The new knowledge is written on sedimentary rocks – a comment on Shanmugam’s paper “the hyperpycnite problem”

Abstract

In a recent contribution G. Shanmugam (2018) discusses and neglects the importance of hyperpycnal flows and hyperpycnites for the understanding of some sediment gravity flow deposits. For him, the hyperpycnal flow paradigm is strictly based on experimental and theoretical concepts, without the supporting empirical data from modern depositional systems. In this discussion I will demonstrate that G. Shanmugam overlooks growing evidences that support the importance of hyperpycnal flows in the accumulation of a huge volume of fossil clastic sediments. Sustained hyperpycnal flows also provide a rational explanation for the origin of well sorted fine-grained massive sandstones with floating clasts, a deposit often wrongly related to sandy debris flows.