Glacial lake outburst floods can transport large volumes of sediment. Where these floods reach the coastline, much of that particulate load is delivered directly to the marine environment. It has been suggested that offshore deposits, specifically in fjord settings, may provide a faithful record of the frequency and timing of past outburst flood events. However, a paucity of observations means that the mechanics and the timing of offshore transport of sediment following a glacial lake outburst event remain poorly constrained. Here, we document the changes in sea surface sediment dynamics following the 28th November 2020 Elliot Lake outburst flood in British Columbia, which transported ~4.3x106 m3 of sediment into an adjacent fjord (Bute Inlet) as a deep nepheloid layer directly following the event. However, analysis of sea surface turbidity using in situ measurements and satellite-derived estimates reveals that changes in fjord-head surface turbidity immediately following the major flood were surprisingly small. The highest measured sea surface turbidity instead occurred five months after the initial outburst flood. This delayed increase in seaward sediment flux was coincident with the onset of the spring freshet, when discharge of the rivers feeding Bute Inlet increase each year. We suggest that large quantities of sediment were temporarily stored within the river catchment, and only remobilised when river discharge exceeded a threshold level following seasonal snowmelt. Our results reveal a temporal disconnect, where onshore to offshore transfer of sediment is stepped following a glacial lake outburst flood, which could complicate the architecture of subsequent deposits.

The delivery and burial of terrestrial particulate organic carbon (OC) in marine sediments is important to quantify, because this OC is a food resource for benthic communities, and if buried it may lower the concentrations of atmospheric CO2 over geologic timescales. Analysis of sediment cores has previously shown that fjords are hotspots for OC burial. Fjords can contain complex networks of submarine channels formed by seafloor sediment flows, called turbidity currents. However, the burial efficiency and distribution of OC by turbidity currents in river-fed fjords had not been investigated previously. Here, we determine OC distribution and burial efficiency across a turbidity current system within a fjord, in Bute Inlet (Canada). We show that 60 ± 10 % of the OC supplied by the two river sources, is buried across the fjord surficial (2 m) sediment. The sand-dominated submarine channel and its terminal lobe contain 63 ± 14 % of the annual terrestrial OC burial in the fjord. In contrast, the muddy overbank and distal flat basin settings contain the remaining 37 ± 14 %. OC in the channel, lobe and overbank exclusively comprises terrestrial OC sourced from rivers. When normalized by the fjord’s surface area, at least three times more terrestrial OC is buried in Bute Inlet, compared to the muddy parts of other fjords previously studied. Although the long-term (>100 year) preservation of this OC is still to be fully understood, turbidity currents in fjords appear to be efficient in storing OC supplied by rivers in their near-surface deposits.