The deep-sea storm involves the rapid movement of the water with high suspended particle concentration near the bottom of the deep sea. It can damage or even destroy all obstacles, change the submarine topography, and affect the benthic ecological environment. However, in-situ observational studies of its occurrence and the sedimentary record were few and far between. This paper studies the sediment dispersion process of a deep-sea storm in September 2016 caused by the turbidity current activity and observed in situ by deploying a mooring system on the levee of the Gaoping Submarine Canyon in the northeastern South China Sea. It is shown that the suspended particle concentration in places near the bottom increases rapidly with the increase of the temperature and the decrease of the salinity. It is believed that the sediment dispersion of the deep-sea storm is the main dynamic process for the formation of sedimentary laminae in the submarine canyon.

deep-sea storm  /  sedimentary laminae  /  in-situ mooring observation  /  Gaoping Submarine Canyon  /  South China Sea