Dr Matthieu Cartigny

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Contact Dr Matthieu Cartigny (email at matthieu.j.cartigny@durham.ac.uk)

Research Overview

My research focusses on the dynamics of geophysical flows, their associated morphologies and the eventual deposits that are left in the rock record. I use field measurements, experiments, numerical models and the sedimentary record to test morphodynamic hypothesis from different perspectives. I am fascinated by the autonomous behaviour observed in these processes and the broad scope of beautiful patterns that they produce.

Currently, my research is mainly focused on direct observations of turbidity currents in settings varying from large submarine canyons to small delta front channels. These observations include the first deep ocean measurements of unprecedented Mississippi-River-size, week-long flows. These flows show a complete new flow structure, where a dense frontal parts of the flow outruns a dilute quasi-steady trailing body. Other datasets include ~100 individual smaller flows occurring in delta channels, which now allow us to constrain for the first time what it takes for a small flow to ignite into a fully develop turbidity current. More generally, I am trying expand on our observation capabilities by bringing in techniques that are new to this field, such as CHIRP systems to image dense basal layers on turbidity currents, electronic resistivity tomography to measure dense basal layer non-intrusively in the laboratory, acoustic inversion techniques to explore sediment concentration within deep-ocean turbidity currents and fully three-dimensional numerical modelling techniques to study the link between supercritical flows and their related bedforms.

In my future research I want to expand my research scope to other geophysical flows. This is currently being reflected in modelling work on sediment waves on submarine flanks of volcanoes to constrain submarine continuation of pyroclastic flows, and by linking sedimentological signatures to morphological seafloor features in a large glacially formed trough on the Antarctic shelf.

Supervises

• Mr Jamie Hizzett
• Ms Sophie Hage
• Ms Zoë Roseby
• Mr Florian Pohl
• Ms Daniela Vendettuoli

Research Groups

Department of Earth Sciences

• Sedimentology Research Group

Department of Geography

• Hazards and Surface Change

Research Interests

• Morphodynamics of geophysical flows
• Sedimentology
• Turbidity currents
• Sediment transport
• Bedform

Indicators of Esteem

• 2018: : Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow by the Royal Society
• 2018: : Early-Career Scientist Award by the International Association of Sedimentologists
• 2018: : Roland Goldring Award by the British Sedimentological Research Group
• 2016: : Harold Reading Award for De Leeuw et al., 2016 by the British Sedimentological Research Group
• 2006: : Hydraulic Engineering MSc award by Duthc Society of Hydraulic Engineers

Selected Publications

Conference Paper

• Krastel, Sebastian, Wynn, Russell B., Feldens, Peter, Schuerer, Anke, Boettner, Christoph, Stevenson, C., Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Huehnerbach, Veit & Unverricht, Daniel (2016), Flow Behaviour of a Giant Landslide and Debris Flow Entering Agadir Canyon, NW Africa, in Lamarche, G., Mountjoy, J., Bull, S., Hubble, T., Krastel, S., Lane, E., Micallef, A., Moscardelli, L., Mueller, C., Pecher, I. & Woelz, S. eds, Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, 41 41: Submarine Mass Movements And Their Consequences. Wellington, Springer, 145-154.
• Postma, George, Hoyal, David C., Abreu, Vitor, Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Demko, Timothy, Fedele, Juan J., Kleverlaan, Kick & Pederson, Keriann H. (2016), Morphodynamics of Supercritical Turbidity Currents in the Channel-Lobe Transition Zone, in Lamarche, G, Mountjoy, J, Bull, S, Hubble, T, Krastel, S, Lane, E, Micallef, A, Moscardelli, L, Mueller, C, Pecher, I & Woelz, S eds, Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research 41: Submarine Mass Movements And Their Consequences. 469-478.
• Mastbergen, Dick, van den Ham, Geeralt, Cartigny, Matthieu, Koelewijn, Andre, de Kleine, Marco, Clare, Mike, Hizzett, Jamie, Azpiroz, Maria & Vellinga, Age (2016), Multiple Flow Slide Experiment in the Westerschelde Estuary, The Netherlands, in Lamarche, G, Mountjoy, J, Bull, S, Hubble, T, Krastel, S, Lane, E, Micallef, A, Moscardelli, L, Mueller, C, Pecher, I & Woelz, S eds, Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research 41: Submarine Mass Movements And Their Consequences. 241-249.
• Basani, Riccardo, Janocko, Michal, Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Hansen, Ernst W. M. & Eggenhuisen, Joris T. (2014), MassFLOW-3D (TM) as a simulation tool for turbidity currents: some preliminary results, in Martinius, AW, Ravnas, R, Howell, JA, Steel, RJ & Wonham, JP eds, International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication 46: 587-608.

Journal Article

• Pohl, F., Eggenhuisen, J.T. Cartigny, M.J.B. , Tilston, M. Leeuw, J. de & Hermidas, N. (2020). The influence of a slope break on turbidite deposits: An experimental investigation. Marine Geology 424: 106160.
• Vendettuoli, D., Clare, M.A., Hughes Clarke, J.E., Vellinga, A., Hizzet, J., Hage, S., Cartigny, M.J.B., Talling, P.J., Waltham, D., Hubbard, S.M., Stacey, C. & Lintern, D.G. (2019). Daily bathymetric surveys document how stratigraphy is built and its extreme incompleteness in submarine channels. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 515: 231-247.
• Hage, Sophie, Cartigny, Matthieu J.B., Sumner, Esther J., Clare, Michael A., Hughes Clarke, John E., Talling, Peter J., Lintern, D. Gwyn, Simmons, Stephen M., Silva Jacinto, Ricardo, Vellinga, Age J., Allin, Joshua R., Azpiroz‐Zabala, Maria, Gales, Jenny A., Hizzett, Jamie L., Hunt, James E., Mozzato, Alessandro, Parsons, Daniel R., Pope, Ed L., Stacey, Cooper D., Symons, William O., Vardy, Mark E. & Watts, Camilla (2019). Direct monitoring reveals initiation of turbidity currents from extremely dilute river plumes. Geophysical Research Letters 46(20): 11310-11320.
• Ono, Kenya, Plink‐Björklund, Piret, Eggenhuisen, Joris T. & Cartigny, Matthieu J.B. (2019). Froude supercritical flow processes and sedimentary structures:New insights from experiments with a wide range of grain sizes. Sedimentology
• Pohl, F., Eggenhuisen, J. T., Tilston, M. & Cartigny, M. J. B. (2019). New flow relaxation mechanism explains scour fields at the end of submarine channels. Nature Communications 10(1): 4425.
• Larter, Robert D., Hogan, Kelly A., Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter, Smith, James A., Batchelor, Christine L., Cartigny, Matthieu, Tate, Alex J., Kirkham, James D., Roseby, Zoë A., Kuhn, Gerhard, Graham, Alastair G. C. & Dowdeswell, Julian A. (2019). Subglacial hydrological control on flow of an Antarctic Peninsula palaeo-ice stream. The Cryosphere 13(6): 1583.
• Gales, J., Talling, P.J., Cartigny, M.J.B., Hughes Clarke, J., Lintern, G., Stacey, C. & Clare, M.A. (2019). What controls submarine channel development and the morphology of deltas entering deep-water fjords?. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 44(2): 535-551.
• Clare, Michael A., Le Bas, Tim, Price, David M., Hunt, James E., Sear, David, Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Vellinga, Age, Symons, William, Firth, Christopher & Cronin, Shane (2018). Complex and Cascading Triggering of Submarine Landslides and Turbidity Currents at Volcanic Islands Revealed From Integration of High-Resolution Onshore and Offshore Surveys. Frontiers in Earth Science 6: 223.
• Hage, S., Cartigny, M.J.B., Clare, M.A., Sumner, E.J., Vendettuoli, D., Hughes Clarke, J.E., Hubbard, S.M., Talling, P.J., Lintern, D.G., Stacey, C.D., Englert, R.G., Vardy, M.E., Hunt, J.E., Yokokawa, M., Parsons, D.R., Hizzett, J.L., Azpiroz-Zabala, M. & Vellinga, A.J. (2018). How to recognize crescentic bedforms formed by supercritical turbidity currents in the geologic record: insights from active submarine channels. Geology 46(6): 563-566.
• de Leeuw, Jan, Eggenhuisen, Joris T. & Cartigny, Matthieu J. B. (2018). Linking submarine channel-levee facies and architecture to flow structure of turbidity currents: insights from flume tank experiments. Sedimentology 65(3): 931-951.
• Vellinga, Age J., Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Eggenhuisen, Joris T. & Hansen, Ernst W. M. (2018). Morphodynamics and depositional signature of low-aggradation cyclic steps: New insights from a depth-resolved numerical model. Sedimentology 65(2): 540-560.
• Pope, Ed L., Jutzeler, Martin, Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Shreeve, James, Talling, Peter J., Wright, Ian C. & Wysoczanski, Richard J. (2018). Origin of spectacular fields of submarine sediment waves around volcanic islands: distinguishing eruption-fed supercritical flow bedforms from slope failures. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 493: 12-24.
• Paull, Charles K., Talling, Peter J., Maier, Katherine L., Parsons, Daniel, Xu, Jingping, Caress, David W., Gwiazda, Roberto, Lundsten, Eve M., Anderson, Krystle, Barry, James P., Chaffey, Mark, O’Reilly, Tom, Rosenberger, Kurt J., Gales, Jenny A., Kieft, Brian, McGann, Mary, Simmons, Steve M., McCann, Mike, Sumner, Esther J., Clare, Michael A. & Cartigny, Matthieu J. (2018). Powerful turbidity currents driven by dense basal layers. Nature Communications 9(1): 4114.
• Wu, Xuxu, Baas, Jaco H., Parsons, Daniel R., Eggenhuisen, Joris, Amoudry, Laurent, Cartigny, Matthieu, McLelland, Stuart, Mouazé, Dominique & Ruessink, Gerben (2018). Wave ripple development on mixed clay-sand substrates: Effects of clay winnowing and armoring. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 123(11): 2784-2801.
• Hizzett, J. L., Hughes Clarke, J. E., Sumner, E. J., Cartigny, M. J. B., Talling, P. J. & Clare, M. A. (2018). Which triggers produce the most erosive, frequent and longest runout turbidity currents on deltas?. Geophysical Research Letters 45(2): 855-863.
• Azpiroz-Zabala, M., Cartigny, M.J.B., Sumner, E.J., Clare, M.A., Talling, P.J., Parsons, D.R. & Cooper, C. (2017). A general model for the helical structure of geophysical flows in channel bends. Geophysical Research Letters 44(23): 11,932-11,941.
• Symons, W.O., Sumner, E.J., Paull, C.K., Cartigny, M.J.B., Xu, J.P., Maier, K.L., Lorenson, T.D. & Talling, P.J. (2017). A new model for turbidity current behavior based on integration of flow monitoring and precision coring in a submarine canyon. Geology 45(4): 367-370.
• Clare, M.A., Vardy, M.E., Cartigny, M.J.B., Talling, P.J., Himsworth, M.D., Dix, J.K., Harris, J.M., Whitehouse, R.J.S. & Belal, M. (2017). Direct monitoring of active geohazards: emerging geophysical tools for deep-water assessments. Near surface geophysics 15(4): 427-444.
• Azpiroz-Zabala, Maria, Cartigny, Matthieu, Talling, Peter, Parsons, Daniel, Sumner, Esther, Clare, Michael, Simmons, Stephen, Cooper, Cortis & Pope, Ed (2017). Newly recognized turbidity current structure can explain prolonged flushing of submarine canyons. Science Advances 3(10): e1700200.
• Eggenhuisen, Joris T., Cartigny, Matthieu J. B. & de Leeuw, Jan (2017). Physical theory for near-bed turbulent particle suspension capacity. Earth Surface Dynamics 5(2): 269-281.
• Symons, William O., Sumner, Esther J., Tailing, Peter J., Cartigny, Matthieu J. B. & Clare, Michael A. (2016). Large-scale sediment waves and scours on the modern seafloor and their implications for the prevalence of supercritical flows. Marine Geology 371: 130-148.
• Pope, E.L., Talling, P.J., Hunt, J.E., Dowdeswell, J.A., Allin, J.R., Cartigny, M.J.B., Long, D., Mozzato, A., Stanford, J.D., Tappin, D.R. & Watts, M. (2016). Long-term record of Barents Sea Ice Sheet advance to the shelf edge from a 140,000 year record. Quaternary Science Reviews 150: 55-66.
• de Leeuw, Jan, Eggenhuisen, Joris T. & Cartigny, Matthieu J. B. (2016). Morphodynamics of submarine channel inception revealed by new experimental approach. Nature Communications 7(1): 10886.
• Clare, M.A., Hughes Clarke, J.E., Talling, P.T., Cartigny, M.J.B. & Pratomo, D.G. (2016). Preconditioning and triggering of offshore slope failures and turbidity currents revealed by most detailed monitoring yet at a fjord-head. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 450: 208-220.
• Arnoud Slootman, Matthieu J.B. Cartigny, Andrea Moscariello, Massimo Chiaradia & Poppe L. de Boer (2016). Quantification of tsunami-induced flows on a Mediterranean carbonate ramp reveals catastrophic evolution. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 444: 192.
• Zhong, Guangfa, Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Kuang, Zenggui & Wang, Liaoliang (2015). Cyclic steps along the South Taiwan Shoal and West Penghu submarine canyons on the northeastern continental slope of the South China Sea. Geological Society Of America Bulletin 127(5-6): 804-824.
• Talling, Peter J., Allin, Joshua, Armitage, Dominic A., Arnott, Robert W. C., Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Clare, Michael A., Felletti, Fabrizio, Covault, Jacob A., Girardclos, Stephanie, Hansen, Ernst, Hill, Philip R., Hiscott, Richard N., Hogg, Andrew J., Clarke, John Hughes, Jobe, Zane R., Malgesini, Giuseppe, Mozzato, Alessandro, Naruse, Hajime, Parkinson, Sam, Peel, Frank J., Piper, David J. W., Pope, Ed, Postma, George, Rowley, Pete, Sguazzini, Andrea, Stevenson, Christopher J., Sumner, Esther J., Sylvester, Zoltan, Watts, Camilla & Xu, Jingping (2015). Key future directions for research on turbidity currents and their deposits. Journal Of Sedimentary Research 85(2): 153-169.
• Ventra, Dario, Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Bijkerk, Jochem F. & Acikalin, Sanem (2015). Supercritical-flow structures on a Late Carboniferous delta front: Sedimentologic and paleoclimatic significance. Geology 43(8): 731-734.
• Ventra, Dario, Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Bijkerk, Jochem F. & Acikalin, Sanem (2015). Supercritical-flow structures on a Late Carboniferous delta front: sedimentologic and paleoclimatic significance Reply. Geology 43(12): E375.
• Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Ventra, Dario, Postma, George & van den Berg, Jan H. (2014). Morphodynamics and sedimentary structures of bedforms under supercritical-flow conditions: New insights from flume experiments. Sedimentology 61(3): 712-748.
• Postma, George, Kleverlaan, Kick & Cartigny, Matthieu J. B. (2014). Recognition of cyclic steps in sandy and gravelly turbidite sequences, and consequences for the Bouma facies model. Sedimentology 61(7): 2268-2290.
• Postma, George & Cartigny, Matthieu J. B. (2014). Supercritical and subcritical turbidity currents and their deposits-A synthesis. Geology 42(11): 987-990.
• Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Eggenhuisen, Joris T., Hansen, Ernst W. M. & Postma, George (2013). Concentration-dependent flow stratification in experimental high-density turbdiity currents and their relevance to turbidite faceis models. Journal Of Sedimentary Research 83(11-12): 1047-1065.
• Janocko, M., Cartigny, M. B. J., Nemec, W. & Hansen, E. W. M. (2013). Turbidity current hydraulics and sediment deposition in erodible sinuous channels: Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. Marine And Petroleum Geology 41(SI): 222-249.
• Cartigny, Matthieu J. B., Postma, George, van den Berg, Jan H. & Mastbergen, Dick R. (2011). A comparative study of sediment waves and cyclic steps based on geometries, internal structures and numerical modeling. Marine Geology 280(1-4): 40-56.
• Postma, George, Cartigny, Matthieu & Kleverlaan, Kick (2009). Structureless, coarse-tail graded Bouma Ta formed by internal hydraulic jump of the turbidity current?. Sedimentary Geology 219(1-4): 1-6.

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Supervises

• Ms Natasha Chapplow
• Ms Kate Heerema
• Mr. Sean Ruffell

Selected Grants