and commonly a vertical water-escapestructured (M7) or microbanded to laminated (M5)
division at the top. About 35% of sandstone beds
include both banded and wispy laminated and/or
dish-structured divisions. Within these beds,
there is a tendency for banded divisions to occur
at the base or immediately above a currentstructured or massive division and for dishstructured and/or wispy laminated divisions to
occur towards the top.
These observations indicate that there is a range
of division stacking styles within Britannia sandy
slurry-ow beds (Figs 2227). (I) beds made up
largely of dish-structured sandstone (Figs 22 and
23), commonly with thin M1 divisions at the base
and M7 or M5 divisions at the top; (II) beds
characterized by interbedded dish-structures and
wispy lamination (Figs 22 and 24); (III) beds
showing macrobanding and/or mesobanding and
subequal wispy lamination and/or dish structures
(Figs 22 and 25); (IV) beds made up primarily of
mesobanded and macrobanded divisions with
minor wispy lamination and rare megabanding
(Figs 22 and 26); and (V) those made up entirely
of mixed slurried or megabanded divisions
(Figs 22 and 27).
Grain-size grading in slurry-ow beds

Slurry-ow beds in the Britannia Formation are
moderately sorted, grain-supported and ne- to
medium-grained sandstones. Most type II and III
and many type IV beds show distinctly bimodal
bases, with coarse- to very coarse-grained to
granule-sized particles oating in a matrix of
mud-rich, ne- to medium-grained sandstone,
and unimodal tops, lacking the coarser mode.
Type I dish-structured and type V megabanded to
mixed slurried units are commonly bimodal
throughout (Figs 2327).
The style of grading in slurry-ow beds can be
related to the sedimentary structure divisions that
comprise them (Figs 2327). Thick, clean, dishstructured sandstones with mud contents below
10% by volume, which probably represent highdensity turbidity current deposits, tend to be
ungraded or show only poorly developed normal
grading. These sands characterize zone 20
throughout the Britannia Field and are especially
well-developed in the 15/30 block. Type I dishstructured, slurry-ow sandstones with mud
contents above 10% also tend to be ungraded or
show grading in the max5 but not the mean
59
Fig. 22. Five basic slurry-ow bed types in the eastern part of the Britannia Field. All bed types may have a thin M1
division at the base and an M5/M6 or M7 division at the top. Type I consists of M4 dish-structured sandstone. The
dishes range from moderately concave (1) to nearly at (2). In rare instances, dishes are bundled, with bundles of
closely spaced dishes separated vertically by massive sand (3), producing crude type 2 banding. Internal breaks,
marked by M7 divisions of truncated water-escape structures (4), are locally present but uncommon. Type II beds
consist of interlayered M4 dish-structured and M3 wispy laminated sandstone. A few thin mesobands are locally
present at the base. Type III beds include banded, wispy laminated and, less commonly, dish-structured sandstone.
Type IV beds consist largely of macrobanded to mesobanded banded sandstone, occasionally with thin intervals of
wispy laminated sandstone. Type V consists of megabanded to mixed slurried sandstone.
(Fig. 23). Beds with interlayered dish structures,

wispy lamination and/or banding, types II, III and
IV, tend to show well-developed normal grading
in both mean and max5 measures (Figs 2426).
Type V beds, composed largely of megabanded or
mixed slurried divisions, and some type IV beds,
composed mainly of macrobanded divisions, tend
to lack grading (Fig. 27).
Thick slurry-ow beds: single or amalgamated

sedimentation units
Some thick slurry-ow beds are amalgamated
units made up of a number of stacked sedimentation or surge units. Contacts between sedimentation or surge units can be identied by (1)
erosion beneath M1 divisions (Fig. 10); (2) truncation of water-escape structures in M7 divisions
at the top of one unit by sands of the succeeding
unit containing few or no water-escape structures;

and (3) abrupt upward increases in grain size or
stacked normally graded intervals (Fig. 9). Most
normally graded beds lack evidence of internal
sedimentation units and show continuous or
nearly continuous grain-size grading. They rarely
contain internal mudstone layers, which commonly mark interow intervals, or internal M5,
M6 or M7 divisions, which commonly mark bed
tops and can be mechanically related to late-stage
ow evolution (M5) or early sediment mixing (M6)
or dewatering (M7).
Most thick macrobanded units, which locally
exceed 20 m thick (Figs 13 and 14), lack evidence
of internal breaks or discontinuities that might
mark sedimentation unit boundaries. However,
ows depositing M2 and, to a lesser extent, M3
divisions are dominated by sedimentation from
thick cohesive sublayers and might normally lack
60
Fig. 23. Example of Type I slurry

bed: bed no. 34/36, zone 40, well 16/
26-B2. Thickness of bed, vertical
variations in geometry of dish
structures, presence of thin weakly
structured zones, and lack of regular
grain-size grading suggest that this
is an amalgamated bed representing
a succession of ows or ow surges.
Letters on max5 grain-size column
on this and subsequent diagrams
indicate (U) unimodal sediments
(B) bimodal sediments, and
(UB) sediments that are usually
poorly sorted, with both coarse and
ne modes, but with a continuous
grain-size distribution and without
a clearly bimodal or unimodal
texture.
evidence of erosion between amalgamated sedimentation units, especially where M1 divisions

are absent. There is also an absence in these thick
banded units of interbedded mudstone layers and
of internal M5 and M6 divisions that could have
been deposited and preserved if the depositing
ows had waned substantially, and it is likely
that most such thick banded units represent
single ow events.
Most individual slurry-ow beds can be correlated among several and some among most of the
wells in the eastern 16/26 block of the Britannia
Field. Although mudstone and debris ow units
between these beds vary considerably in number
and thickness from well to well, similar interow
layers never appear within individual beds,
supporting the interpretation that many individual beds are single-event beds. Where sedimentation units are well dened (Fig. 10), they range
from 2 to 15 m thick, and it seems likely that most

beds showing an ordered stacking of structure
divisions without breaks, erosional surfaces,
alternations and/or repetitions of sedimentary
structures or evidence of pauses in sedimentation
represent single sedimentation units. Many substantially thicker units, especially those showing
interbedded and alternating structure divisions
(Fig. 24), may be amalgamated layers.
Slurry-ow bed types and their deposition

(I) Dish-structured beds
Many Britannia slurry-ow beds consist largely of
M4 dish-structured divisions, commonly with
thin M1 divisions at the base and M7 or M5/M6
divisions at the top (Fig. 23). These beds differ
little from the deposits of sandy high-density
61
Fig. 24. Example of type II slurry

bed: bed no. 66, top zone 45, well
16/26-B10. The thickness of the bed
and the alternation of structure
types suggest that this bed is an
amalgamated bed representing a
succession of ows or ow surges.
See legend to Fig. 23 for key to lettering on max5 grain-size column.
turbidity currents, characterized by the S13

sequence of divisions (Lowe, 1982). In this case,
M1 S1 and M4 S3. Although dish-structured
sandstones within the Britannia slurry-ow
interval have moderately high mud contents
(Table 1), the dish-structured divisions contain
less mud (141% in zones 40 and 45) than is
associated with M1, M2 and M3 divisions (181%,
190%, and 161%, respectively, in zones 40 and
45). They show little or no evidence that this mud
inuenced ow mechanics, sedimentation or
deposit structures and textures, except for the
lack of cross-lamination in capping M5b divisions.
Some type I beds show normal grain-size grading,
but many others are ungraded (Fig. 23). Most are
either bimodal throughout or bimodal at the base
and unimodal at the top (Table 1). Sedimentation
occurred largely through direct suspension sedi-
mentation, without the development of mudrich viscous sublayers. Water escape involved
grain-by-grain reorganization, the winnowing of
individual muddy and carbonaceous grains and
size sorting along the water-escape paths. These
beds are best regarded as the deposits of muddy
but largely non-cohesive, high-density turbidity
currents.
(II) Dish-structured and wispy

laminated units
Some of the thickest beds in the Britannia
Formation are characterized by interlayered dish
structures and wispy laminations (Fig. 24),
including the 15- to 20-m-thick bed no. 66 at
the top of zone 45 (Figs 3, 9 and 24). These
beds appear to reect combined suspension
62
Fig. 25. Example of type III slurry

bed, bed no. 50, zone 45, well 16/26B10. See legend to Fig. 23 for key to
lettering on max5 grain-size column.
sedimentation (dish-structured divisions) and

sedimentation via short-lived viscous sublayers
(wispy laminated divisions). Weak mesobanding
is locally present near the bases of some units.
These conditions reect the slightly higher, more
active mud contents of these ows and the
inuence of mud in slowing sand sedimentation

and, hence, in allowing time for near-bed hydrodynamic segregation of mud and sand. Virtually
all show well-developed normal grading in both
mean and max5 diameters and are bimodal at the
base and unimodal at the top, reecting efcient
Fig. 26. Example of type IV slurry

bed: bed no. 86, zone 50, well 16/26B6. Bed consists of macrobanded to
mesobanded sandstone. Middle part
shows unusual arenaceous macrobanding with thick, well-laminated
light bands. This style of banding is
common only in zone 50. See legend
to Fig. 23 for key to lettering on
max5 grain-size column.
63
Fig. 27. Example of type V slurry

bed: bed no. 46, zone 40, well 16/26B10. Bed includes several mud-rich
layers showing wisps and streaks of
light sandstone. M1 division at the
base is overlain by a thin unit
showing sheared sandstone masses
in mud-rich sandstone matrix.
Overlying dark layers show pronounced subvertical fabrics reecting restructuring by water escape.
Spaced concentrations of deformed
chunks and blobs of lighter, lowmud sandstone represent light
bands disrupted by foundering into
underlying darker mud-rich layers.
See legend to Fig. 23 for key to lettering on max5 grain-size column.
size fractionation and differential particle settling. These features are consistent with the
depositing ows being fully turbulent and largely
cohesionless except within short-lived, near-bed
viscous sublayers developed during the deposition of wispy lamination.
(III) Wispy laminated and banded units

In ows with higher mud contents, development
of mud-rich viscous sublayers resulted in the
formation of a varied suite of banded to wispy
laminated units (Fig. 25). Markov chain analysis
coupled with more qualitative observations suggests that the most common sequences of divisions in these units are M1,2b,2c,3,5(6) and
M1,2b,2c,3,7. M1 is present in over half of the units.
The banded portions are dominated by mesobanding, but macrobanding and, rarely, megabanding can be present. Dish structures are
present in a few units, but are not common.
These units tend to show M5 or M5,6 divisions at
their tops, where the uppermost parts of individual beds have not been sheared or disturbed by
post-depositional owage, slumping or mixing.
Beds with wispy laminated tops are commonly
capped by a thin M7 unit of vertical water-escape
structures overlain abruptly by mudstone or
claystone.
Type III beds tend to pass from M1 divisions at
the base, marking an initial interval of fully
turbulent ow, to banded units within which
there is an upward decrease in band and couplet
thickness and in the proportion and thickness of
the dark bands. These trends suggest that, after an
initial interval of nearly steady and uniform
turbulent ow, the ows developed thick cohesive sublayers with the onset of sedimentation
and increasing ow stratication. The upwardthinning trends in band thickness and relative
decreasing thickness of the dark bands suggest
that the mud contents of the ows were declining
and that, as a consequence, the overall rate of
sediment fallout from suspension was increasing.
64
Few, if any, of the beds are topped by dishstructured intervals: most show internal disconformities at the tops of M2c or M3 divisions
succeeded by M5/M6 divisions, suggesting that
fallout of the relatively dense mud and sand
suspended-sediment clouds was followed by
gradual waning and deposition under increasingly
lower energy conditions. The abundance of mud
in M5 units suggests that mud continued to be a
major component of these ows until they ended.
These beds are usually well graded in both mean
and max5 (Fig. 25), but some lack grading in the
mean.
(IV) Mesobanded and macrobanded beds

Many slurry beds, especially in the middle of
zone 45 and throughout zone 50, consist largely of
macrobanded to mesobanded divisions (Figs 13
and 26). They are commonly capped by M5 or
M5,6 divisions. These deposits record ows that
were extremely muddy and within which the
formation and decay of mud-dominated viscous
sublayers inuenced sedimentation throughout
their existence. However, the thickness of some
individual laminated light bands, in some
instances exceeding half a metre in thickness,
indicate that the middle and upper parts of the
ows were turbulent suspensions. These units
also typically show well-developed normal grainsize grading in both the mean and max5 diameters (Fig. 26) and bimodal bases and unimodal
tops. These features indicate differential settling
of large particles and suggest that cohesion, while
important in structuring the near-bed layers, was
generally insufcient to prevent size fractionation
by differential grain settling.
(V) Mixed slurried and megabanded beds

The mud-rich, end-member, slurry-ow bed type
consists of unbanded, mixed, slurried divisions
or megabanded sandstone, some with thin M1
divisions at the base and/or rare M5 divisions at
the top (Figs 11 and 27). These beds commonly
show volumetric mud contents of 2025%. Most
are grain supported, although this may in part
reect post-depositional compaction. There is
commonly evidence for foundered, thin light
bands, indicating some differential sand settling
between the emplacement of mud-rich slurry
deposits, but the extreme thickness of the dark
layers indicates that sedimentation was dominated
by the deposition of thick, mud-rich slurries
rather than by the settling of individual dense
quartz and feldspar grains. The cohesiveness of

these mud-rich ows during transport and
sedimentation is also suggested by the general
lack of grain-size grading (Fig. 27) and the retention of bimodal textures throughout, with the
coarse-grained sand population evenly dispersed
within the ner muddy sandstone with little or
no differential settling. However, many were
restructured by vertical water escape (Figs 11
and 27), suggesting that cohesion was not sufcient to prevent particle reorganization by escaping pore uids. Some beds show a pervasive
heterogeneous mixing of mud-rich and sand-rich
phases and may represent more nely banded
units that have been profoundly disrupted by
water escape, loading and foundering, and shearing during and immediately after deposition.
Other units that lack light bands, foundered
masses of light sandstone representing light
bands and cleaner water-escape conduits probably represent debris ows in which cohesion was
sufciently high to prevent differential sedimentation of denser grains and particle sorting during
water escape.
Origin of bed types and structure sequences

The results of this study suggest that the mud
content and the activity of mud within individual
slurry ows exerted the primary controls on latestage ow evolution, sedimentation and sedimentary structure formation, largely by regulating
the rate of sediment fallout from suspension and
by promoting the development of mud-rich,
cohesion-dominated viscous sublayers. Mud-rich
ows, whether turbulent or not, are likely to
behave as sedimentological and rheological
debris ows, showing sufcient cohesion to
prevent differential grain settling and fractionation of sand-sized debris. They resediment to
form type V mixed slurried or megabanded beds.
The formation of banding requires sufcient time
for sediment fractionation through differential
settling, sediment sorting through traction transport during light-band formation and water
escape with grain sorting and elutriation along
water-escape routes. High suspended-load fallout
rates would tend to suppress near-bed differential
settling and size fractionation and result in
direct suspension sedimentation to form dishstructured type I beds.
Declining band/lamination thickness from M2a
to M2b to M2c to M3 is thus interpreted to reect,
in large part, increasing rates of suspended-load
fallout from increasingly less muddy ows. Thick

type V mixed slurried units without banding were
probably emplaced rapidly by mud-rich ows or
surges that behaved as sedimentological and
rheological debris ows, characterized by matrix
support and a lack of suspended-load fallout and
differential settling. Flows with lower mud
contents would tend to be less cohesive and
could not support their sandy sediment loads by
cohesion and buoyancy alone. They would be
rheological debris ows but sedimentological
turbidity currents characterized by individual
particle fallout from suspension. At relatively
high mud contents and low suspended-load
fallout rates, there would be considerable time
for the formation of organized viscous sublayers
and extensive particle fractionation, leading to
the formation of macrobanded to mesobanded
divisions, M2b and M2c, and bed types dominated
by banded units (bed type IV). At still lower mud
contents, fallout from suspension begins to overwhelm the bed-load layer and eventually results
in direct suspension sedimentation, forming
wispy laminated and dish-structured type II and
type I beds respectively.
DISCUSSION
Previous studies have emphasized the importance of low- and high-density turbidity currents
and debris ows in depositing coarse sediment in
the deep sea. Although many researchers have
recognized the possible existence of ow types
transitional between end-member turbidity currents and debris ows, and numerous local
studies have described muddy sandstones or
mixed beds in terms of slurries or slurry ows
(e.g. Wood & Smith, 1959; Burne, 1970, 1995),
there has been little evidence until now that
transitional ows might play a major role in
sedimentation, that they might leave distinctive
deposits or that they need to be treated separately
in discussions of deep-water sedimentation.
The Lower Cretaceous Britannia Formation
includes subaqueously deposited sandstone beds
that exhibit an assemblage of textures and structures that are clearly different from those of
previously described end-member turbidites and
debris-ow deposits. These sandstone beds provide an unusual and perhaps unique record of
sedimentation from what are interpreted to be
such transitional ow types, termed here slurry
ows. The distinctive structuring of the Britannia
slurry-ow deposits appears to result from the
abundance and behaviour of mud within the
65
ows. Clay carried as ne clay-sized particles

possesses a large surface area that commonly
results in strong interparticle cohesion. Flows
with high particle concentrations and even small
amounts of dispersed clay can apparently exhibit
signicant cohesion and behave as debris ows
(Hampton, 1972, 1975; Middleton & Hampton,
1976). The Britannia ows, however, although
probably carrying mud contents of 1530% by dry
weight, were turbulent and non-cohesive
throughout most of their existence. The presence
of abundant sand-sized mud particles and the
tendency of mud to move and deposit along with
ne- to medium-grained sand, as well as with
ner sand and silt, suggest that much of the mud
was carried as sand-sized grains, possibly occules or small rip-up clasts. With a relatively
small effective surface area, the sand-sized mud
grains showed little interparticle cohesion and
behaved as cohesionless sand grains. Most ows,
although having relatively high clay contents,
moved as Newtonian or quasi-Newtonian turbulent suspensions.
During ow waning and sedimentation, as
stratication increased during particle settling, a
form of kinetic sieving concentrated mud over
quartz and feldspar within the lower denser parts
of the ows. High shear rates and abrasion against
rigid quartz and feldspar grains disaggregated
some of the sand-sized mud particles. This
disaggregation coupled with the high mud contents of these near-bed layers resulted in an
increase in effective clay surface area, increased
viscosity and cohesion, suppression of near-bed
turbulence and the formation of cohesion-dominated viscous sublayers. At this point, the ows
consisted of a thick turbulent upper layer and an
underlying cohesion-dominated viscous sublayer.
These cohesion-dominated sublayers are analogous in many ways to friction-dominated traction
carpets described previously from turbidity currents (Hiscott & Middleton, 1979; Lowe, 1982)
and can be termed cohesive traction carpets. They
ranged from thin, millimetre-thick layers to zones
that probably exceeded 1 m in thickness and
occupied a major part of the total ow.
It is not clear what, if any, attributes of the clay
carried in Britannia ows favoured the evolution
of slurry ows. It may have been a combination of
the abundance of sand-sized mud grains, which
settled along with quartz and feldspar within the
declining turbulent ows; their density, which
enhanced kinetic sieving effects in the lower,
high-density parts of stratied ows; and/or their
low strength, which favoured mud particle
66
disaggregation within the near-bed region of high

shear and abrasion. However, these effects were
not unique to the Britannia Formation. Similar,
although more poorly developed, slurry beds
with banding, wispy laminations and mixed
slurried divisions are present in the Pennsylvanian Jackfork Formation of the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas and in the Great Valley Group,
western California.
The M sedimentary structure divisions of
slurry-ow deposits are, in part, mechanically
analogous to the S divisions of the deposits of
high-density turbidity currents. Both M1 and S1
are deposited at relatively low sedimentation
rates by turbulent ows and commonly involve
traction sedimentation with the formation of
current structures. M2 and M3 in slurry-ow
deposits and S2 in turbidites form during a
transitional stage of ow evolution between an
early stage, when ow is fully turbulent and
deposition occurs through bed-load sedimentation, and a late stage, when the suspended load is
settling en masse, and deposition is through
direct suspension sedimentation. During this
intermediate stage, fallout from suspension loads
the near-bed layer to the point at which it
becomes dominated by particle interactions,
which dynamically sort and structure near-bed
sediment before deposition. In the case of traction
carpets beneath sandy high-density turbidity
currents, shear resistance and sediment sorting
occurs in response to frictional grain interactions.
In the case of M2 and M3, they occur in response
to cohesive forces. These two types of sublayers
can be termed frictional and cohesive traction
carpets respectively. M4 and S3 are deposited
when fallout from suspension overwhelms the
bed-load layers, and deposition is through direct
suspension sedimentation. The difference
between the M and S divisions lies in the higher
mud contents of M divisions and the dominance
of cohesive over frictional forces in the formation
of M2 and M3.
High-density turbidity currents with welldeveloped, friction-dominated traction carpets
could be regarded as a type of slurry ow in which
the lower part of the ow is characterized by
frictional rather than cohesive particle interactions and strength. However, frictional traction
carpets are limited in their thickness in ways that
cohesive traction carpets are not and, except at the
largest grain sizes, are thin layers, usually less than
3 cm thick for sand-sized debris (Lowe, 1976).
They occupy a much thinner layer at the bottom of
the ow and are closely related to normal bed-load
layers of turbulent ows. High-density turbidity

currents with frictional traction carpets are therefore not regarded here as slurry ows.
The importance of mud in slurry-ow dynamics is also suggested by the changing patterns of
bimodality within the slurry-ow deposits. Britannia sands apparently passed through shelfal
storage areas before reworking into deeper water,
as suggested by the ubiquitous presence of minor
amounts of glauconite and shallow-water fossil
material. This history is not unique. Many deepwater systems have probably been nourished by
similar shelf sand sources. However, most deepwater sands are not bimodal, because turbidity
currents size fractionate sediments, erase bimodality common in shelf sands and impose their
own textures on the resulting deposits. Within
the high-mud M1 (average mud content of 181%
in zones 40 and 45) and M2 (average mud content
of 190% in zones 40 and 45) divisions, inherited
sediment bimodality is commonly retained (36
out of 39 samples of M1 and 47 out of 74 samples
of M2). However, most wispy laminated divisions
contain less mud (161% in zones 40 and 45) and
are less commonly bimodal (11 out of 68 samples
in zones 40 and 45). Apparently, the initial highly
turbulent, high-mud ows were energetic enough
to carry all grain sizes available up to at least
coarse-grained sand. As the ows declined,
bimodality was retained within the cohesiondominated, mud-enriched viscous sublayers
because of the inability of the larger grains to
fractionate through differential settling. Within
lower mud ows, however, coarser quartz and
feldspar grains settled rapidly and were either
deposited upslope or fractionated into the lower
parts of the ows. Late-stage sedimentation
involved rapid fallout from suspension and the
formation of thin, ne-grained, largely unimodal,
lower mud viscous sublayers (M3 divisions).
The proposed scenario for the origin of the M
divisions of slurry-ow beds implies that it is the
activity of mud in slurry ows, not just the
absolute mud content, that determines their
rheology. This is supported by the mud-content
contrasts between corresponding M divisions in
zones 40 and 45 and the same divisions in zone
50 in the Britannia Field. Sandy slurry-ow
divisions in zone 50 contain 310% more mud
by volume than the same divisions in zones 40
and 45 (Table 1), suggesting that muds in zone 50
required higher mud concentrations to achieve
similar rheological effects.
Slurry ows underwent a number of ow
transformations during their evolution. Many,

and perhaps most, began deposition as fully
turbulent turbidity currents. As the turbidity
currents began to wane, particle settling resulted
in the formation of strongly stratied ows. The
high particle contents, abundant mud and nearbed breakdown of sand-sized clay particles transformed the lower parts of these turbidity currents
into cohesion-dominated viscous sublayers. Sedimentation of the highly concentrated mud and
sandy loads of these currents left residual
low-density ows that were more dilute but still
mud-charged, from which M5 divisions were
deposited. M5 divisions may be dynamically
analogous to the Tbcde divisions of low-density
turbidity-current deposits.
During deposition, all but the muddiest Britannia slurry ows probably included both an
upper turbulent ow and an underlying cohesion-dominated, largely laminar viscous ow.
Viewed separately, the former is a turbidity
current and the latter a debris ow. However, by
themselves, these debris ows would not have
formed and probably could not have existed as
independent ows. The structures and textures of
the resulting deposits reect the long-term
interaction of the viscous sublayer (debris ow)
and overlying turbulent ow (turbidity current)
during deposition. The nal deposits could not
have formed from simple debris ows unrelated
to turbidity currents or from turbidity currents
lacking the underlying cohesive sublayers or
debris ows. The use of a separate term, slurry
ows, for these types of ows is useful to
emphasize their unique evolution and the distinctive structuring of their deposits.
Striking in their rarity within the slurry-ow
and mudstone section of the Britannia Formation
are normal thin-bedded turbidites showing current-produced Tb, Tc and Td Bouma divisions.
Thin-bedded turbidites are common in the western part of the Britannia Field, where they occur
interbedded with thick, low-mud, massive to
dish-structured, high-density turbidity-current
deposits. Their rarity within slurry-ow sections
reinforces the inference that the depositing ows
did not evolve as normal turbidity currents.
CONCLUSIONS
The Lower Cretaceous Britannia Formation displays a spectacular assemblage of sediment ow
deposits, including turbidites, debris-ow deposits and units interpreted to represent ows
transitional between turbidity currents and debris
67
ows, termed here slurry ows. Slurry beds show

detrital mud contents ranging from about 10% to
over 35% and display an exceptionally welldeveloped suite of primary and water-escape
structures: massive sandstones make up less than
5% of the total thickness of Britannia sandstones.
Britannia slurry-ow beds are subdivided into
seven divisions, termed M divisions, each characterized by a distinctive assemblage of primary
and/or water-escape structures: (M1) divisions of
current-structured and/or massive sandstone;
(M2) banded divisions; (M3) wispy laminated
divisions; (M4) dish-structured divisions; (M5)
microbanded to nely laminated divisions; (M6)
divisions of foundered and sheared microbanded
to laminated sandstone and mudstone; and (M7)
sandstone showing vertical water-escape structures.
M14 divisions represent sedimentation from
relatively high-density ows, and the M24 division spectrum reects deposition from ows of
progressively lower mud contents and increasing
sedimentation rates. M1 divisions were deposited
when the ows were fully turbulent rheological
and sedimentological turbidity currents. As the
ows declined and particles began to settle, ow
behaviour and deposit character were determined
by the amount and activity of mud within the
ows. In mud-rich ows, as stratication
increased because of grain settling, mud grains
were selectively trapped within high-density
near-bed layers because of their lower densities,
whereas quartz and feldspar grains tended to
settle and accumulate on the underlying bed to
form low-mud light bands. Increasing mud contents of near-bed layers resulted in their transformation into cohesive viscous sublayers, which
were subsequently deposited to form mud-rich
dark bands and laminations of banded (M2) and
wispy laminated (M3) divisions respectively.
Many dark bands in M2 divisions show evidence of heterogeneous late-stage shear, especially near their bases, with an upward decrease in
visible shearing effects (Figs 13 and 14). The
upper parts of dark bands commonly contain
abundant distended and sheared masses of sand
derived by foundering of overlying light-band
sediment (Fig. 13). These observations suggest
that (1) the initial light-band sediments were
deposited on the still-shearing viscous sublayers,
represented by the dark bands, probably because
sublayer strength exceeded gravity forces of
individual quartz and feldspar grains settling
out of the overlying turbulent ow; (2) these
rst-deposited light-band sediments commonly
68
foundered into and were sheared within the

upper part of the viscous sublayer; and (3) the
accumulation of light-band sediment on, and its
incorporation into, the upper part of the viscous
sublayer led to increasing sediment strength
and eventual freezing of the upper part of the
sublayer. This formed a non-shearing plug that
was rafted along on the still-shearing lower part
of the viscous sublayer. Complete sedimentation
of the sublayer occurred as additional sediment
accumulated on top of the plug, and the driving
force provided by the overlying ow dropped
below the yield strength of the sublayer. The
growth and sedimentation of cohesive viscous
sublayers, alternating with light-band deposition
through suspended-load fallout from and traction
transport beneath the turbulent ow, resulted in
the formation of thick, banded slurry beds.
The muddiest ows may have behaved as
viscous, cohesion-dominated ows throughout
much of their existence. These tended to sediment en masse as rheological and sedimentological debris ows to form mixed slurried or, where
some differential grain settling occurred, megabanded (M2a) divisions. Lower mud ows showed
higher settling rates of quartz and feldspar and
the development of thinner viscous sublayers and
more abundant light bands. Their deposits are
characterized by M2b macrobanded and M2c
mesobanded divisions. Still lower mud ows
involved high suspended-load fallout rates and
the formation of very thin, short-lived viscous
sublayers, forming M3 wispy laminated divisions.
The lowest mud ows were characterized by the
highest suspended-load fallout rates and direct
suspension sedimentation to form dish-structured M4 divisions. The late-stage fallout of the
nest sand-sized sediment resulted in the deposition of M5 divisions of microbanded to at
laminated sediment. M5a may have formed
beneath relatively high-density, ne-sediment
clouds, but M5b, which grades progressively
upwards into mudstone, was probably deposited
by residual low-density ows and is perhaps
analogous to a Tbde sequence in turbidites. M6
and M7 formed through post-depositional foundering and shearing and late-stage water escape
respectively.
Slurry beds also display water-escape and softsediment deformation structures that reect the
response of still-settling and consolidating, loose,
deposited sediment, showing a range of mud
contents, to water escape. Mud-rich M2a and the
dark bands in M2b and M2c divisions show
irregularly distributed short, vertical to subverti-
cal water-escape channels. Many have been

ptygmatically deformed during later compaction.
Light bands in high-mud banded sediments show
sets of regularly spaced, vertical light-coloured
sand sheets, which are inferred to have formed
through combined hydroplastic stretching of and
water escape through the light bands. Wispy
laminated units show swarms of ne, closely
spaced, subvertical to vertical light streaks representing sheet- to pipe-like linear water-escape
channels. These are either randomly distributed
or show a tendency to line up along light layers or
bands. Dish-structured divisions show at to
concave-upward dishes. Vertical water-escape
channels are largely conned to the spaces
between the upward-curving edges of dish structures. M7 divisions have been pervasively structured by water escape. In all cases, the lighter
colour of water-escape channels reects mud and
ne-sediment elutriation by escaping pore uids.
Water-escape structures offer a qualitative means
of estimating the relative mud content and
sedimentation style of individual layers in the
Britannia Formation.
Britannia slurry beds, which range from about
1 m to over 30 m thick, represent both individual
sedimentation units, most of which are less than
45 m thick, and amalgamated beds. Both show
limited assemblages of division types, indicating
that individual ows as well as successions of
related ows displayed a limited range of mud
contents and dynamic behaviours. Individual
ows tended not to evolve from mud-rich to
low-mud ows. Five bed types are recognized,
four of which are dominated by one, or at most
two, ow-related division types: (I) dish-structured beds, which are commonly amalgamated
units, deposited by low-mud turbidity currents;
(II) dish-structured and wispy laminated beds,
which are also commonly amalgamated
beds, deposited by low-mud slurry ows;
(III) beds showing the subequal development of
banded and wispy laminated divisions and, less
commonly, dish-structured divisions, deposited
by moderately muddy slurry ows; (IV) predominantly banded units, representing muddy slurry
ows; and (V) megabanded to mixed slurried
units, deposited by the muddiest ows, many of
which were both rheological and sedimentological debris ows.
The Britannia system is not unique but is highly
unusual in showing such a spectacular variety and
thickness of slurry-ow deposits. Similar deposits
occur in other deep-water successions, and it
seems likely that slurry beds are widespread in

mud-rich, sediment-ow-dominated sequences.
Their study will perhaps ll in some of the gaps
in our understanding of sediment ow mechanics
and improve our ability to interpret modern and
ancient deep-water deposits.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research has been generously supported by
the Strategic Research Program of Chevron Petroleum Technology Company and Chevron UK Ltd.
We thank the Britannia coventurers (Chevron,
Conoco, Saga, Phillips, Arco and Texaco) for
unlimited access to logs, cores and thin sections
from Britannia Field and for permission to publish this paper. Special thanks are due to Andy
Latham of Chevron who encouraged and supported this research in its early stages. The authors
would also like to acknowledge the reviews and
suggestions of George Postma, Wonn Soh, Guy
Plint and Jim Best, which greatly improved the
nal version of the paper.
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Sedimentology (2000) 47, 3170

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation

The Lower Cretaceous Britannia Formation (North Sea) includes an assemblage

Present address: 39 Little Woodcote Lane, Purley, Surrey CR8 3PZ, UK

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists

D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

p. 198). These denitions reect the existence of

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea

1987), although these are generally not turbulent,

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

Fig. 1. General map of the central

end of the Witch Ground Graben and the western

sub-basin was bounded on the north-east by the

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea

been assigned even numbers from bed 2 (zone 10)

Petrology of Britannia Formation sandstones

Fig. 3. Stratigraphic subdivision, zonation and gamma

formed a broad, shallow, more or less symmetric,

The lithology, stratigraphy and sedimentology of

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea

The distribution and properties of the mud

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

blue-dyed epoxy used as a mounting medium and

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea

Table 2. TOC contents of light and dark bands from

*From Carpenter et al. (1998).

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

Fig. 6. Deposits of low-density

represent unusually thick Td and Te divisions

Fig. 7. Dish-structured sandstone representing S3

for post-depositional owage and soft-sediment

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea

SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURE DIVISIONS

are medium- to dark-grey layers composed of

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea

(M1) Traction-structured and massive

turbulence was suppressed, perhaps by the high

(M2) Banded divisions

(M2a) Mixed slurried and megabanded

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

sandstone in zones 40 and 45 and 274% for four

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea

(M2b) Macrobanded and (M2c)

sandstone layers (Fig. 12). They also typically

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

D. R. Lowe and M. Guy

Fig. 12. Part of a thick slurry-ow

preferentially cemented by carbonate or syntaxial

2000 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 47, 3170

Slurry-ow deposits in the Britannia Formation, North Sea