Effects of sediment bulk properties on erosion rates.

Considerable work has been done recently on the effects of sediment bulk properties on erosion rates. From this it is known that erosion rates depend on at least the following parameters: bulk density, average particle size, particle size distribution, mineralogy, organic content, volume of gas in the sediment, salinity of the pore waters, and time after deposition. This work is reviewed and discussed here with the purpose of presenting a quantitative overview of the effects of each of these parameters. This information is then used to demonstrate a procedure for estimating erosion rates of sediments based on a knowledge of their bulk properties.