Erosion patterns in a sediment layer

TL;DR

This study presents a laboratory experiment demonstrating how sediment erosion patterns, especially rhomboid structures, can be explained by a new mud avalanche instability mechanism rather than water waves.

Contribution

It introduces a novel explanation for sediment pattern formation, highlighting a mud avalanche instability as the key process.

Findings

Rhomboid erosion patterns can be reproduced in laboratory conditions.

Water surface waves are insufficient to explain the observed patterns.

A new mechanism based on mud avalanche instability is proposed.

Abstract

We report here on a laboratory-scale experiment which reproduces a rich variety of natural patterns with few control parameters. In particular, we focus on intriguing rhomboid structures often found on sandy shores and flats. We show that the standard views based on water surface waves come short to explain the phenomenon and we evidence a new mechanism based on a mud avalanche instability.