Dish Structures

When the sand suspended in a turbidity current suspension starts to settle out, incipient clay laminations may begin to form concurrent with the upward movement of water that has been forced out from between the settling sand grains. Dewatering pipes within the sand may then form, and distort these clay laminations to form concave-up patterns that resemble small dishes. Although dish structures typically are small features with individual dishes being an inch or two across, some huge dish structures several inches across are shown on the right in a photo of an outcrop from Talara, Peru by Zoltan Sylvester.