debris flow

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debris flow A slow-moving flow in which sediment moves gravitationally. The sediment is composed of large pieces of broken rock (clasts) supported and carried by a mud and water mixture. Debris flows occur as overland and submarine mudflows, and as submarine deep-sea deposits. The deposits are poorly sorted and internally structureless; typically they have a pebbly, mudstone texture. Debris-flow deposits cover many thousands of square kilometres of the abyssal plain after originating on the continental slope as slumped material.

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