Dr James Hunt

My primary research is on submarine mass movements, including landslides and their associated turbidity currents. I am experienced in studying modern and ancient turbidite systems globally, working on fans and open basin settings.

My most recent research has focused on turbidites sourced from Canary Island and Northwest African submarine landslides. The results of these studies have highlighted that the last eight large-volume collapses from the Canary Islands have been multistage failures. My on-going research includes the effects of landsliding on eruptive cycles of submarine islands, focusing on study areas in the Canary Islands and Montserrat. I am also currently studying turbidite records in the Iberian and Northwest African canyon systems and their adjacent deep sea basins.

Following my interest in turbidites, I am active in researching the geometry and facies distributions within sheet and fan turbidite systems. In particular I am working on the association of particular facies with depositional processes, including linked-debrites [hybrid flows] and fluid muds. Currently, I am working on the £2.3M NERC Arctic Landslide-Tsunami project and the £5M EU FP7 ASTARTE project, both of which are aiming to assess landslide-tsunami recurrence and coastal resilience to inundation.