Quartz samples from density flow deposits from the Colombia basin (Caribbean Sea) were analyzed for surficial microtextural associations using the scanning electron microscope. Microtextural abrasion patterns were found to vary in the "A" division of turbidites, grain-flow deposits, debris-flow deposits, and in material resulting from washover on the Magdalena deep-sea fan. The observed microtextural patterns are useful criteria for the identification of the transport mechanisms of other deposits assumed to have resulted from density flows.

Relative distances of travel of contemporaneous turbidites could be ascertained from impact densities on "A" division sand grains. The limiting conditions on such analyses are a minimum of postdepositional alteration of the mechanical textures of the grains and a lack of intense abrasion features received during episodes of predensity-flow transport.

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