Twentieth century floods recorded in the deep Mediterranean sediments

Flood-generated turbidity currents represent an important process of marine sedimentation. However, no deposit related to this process has yet been de scribed: at sea. Turbiditic sequences cored at 2000 m water depth in the Me diterranean show tractive structures and superposition of reverse and norma l grading. They are related to floods triggered during the twentieth centur y. Deposits from flood-generated turbidity currents have a great impact on the interpretation of deep-ocean paleoclimate records obtained near contine ntal margins by linking deep-marine sedimentary records to continental clim atic changes through flood frequency and magnitude. Implications of this st udy should help redefine the reservoir character of oil fields in fine-grai ned turbidites.