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1.
On the southeast Australian continental margin, mixed siliciclastic and temperate carbonate sediments are presently forming along the narrow 20–35 km‐wide northern New South Wales shelf over an area of 4960 km2. Here, year‐round, highly energetic waves rework inner and mid‐shelf clastic sediments by northward longshore currents or waning storm flows. The strong East Australian Current flows south, sweeping clastic and outer shelf biogenic sands and gravels. Quaternary siliciclastic inner shelf cores consist of fine to medium, lower shoreface sand and graded storm beds of fine to coarse sand. Physically abraded, disarticulated molluscs such as Donacidae and Glycymeridae form isolated gravel lags. Highstand inner shelf clastics accumulate at 0.53 m/103 y in less than 50 m water depth. Clastic mid‐shelf cores contain well‐sorted, winnowed, medium shoreface sands, with a fine sand component. Fine sand and mud in this area is discharged mainly from New South Wales’ largest river, the Clarence. The seaward jutting of Byron Bay results in weakened East Australia Current flows through the mid‐shelf from Ballina to Yamba allowing the fine sediments to accumulate. Quaternary carbonate outer shelf cores have uniform and graded beds forming from the East Australian Current and are also influenced by less frequent storm energy. Modern clastic‐starved outer shelf hardgrounds are cemented by coralline algae and encrusting bryozoans. Clay‐sized particles are dominantly high‐Mg calcite with minor aragonite and smectite/kaolinite. Carbonate sands are rich in bryozoan fragments and sponge spicules. Distinctive (gravel‐sized) molluscs form isolated shells or shell lag deposits comprising Limopsidae and Pectinidae. The upper slope sediments are the only significant accumulation of surficial mud on the margin (18–36 wt%), filling the interstices of poorly sorted, biogenic gravels. Pectinid molluscs form a basal gravel lag. During highstand the outer shelf accumulates sediment at 0.40 m/103 y, with the upper slope accumulating a lower 0.23 m/103 y since transgression. Transgression produced a diachronous (14–10 ka) wave‐ravinement surface in all cores. Relict marine hardgrounds overlie the wave‐ravinement surface and are cemented by inorganic calcite from the shallow and warm East Australian Current. Transgressive estuarine deposits, oxygen isotope Stage 3–5 barriers or shallow bedrock underlie the wave‐ravinement surface on the inner and mid shelf. Northern New South Wales is an example of a low accommodation, wave‐ and oceanic current‐dominated margin that has produced mixed siliciclastic‐carbonate facies. Shelf ridge features that characterise many storm‐dominated margins are absent.  相似文献   

2.
The shore‐normal transport of fine‐grained sediments by shelf turbidity currents has been the focus of intense debate over the last 20 years. Many have argued that turbidity currents are unlikely to be a major depositional agent on the shelf. However, sedimentological, architectural, stratigraphic and palaeogeographic data from the Campanian Aberdeen Member, Book Cliffs, eastern Utah suggests otherwise and clearly demonstrates that storm‐generated and river flood‐generated underflows can transport a significant volume of fine‐grained sediments across the shelf. These across‐shelf flowing turbidity currents cut large subaqueous channel complexes up to 7 m deep, tens of kilometres basinward of their time‐equivalent shoreface. The shelf channels were filled with organic‐rich siltstones, mudstones and very fine‐ to fine‐grained Bouma‐like sandstone beds, including wave‐modified turbidites, hyperpycnites and classical turbidites. Deposition was above storm wave base. Palaeocurrent data reveal an overwhelmingly dominant across‐shelf (east–south‐east), offshore‐directed transport trend. Tectonic activity and/or concomitant palaeogeographic reorganization of the basin may favour the generation of these turbidite‐rich shelf deposits by altering the relative balance of wave versus fluvial energy. Increased erosion and sediment supply rates, because of tectonic uplift of the hinterland, may have increased the probability of fluvial dominance along the coastline and, hence, the possibility of submarine channelization in front of the river mouths. Additionally, the coastline may have become more sheltered from direct wave energy, thus allowing the fluvial processes to dominate. Seasonal increases in rainfall and storm activity may also favour the generation of across‐shelf underflows. On wave‐dominated shorelines, isolated shelf channels and lobes are most likely to be found down‐dip of fluvial‐feeder systems in relatively high sediment supply settings. These features are also most likely to occur in systems tracts that straddle a sequence boundary, especially those which are tectonically generated, as these would enhance the potential for altering basin morphology and, hence, the balance of fluvial and wave energy. Isolated shelf channels are recognized in older and younger strata in the Book Cliffs region, implying that wave‐supported gravity flows were a recurrent phenomena in the Campanian of Utah. It is probable that isolated shelf bodies are preserved in other stratigraphic intervals in the Cretaceous Western Interior of North America, and other basins worldwide, and are currently being overlooked or misidentified. Shoreface‐to‐shelf facies models should be revised to incorporate turbidite‐rich shelf deposits in some shelf settings.  相似文献   

3.
The Palaeoproterozoic Frere Formation (ca 1.89 Gyr old) of the Earaheedy Basin, Western Australia, is a ca 600 m thick succession of iron formation and fine‐grained, clastic sedimentary rocks that accumulated on an unrimmed continental margin with oceanic upwelling. Lithofacies stacking patterns suggest that deposition occurred during a marine transgression punctuated by higher frequency relative sea‐level fluctuations that produced five parasequences. Decametre‐scale parasequences are defined by flooding surfaces overlain by either laminated magnetite or magnetite‐bearing, hummocky cross‐stratified sandstone that grades upward into interbedded hematite‐rich mudstone and trough cross‐stratified granular iron formation. Each aggradational cycle is interpreted to record progradation of intertidal and tidal channel sediments over shallow subtidal and storm‐generated deposits of the middle shelf. The presence of aeolian deposits, mud cracks and absence of coarse clastics indicate deposition along an arid coastline with significant wind‐blown sediment input. Iron formation in the Frere Formation, in contrast to most other Palaeoproterozoic examples, was deposited almost exclusively in peritidal environments. These other continental margin iron formations also reflect upwelling of anoxic, Fe‐rich sea water, but accumulated in the full spectrum of shelf environments. Dilution by fine‐grained, windblown terrigenous clastic sediment probably prevented the Frere iron formation from forming in deeper settings. Lithofacies associations and interpreted paragenetic pathways of Fe‐rich lithofacies further suggest precipitation in sea water with a prominent oxygen chemocline. Although essentially unmetamorphosed, the complex diagenetic history of the Frere Formation demonstrates that understanding the alteration of iron formation is a prerequisite for any investigation seeking to interpret ocean‐atmosphere evolution. Unlike studies that focus exclusively on their chemistry, an approach that also considers palaeoenvironment and oceanography, as well the effects of post‐depositional fluid flow and alteration, mitigates the potential for incorrectly interpreting geochemical data.  相似文献   

4.
The Mackenzie Delta is a large fine‐grained delta deposited in a cold arctic setting. The delta has been constructed upon a flooding surface developed on a previous shelf‐phase delta. There are three principal depositional zones: the subaerial delta plain, the distributary channel mouth region and the subaqeous delta. The subaerial delta plain is characterized by an anastomosing system of high‐sinuosity channels and extensive thermokarst lake development. This region is greatly influenced by the annual cycle of seasonal processes including winter freezing of sediments and channels, ice‐jamming and flooding in the early spring and declining river stage during the summer and autumn. Deposition occurs on channel levees and in thermokarst lakes during flood events and is commonly rhythmic in nature with discrete annual beds being distinguishable. In the channel mouth environment, deposition is dominated by landward accretion and aggradation of mouth bars during river‐ and storm surge‐induced flood events. The subaqeous delta is characterized by a shallow water platform and a gentle offshore slope. Sediment bypassing of the shallow‐water platform is efficient as a result of the presence of incised submarine channels and the predominance of suspension transport of fine‐grained sediments. Facies of the shallow platform include silty sand with climbing ripple lamination. Offshore facies are dominated by seaward‐fining fine sand to silt tempestites. Sea‐ice scouring and sediment deformation are common beyond 10 m water depth where bioturbated muds are the predominant facies. The low angle profile of the shallow‐water platform is interpreted to be the combined response of a fine‐grained delta to (1) storm sediment dispersal; (2) autoretreat as a result of the increasing subaerial and subaqeous area of deposition as the delta progrades out of its glacial valley; (3) limited water depth above the underlying flooding surface; and (4) efficient nearshore bypassing of sediment through subice channels at the peak of spring discharge. Several indicators of the cold climate can be used as criteria for the interpretation of ancient successions, including thermokarst lake development, submarine channel scours, freeze–thaw deformation and ice‐scour deformation structures. Permafrost inhibits compaction subsidence and, together with the shallow‐water setting, also limits autocyclic lobe switching. The cold climate can thus influence stratal architecture by favouring the development of regional‐scale clinoform sets rather than multiple, smaller scale lobes separated by autocyclic flooding surfaces.  相似文献   

5.
The Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments of the Gippsland shelf are dominated by mixed carbonates and siliciclastics. From a detailed stratigraphic study that combines conventional marine geology techniques with magnetic imagery, the Late Neogene tectonic and eustatic history can be interpreted and correlated to the onshore section. Stratigraphic analyses of eight oil and gasfield foundation bores drilled to 150 m below the seabed revealed three principal facies types: (i) Facies A is fine‐grained limestone and limey marl deeper than 50 m below the seabed, of Late Pliocene age (nannofossil zones CN11–12); (ii) Facies B is a fine‐coarse pebble quartz‐carbonate sand that occurs 10–50 m below the seabed in the inner shelf, grading down into Facies A in wells in the outer shelf, and is of Early‐Middle Pleistocene age (nannofossil subzones CN13a-14b: ca 1.95–0.26 Ma); and (iii) discontinuous horizons of Facies C composed of carbonate‐poor carbonaceous and micaceous fine quartz sand occurring 10–50 m below the seabed. The sparse benthic foraminifers in Facies C are inner shelf or Gippsland (euryhaline) Lakes forms. Holocene sands dominate the upper 1.5–2.5 m of the Gippsland shelf and disconformably overlie cemented limestones with aragonite dissolution, indicating previous exposure to meteoric water. Nannofossil dating of the limestones indicates ages within subzone CN14b (dated between ca 0.26 and 0.47 Ma). Airborne magnetic imaging across the Gippsland shelf and onshore provides details of buried magnetic palaeoriver channels and barrier systems. The river systems trend south‐southeast from the Snowy, Tambo, Mitchell, Avon, Macalister and Latrobe Rivers across the shelf. Sparker seismic surveys show the magnetic palaeochannels as seismic ‘smudges’ 20–40 m below the seabed. They appear to correspond to Facies C lenses (i.e. are Early to Middle Pleistocene features). Magnetic palaeobarrier systems trending south‐southwest in the inner shelf and onshore beneath the Gippsland Lakes are orientated 15° different to the modern Ninety Mile Beach barrier trend. Offshore, they correlate stratigraphically to progradation packages of Facies B. Analysis of bore data in the adjacent onshore Gippsland Lakes suggests that a Pliocene barrier sequence 100–120 m below surface is overlain by fluvial sand‐gravel and lacustrine mud facies. The ferruginous sandstone beds resemble offshore Facies C, and are located where magnetic palaeoriver channel systems occur, implying Early to Middle Pleistocene ages. Presence of the estuarine bivalve Anadara trapezia in the upper lacustrine mud facies suggests that the Gippsland Lakes/Ninety Mile Beach‐type barriers developed over the past 0.2 million years. Further inland, magnetic river channels that cut across present‐day uplifted structures, such as the Baragwanath Anticline, suggest that onshore Gippsland uplift continued into the Middle Pleistocene.  相似文献   

6.

Surficial deposits of the tidally influenced Australian shelf seas exhibit a variation in fades related to energy gradient. These deposits comprise a high energy gravelly facies, a mobile sand sheet facies and a low energy muddy sand facies. Such a facies distribution conforms generally with the existing model of continental shelf tidal sedimentation, derived for the west European tidal seas. However, the carbonate rich and mainly warm water deposits of the Australian shelf differ from the mainly quartzose and temperate cold‐water deposits of the European type case in terms of: (i) the role of seagrasses in trapping fine‐grained sediment; and (ii) the relative importance of the production of carbonate mud by mechanical erosion of carbonate grains. Seagrasses in Spencer Gulf, Gulf of St Vincent and Torres Strait are located in regions of strong tidal currents, associated with bedforms and gravel lag deposits. Thus, in the case of tropical carbonate shelves, seagrass deposits containing fine‐grained and poorly sorted sediments are located in close proximity to high energy gravel and mobile sand facies. In contrast, the European model (for temperate, siliciclastic shelves) places facies in a regional gradient with a wide separation (in the order of 50–100 km).

Of the locations reviewed, the Gulf of St Vincent, Bass Strait, southern Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait and Gulf of Carpentaria exhibit zones of carbonate mud accumulation. The production and winnowing of carbonate mud from the mobile sand facies is a factor that must be taken into account in the assessment of a sediment budget for this facies, and which is of relatively greater importance for carbonate shelves. Insufficient data are presently available from the macrotidal North West Shelf to test the applicability of the model to this region.  相似文献   

7.
Across-shelf variations in thickness, grain size, and frequency of sandstone beds in a transgressive outer-shelf succession were investigated from the Middle Pleistocene (ca. 0.7 Ma) Kakinokidai Formation on the Boso Peninsula, Japan. The transgressive deposits are generally muddy and contain slumps and slump scars. The intercalated sandstone beds are interpreted to have been formed from turbidity currents as a response to erosion and resuspension of sandridge-complex deposits in the southwestern upslope area during storm events. Mapping of volcanic ash beds and a transgressive surface in the base of the formation permits detailed bed-by-bed correlation of the outer-shelf sandstone beds. Although, overall, thickness, grain size, and frequency of sandstone beds decrease in the downslope direction, some sandstone beds locally thin out and coarsen in association with slump scars in the surrounding muddy deposits. These sandstone beds subsequently thicken and fine, and finally thin out in the farther downslope area. In addition to the local thinning of sandstone beds, the frequency of sandstone beds first decreases and then increases in the farther offshore direction. From this evidence, we concluded that these non-uniform patterns of across-outer-shelf variations in thickness, grain size, and frequency of sandstone beds were caused by the local increases in flow speeds and subsequent expansion and reduced speeds of turbidity currents, along with a local increase in the seafloor gradient that was induced by the development of slump scars in the transgressive outer-shelf floor. These physiographic features in the outer shelf are interpreted not to have permitted monotonous downslope thinning and fining of sandstone beds, compared with the bed-shape models of depletive turbidity currents and with the proximality trend of shelf sandstones from modern and ancient highstand-stage shelf systems.  相似文献   

8.
The Kaskapau Formation spans Late Cenomanian to Middle Turonian time and was deposited on a low‐gradient, shallow, storm‐dominated muddy ramp. Dense well log control, coupled with exposure on both proximal and distal margins of the basin allows mapping of sedimentary facies over about 35 000 km2. The studied portion of the Kaskapau Formation is a mudstone‐dominated wedge that thins from 700 m in the proximal foredeep to 50 m near the forebulge about 300 km distant. Regional flooding surfaces permit mapping of 28 allomembers, each of which represent an average of ca 125 kyr. More than 200 km from shore, calcareous silty claystone predominates, whereas 100 to 200 km offshore, mudstone and siltstone predominate. From about 30 to 100 km offshore, centimetre‐bedded very fine sandstone and mudstone record along‐shelf (SSE)‐directed storm‐generated geostrophic flows. Five to thirty kilometres from shore, decimetre‐bedded hummocky cross‐stratified fine sandstone and mudstone record strongly oscillatory, wave‐dominated flows whereas some gutter casts indicate shore‐oblique, apparently mostly unidirectional geostrophic flows. Nearshore facies are dominated by swaley cross‐stratified or intensely bioturbated clean fine sandstone, interpreted as recording, respectively, areas strongly and weakly affected by discharge from distributary mouths. Shoreface sandstones grade locally into river‐mouth conglomerates and sandstones, including conglomerate channel‐fills up to 15 m thick. Locally, brackish lagoonal shelly mudstones are present on the extreme western margin of the basin. There is no evidence for clinoform stratification, which indicates that the Kaskapau sea floor had extremely low relief, lacked a shelf‐slope break, and was probably nowhere more than a few tens of metres deep. The absence of clinoforms probably indicates a long‐term balance between rates of accommodation and sediment supply. Mud is interpreted to have been transported >250 km offshore in a sea‐bed nepheloid layer, repeatedly re‐suspended by storms. Fine‐grained sediment accumulated up to a ‘mud accommodation envelope’, perhaps only 20 to 40 m deep. Continuous re‐working of the sea floor by storms ensured that excess sediment was redistributed away from areas that had filled to the ‘accommodation envelope’, being deposited in areas of higher accommodation further down the transport path. The facies distributions and stratal geometry of the Kaskapau shelf strongly suggest that sedimentary facies, especially grain‐size, were related to distance from shore, not to water depth. As a result, the ‘100 to >300 m’ depth interpreted from calcareous claystone facies for the more central parts of the Interior Seaway, might be a significant overestimate.  相似文献   

9.

Lithofacies in the mid‐Permian Nowra Sandstone indicate a middle/upper shoreface to foreshore environment of deposition under the influence of storm‐generated waves and north‐northeasterly directed longshore currents. Palaeogeographic reconstruction for the Nowra Sandstone portrays a sand‐dominated high energy shelf and offshore shoal forming a sequence thickening seaward away from the western shore of the Sydney Basin. The shoal‐crest at the outer edge of the shelf trends north‐northeast. It is characterized by fine‐ to medium‐grained sandstone with upper flow regime structures and a high proportion of conglomerate, whereas coarser sandstone with lower energy bedforms occurs along the seaward side of the shoal. In the deeper water to the east, the lower Nowra Sandstone becomes rapidly thinner as it passes seaward, via bioturbated storm redeposited sandstone beds, into the shelf deposits of the Wandrawandian Siltstone. This sequence accumulated during a regressive event and the base of the formation becomes progressively younger eastward. The sand may have been supplied by rivers along the western coast but the major source was south of the study area. The lower Nowra Sandstone is separated from the upper part of the formation by an extensive ravinement surface overlain by the Purnoo Conglomerate Member. In contrast to the lower unit, the upper Nowra Sandstone forms a westward thickening wedge that represents a backstepping nearshore sand facies that accumulated during a transgression. The upper Nowra Sandstone passes vertically and laterally eastward into the Berry Siltstone. Thus both boundaries of the Nowra Sandstone are diachronous, first younging eastward and then westward as a response to a regressive‐transgressive episode.  相似文献   

10.
The Upper Cretaceous Twentymile Sandstone of the Mesaverde Group in NW Colorado, USA, has been analysed with respect to its pinch‐out style and the stratigraphic position of tidally influenced facies within the sandstone tongue. Detailed sedimentological analysis has revealed that the Twentymile Sandstone as a whole is a deltaic shoreface sandstone tongue up to 50 m thick proximally. Facies change character vertically from very fine‐grained, storm wave‐dominated shelf sandstones and mudstones to fine‐grained, wave‐dominated sandstones and, finally, to fine‐ to coarse‐grained tidally dominated sandstones. The pinch‐out style is characterized by a basinward splitting of the massive proximal sandbody into seven coarsening‐upward fourth‐order sequences consisting of a lower shaly part and an upper sandy part (sandstone tongue). These are stacked overall to reflect the regressive‐to‐transgressive development of the tongue. Each of the lower sandstone tongues 1–3 are gradationally based, very fine‐grained and dominated by hummocky cross‐stratification and were deposited on the lower to upper shoreface. Sandstone tongues 4 and 5 prograded further basinwards than the underlying tongues, are erosively based, fine‐ to coarse‐grained and mainly hummocky, herringbone and trough cross‐stratified. Especially in tongue 5, tidal indicators, such as bipolar foresets and double mud drapes, are common. These tongues were deposited as upper shoreface and tidal channel sandstones respectively. Sandstone tongues 6 and 7 retrograded in relation to tongue 5, are very fine‐ to fine‐grained and hummocky cross‐stratified. These tongues were deposited in lower shoreface to offshore transition environments. The two lower fourth‐order sequences were deposited during normal regressions during slowly rising or stable relative sea level and represent the highstand systems tract. The three succeeding fourth‐order sequences, which show succeedingly increasing evidence of tidal influence, were deposited during falling and lowstand of relative sea level and represent the falling stage (forced regressive) and lowstand systems tracts. The uppermost two fourth‐order sequences were deposited during rapidly rising sea level in the transgressive systems tract. The maximum tidal influence occurred during lowstand progradation, in contrast to most other published examples reporting maximum tidal influence during transgression.  相似文献   

11.
Marine shelf strata of the Quinault Formation reflect the influences of storm–flood processes and convergent margin tectonism on sedimentation and palaeocommunity distributions in an active forearc basin of Early Pliocene age, western Washington, USA. The sedimentologic, ichnologic and invertebrate megafaunal character of coastal sea cliff exposures in the Pratt Cliff–Duck Creek area, Quinault Indian Nation, reveal five different sedimentary facies – scoured, Rosselia, bioturbated, mixed and Acharax. These facies document the shifting interplay and intensities among storms, waves and river‐flood plumes during transgression in inner to mid‐shelf settings. Storm sedimentation on the inner shelf is recorded north of Pratt Cliff by amalgamated, proximal tempestites of the scoured facies, which grade up‐section to thick deposits of hummocky cross‐stratified sandstone, indicative of strong wave influences. These hummocky beds alternate, in metre‐scale packages, with banded mudstone and siltstone that have distinctive sedimentologic and ichnofaunal characteristics (Rosselia facies). In particular the mudstone and siltstone occur as 1–15 cm‐thick, rhythmic, parallel beds that are laterally continuous, internally homogeneous to faintly laminated, and thus similar in nature to fine‐grained, oceanic flood deposits reported from shelf settings offshore the modern Eel River, northern California. The Quinault flood deposits are dominated by the ubiquitous trace fossil Rosselia socialis, comprising vertical, mud‐packed, flaring burrows with a sand‐filled central shaft which has been inferred as the feeding‐dwelling structure of a vermiform invertebrate adapted to high sedimentation rates in inner‐shelf settings. Fairweather conditions in between the higher energy periods of storms, waves and floods are recorded north of Pratt Cliff by the mixed facies, which is interpreted as representing the sand and mud zone of the inner‐ to mid‐shelf transition. Quieter, deeper, mid‐shelf, fairweather settings are typified by the bioturbated facies south of Pratt Cliff, where lower sedimentation rates and lower physical energies produced extensively bioturbated deposits of sandy siltstone punctuated, in places, by isolated sandy beds of distal tempestites. Quinault strata also chronicle stratigraphic signatures of subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate beneath western Washington during the Pliocene. For example, the imprint of geochemically unusual authigenic carbonates and a chemosynthetic palaeocommunity (Acharax facies) have been interpreted as a methane seep on the Quinault seafloor. Furthermore, a mobile rockground epifauna of pholadid bivalves became established on abundant, dark mudstone cobbles and pebbles sourced from the Hoh Assemblage, a Miocene accretionary prism that was actively deforming as well as interacting with Quinault forearc sediments during the Pliocene. Hoh mudstone clasts were supplied to the Quinault shelf via seafloor‐piercing diapirs and eroding mélange shear zones, exposures of which today occur in fault contact with Quinault strata along the coast from Taholah to the Raft River.  相似文献   

12.
Shallowing‐upward, decametre‐scale, Palaeoproterozoic iron formation cycles in northern Wisconsin record the combined effects of tectonism and changing oceanographic conditions on a storm‐dominated shelf. Cycles consist of a lower unit of laminated, Fe‐ and Si‐rich chemical mudstone that is transitional into an upper unit dominated by trough cross‐stratified chert grainstone. Grainstone lenses become progressively thicker upwards in cycles with the largest at cycle tops, where they are sharply overlain by a unit of slumped chemical mudstone. The cycles developed through progradation when offshore‐directed storm currents transported chert sand intraclasts that were formed in nearshore settings into middle and distal shelf environments. Abrupt subsidence events, probably resulting from normal faulting associated with extensional tectonism, repeatedly terminated chert grainstone accumulation and may also have generated the slumped units at cycle boundaries. The episodic storm currents are also interpreted to have transported biologically oxygenated waters from the shallow‐water, inner shelf into otherwise anoxic bottom waters of the strongly stratified distal shelf. The consequence of such transport and mixing was rapid deposition of chemical mud, mainly as precipitated Fe‐oxide. In many cases, the resultant decrease in Fe2+ in the water column, together with pelagic inorganic precipitation of SiO2 and rainout of terrigenous clays, resulted in submillimetre‐ to millimetre‐thick, chemically graded laminae. The concomitant decreasing Fe2+/Mn2+ ratio also led to increasing Mn‐compound precipitation and enrichment in the upper portions of some chemically graded layers.  相似文献   

13.
Deep‐water sandstone beds of the Oligocene Fusaru Sandstone and Lower Dysodilic Shale, exposed in the Buz?u Valley area of the East Carpathian flysch belt, Romania, can be described in terms of the standard turbidite divisions. In addition, mud‐rich sand layers are common, both as parts of otherwise ‘normal’ sequences of turbidite divisions and as individual event beds. Eleven units, interpreted as the deposits of individual flows, were densely sampled, and 87 thin sections were point counted for grain size and mud content. S3/Ta divisions, which form the bulk of most sedimentation units, have low internal textural variability but show subtle vertical trends in grain size. Most commonly, coarse‐tail normal grading is associated with fine‐tail inverse grading. The mean grain size can show inverse grading, normal grading or a lack of grading, but sorting tends to improve upward in most beds. Fine‐tail inverse grading is interpreted as resulting from a decreasing effectiveness of trapping of fines during rapid deposition from a turbidity current as the initially high suspended‐load fallout rate declines. If this effect is strong enough, the mean grain size can show subtle inverse grading as well. Thus, thick inversely graded intervals in deep‐water sands lacking traction structures do not necessarily imply waxing flow velocities. If the suspended‐load fallout rate drops to zero after the deposition of the coarse grain‐size populations, the remaining finer grained flow bypasses and may rework the top of the S3 division, forming well‐sorted, coarser grained, current‐structured Tt units. Alternatively, the suspended‐load fallout rate may remain high enough to prevent segregation of fines, leading to the deposition of significant amounts of mud along with the sand. Mud content of the sandstones is bimodal: either 3–13% or more than 20%. Two types of mud‐rich sandstones were observed. Coarser grained mud‐rich sandstones occur towards the upper parts of S3/Ta divisions. These units were deposited as a result of enhanced trapping of mud particles in the rapidly deposited sediment. Finer grained mud‐rich units are interbedded with ripple‐laminated very fine‐grained sandy Tc divisions. During deposition of these units, mud floccules were hydraulically equivalent to the very fine sand‐ and silt‐sized sediment. The mud‐rich sandstones were probably deposited by flows that became transitional between turbidity currents and debris flows during their late‐stage evolution.  相似文献   

14.
The Fraser River Delta exhibits distinct asymmetry in the sedimentological and neoichnological characteristics of the updrift (south) and downdrift (north) sides of the main distributary channel in water depths below storm‐wave base. The asymmetry is the result of net northward tidal flow. Tides erode sediments across the updrift delta front, whereas the downdrift delta front is an area of net deposition. A submarine channel prevents sand eroded from the updrift delta front from reaching the downdrift delta. The updrift delta front and updrift upper prodelta are composed of sand or heterolithic sand and mud that show a low density of burrowing (Bioturbation Index 0 to 3) and are dominated by simple traces. The downdrift delta front and prodelta, and the updrift lower prodelta are composed of homogeneous muds with significantly higher bioturbation intensities (Bioturbation Index 3 to 6), and a more diverse suite of traces akin to Cruziana Ichnofacies. Using the Fraser River Delta as an archetype and comparing the Fraser to the Amazon River Delta, a preliminary model for deep‐water (below storm‐wave base: ca 20 m) asymmetrical deltas is proposed. Firstly, deep‐water asymmetrical deltas are recognized from sediments deposited below storm‐wave base. At these depths, tidal and ocean currents are more likely to impact sediment transport, but wave processes are less effective as a sediment transport mechanism. Sediments deposited below storm‐wave base in deep‐water asymmetrical deltas will display the following: (i) the updrift delta front will be coarser‐grained (for example, sand‐dominated or heterolithic sand and mud), than the downdrift delta front (for example, mud‐dominated); and (ii) the updrift delta front should show low‐diversity suites of simple burrows. Depending on sedimentation rates, the downdrift delta front and prodelta may show either high diversity suites of traces that are dominated by both complex and simple burrows (low sedimentation rates) or low density and diversity suites akin to the updrift delta front (high sedimentation rates).  相似文献   

15.
The delivery, flux and fate of terrigenous sediment entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon has been a focus of recent studies and represents an ongoing environmental concern. Wave‐induced bed stress is the most significant mechanism of sediment resuspension in the Great Barrier Reef, and field data and mathematical modelling indicates that the combined effects of short‐period wind waves, longer period swell waves, and tidal and wind‐driven currents can often exceed the critical bed stress for resuspension. Suspended‐sediment concentrations at 20 m water depth indicate resuspension seldom occurs on the middle shelf under normal wave conditions. Non‐cyclonic turbidity events are generally confined to the inner shelf. The wave climate in the southern sector of the central Great Barrier Reef lagoon is the most erosive, and resuspension of outer shelf sediments was hindcast for recorded cyclones. Wind‐driven, longshore currents are fundamental to the northward movement of sediment, and the annual northward mass flux from embayments undergoing resuspension in the Burdekin region is estimated to be one order of magnitude larger than the mass of sediment introduced by a moderate flood plume. Strong onshore winds are estimated to generate significant three‐dimensional bottom return currents on approximately 30–70 days per year, forming a potentially significant offshore‐directed sediment flux during high suspended‐sediment concentration events on the inner shelf.  相似文献   

16.
Sea floor and shallow seismic data sets of terminal submarine fan lobes can provide excellent planform timeslices of distributive deep‐water systems but commonly only limited information on cross‐sectional architecture. Extensive outcrops in the Tanqua depocentre, south‐west Karoo Basin, provide these three‐dimensional constraints on lithofacies distributions, stacking patterns, depositional geometries and the stratigraphic evolution of submarine lobe deposits at a scale comparable with modern lobe systems. Detailed study (bed‐scale) of a single‐lobe complex (Fan 3) over a 15 km by 8 km area has helped to define a four‐fold hierarchy of depositional elements from bed through to lobe element, lobe and lobe complex. The Fan 3 lobe complex comprises six distinct fine‐grained sandstone packages, interpreted as lobes, which display compensational stacking patterns on a 5 km scale. Between successive lobes are thin‐bedded, very fine‐grained sandstones and siltstones that do not change lithofacies over several kilometres and therefore are identified as a different architectural element. Each lobe is built by many lobe elements, which also display compensational stacking patterns over a kilometre scale. Thickness variations of lobe elements can be extremely abrupt without erosion, particularly in distal areas where isopach maps reveal a finger‐like distal fringe to lobes. Lobe deposits, therefore, are not simple radial sheet‐dominated systems as commonly envisaged.  相似文献   

17.
Shelf‐edge deltas record the potential magnitude of sediment delivery from shallow water shelf into deep water slope and basin floor and, if un‐incised, represent the main increment of shelf‐margin growth into the basin, for that period. The three‐dimensional complexity of shelf‐edge delta systems and along‐strike variability at the shelf edge in particular, remains understudied. The Permian–Triassic Kookfontein Formation of the Tanqua Karoo Basin, South Africa, offers extensive three‐dimensional exposure (>100 km2) and therefore a unique opportunity to evaluate shelf‐edge strata from an outcrop perspective. Analysis of stratal geometry and facies distribution from 52 measured and correlated stratigraphic sections show the following: (i) In outer‐shelf areas, parasequences are characterized by undeformed, river‐dominated, storm‐wave influenced delta mouth‐bar sandstones interbedded with packages showing evidence of syn‐depositional deformation. The amount and intensity of soft‐sediment deformation increases significantly towards the shelf edge where slump units and debris flows sourced from collapsed mouth‐bar packages transport material down slope. (ii) On the upper slope, mouth‐bar and delta‐front sandstones pinch out within 2 km of the shelf break and most slump and debris flow units pinch out within 4 km of the shelf break. (iii) Further down the slope, parasequences consist of finer‐grained turbidites, characterized by interbedded, thin tabular siltstones and sandstones. The results highlight that river‐dominated, shelf‐edge deltas transport large volumes of sand to the upper slope, even when major shelf‐edge incisions are absent. In this case, transport to the upper slope through slumping, debris flows and un‐channellized low density turbidites is distributed evenly along strike.  相似文献   

18.
《Sedimentology》2018,65(6):2149-2170
Hyperpycnal currents are river‐derived turbidity currents capable of transporting significant volumes of sediment from the shoreline onto the shelf and potentially further to deep ocean basins. However, their capacity to deposit sand bodies on the continental shelf is poorly understood. Shelf hyperpycnites remain an overlooked depositional element in source to sink systems, primarily due to their limited recognition in the rock record. Recent discoveries of modern shelf hyperpycnites, and previous work describing hyperpycnites deposited in slope or deep‐water settings, provide a valuable framework for understanding and recognizing shelf hyperpycnites in the rock record. This article describes well‐sorted lobate sand bodies on the continental shelf of the Neuquén Basin, Argentina, interpreted to have been deposited by hyperpycnal currents. These hyperpycnites of the Jurassic Lajas Formation are characterized by well‐sorted, medium‐grained, parallel‐laminated sandstones with hundreds of metre extensive, decimetre thick beds encased by organic‐rich, thinly laminated sandstone and siltstone. These deposits represent slightly obliquely‐migrating sand lobes fed by small rivers and deposited on the continental shelf. Hyperpycnites of the Lajas Formation highlight several unique characteristics of hyperpycnal deposits, including their distinctively thick horizontal laminae attributed to pulsing of the hyperpycnal currents, the extraction of coarse gravel due to low flow competence, and the extraction of mud due to lofting of light interstitial fluid. Recognition of shelf hyperpycnites in the Lajas Formation of the Neuquén Basin allows for a broader understanding of shelf processes and adds to the developing facies models of hyperpycnites. Recognizing and understanding the geometry and internal architecture of shelf hyperpycnites will improve current understanding of sediment transfer from rivers to deeper water, will improve palaeoenvironmental interpretations of sediment gravity‐flow deposits, and has implications for modelling potentially high‐quality hydrocarbon reservoirs.  相似文献   

19.

The Great Barrier Reef represents the largest modern example of a mixed siliciclastic‐carbonate system. The Burdekin River is the largest source of terrigenous sediment to the lagoon and is therefore an ideal location to investigate regional patterns of mixed sedimentation. Sediments become coarser grained and more poorly sorted away from the protection of eastern headlands, with mud accumulation focused in localised ‘hot spots‘ in the eastern portion of embayments protected from southeast trade winds. The middle shelf has a variable facies distribution but is dominated by coarse carbonate sand. North of Bowling Green Bay, modern coarse carbonate sand and relict quartzose sand occur. Shore‐normal compositional changes show Ca‐enrichment and Al‐dilution seawards towards the reef, and shore‐parallel trends show Al‐dilution westwards (across bays) along a Ca‐depleted mixing line. Intermediate siliciclastic‐carbonate sediment compositions occur on the middle shelf due to the abundance of relict terrigenous sand, a pattern that is less developed on the narrow northern Great Barrier Reef shelf. Rates of sediment deposition from seismic evidence and radiochemical tracers suggest that despite the magnitude of riverine input, 80–90% of the Burdekin‐derived sediment is effectively captured in Bowling Green Bay. Over millennial time‐scales, stratigraphic controls suggest that sediment is being preferentially accreted back to the coast.  相似文献   

20.
Changes in circulation, water level, salinity, suspended sediments, and sediment flux resulted from Tropical Storm Frances and Hurricane Georges in the Vermilion-Atchafalaya Bay region during September 1998. Tropical Storm Frances made landfall near Port Aransas, Texas, 400 km west of the study area, and yet the strong and long-lived southeasterly winds resulted in the highest water levels and salinity values of the year at one station in West Cote Blanche Bay. Water levels were abnormally high across this coastal bay system, although salinity impacts varied spatially. Over 24 h, salinity increased from 5 to 20 psu at Site 1 on the east side of West Cote Blanche Bay. Abnormally high salinities were recorded in Atchafalaya Bay but not at stations in Vermilion Bay. On September 28, 1998, Hurricane Georges made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, 240 km east of the study area. On the west side of the storm, wind stress was from the north and maximum winds locally reached 14 m s−1. The wind forcing and physical responses of the bay system were analogous to those experienced during a winter cold-front passage. During the strong, north wind stress period, coastal water levels fell, salinity decreased, and sediment-laden bay water was transported onto the inner shelf. As the north wind stress subsided, a pulse of relatively saline water entered Vermilion Bay through Southwest Pass increasing salinity from 5 to 20 psu over a 24-h period. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-14 reflectance imagery revealed the regional impacts of wind-wave resuspension and the bay-shelf exchange of waters. During both storm events, suspended solid concentrations increased by an order of magnitude from 75 to over 750 mg l−1. The measurements demonstrated that even remote storm systems can have marked impacts on the physical processes that affect ecological processes in shallow coastal bay systems.  相似文献   

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