This session aims to study the morphodynamics of particulate geophysical flows, thereby covering the processes starting with sediment pick-up through erosion, sediment transport, segregation processes and ending in the resulting deposits. Particulate geophysical flows are here understood to include but not limited to fluvial and coastal sediment transport, debris flows, snow and debris avalanches, aeolian transport, turbidity currents, pyroclastic flows and landslides.

Erosion and deposition of granular material plays a key role in the overall dynamics of transportation of particulate geophysical flows. Entrainment of the substrate by a flowing mass could either accelerate or decelerate the flow and depends on the nature of the erodible material (i.e. shape, size and density of particles) as well as the characteristics of the fluid (viscosity, density or temperature). During transport, segregation of a very wide range of grain sizes largely modifies fluxes and results in patterns observed in many geophysical flows. Particulate geophysical flows can generate complex depositional architectures depending on parameters and processes described above.

Quantitative aspects of these processes have, however, so far been insufficiently studied in the field and in the laboratory as well as in numerical models, in particular due to the difficulty to perform quantitative in situ measurements and a lack of understanding of the static/flowing transition in granular media. We invite contributions from modern and ancient environments as well as, experimental and numerical simulations examining erosion, transport, segregation and sedimentation processes within particulate geophysical flows and their resulting deposits. This session has the intention to bring together data from all methodologies, in order to explore the fascinating dynamics of these flows, and the link to their deposits.