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1.
The effects of climate change on eroding landscapes and the terrestrial sedimentary record are poorly understood. Using mountain catchment–alluvial fan systems as simple analogues for larger landscapes, a wide range of theoretical studies, numerical models and physical experiments have hypothesized that a change in precipitation rate could leave a characteristic signal in alluvial fan sediment flux, grain size and down‐system fining rate. However, this hypothesis remains largely untested in real landscapes. This study measures grain‐size fining rates from apex to toe on two alluvial fan systems in northern Death Valley, California, USA, which each have well‐exposed modern and ca 70 ka surfaces, and where the long‐term tectonic boundary conditions can be constrained. Between them, these surfaces capture a well‐constrained temporal gradient in climate. A grain‐size fining model is adapted, based on self‐similarity and selective deposition, for application to these alluvial fans. This model is then integrated with cosmogenic nuclide constraints on catchment erosion rates, and observed grain‐size fining data from two catchment‐fan systems, to estimate the change in sediment flux from canyon to alluvial fan that occurred between mid‐glacial and modern interglacial conditions. In a fan system with negligible sediment recycling, a ca 30% decrease in precipitation rate led to a 20% decrease in sediment flux and a clear increase in the down‐fan rate of fining, supporting existing landscape evolution models. Consequently, this study shows that small mountain catchments and their alluvial fan stratigraphy can be highly sensitive to orbital climate changes over <105 year timescales. However, in the second fan system it is observed that this sensitivity is completely lost when sediment is remobilized and recycled over a time period longer than the duration of the climatic perturbation. These analyses offer a new approach to quantitatively reconstructing the effects of past climate changes on sedimentation, using simple grain‐size data measured in the field.  相似文献   

2.
A re‐analysis of sea‐level data from eastern Australia based on 115 calibrated C‐14 ages is used to constrain the origin, timing and magnitude of sea‐level change over the last 7000 years. We demonstrate that the Holocene sea‐level highstand of +1.0–1.5 m was reached ～7000 cal yr bp and fell to its present position after 2000 yr bp . These findings are in contrast to most previous studies that relied on smaller datasets and did not include the now common conversion of conventional C‐14 ages to calendar years. During this ～5000 year period of high sea level, growth hiatuses in oyster beds and tubeworms and lower elevations of coral microatolls are interpreted to represent short‐lived oscillations in sea‐level of up to 1 m during two intervals, beginning c. 4800 and 3000 cal yr bp . The rates of sea‐level rise and fall (1–2 mm yr?1) during these centennial‐scale oscillations are comparable with current rates of sea‐level rise. The origin of the oscillations is enigmatic but most likely the result of oceanographic and climatic changes, including wind strengths, ice ablation, and melt‐water contributions of both Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.  相似文献   

3.
A mathematical model of carbonate platform evolution is presented in which depth‐dependent carbonate growth rates determine platform‐top accumulation patterns in response to rising relative sea‐level. This model predicts that carbonate platform evolution is controlled primarily by the water depth and sediment accumulation rate conditions at the onset of relative sea‐level rise. The long‐standing ‘paradox of a drowned platform’ arose from the observation that maximum growth rate potentials of healthy platforms are faster than those of relative sea‐level rise. The model presented here demonstrates that a carbonate platform could be drowned during a constant relative sea‐level rise whose rate remains less than the maximum carbonate production potential. This scenario does not require environmental changes, such as increases in nutrient supply or siliciclastic sedimentation, to have taken place. A rate of relative sea‐level rise that is higher than the carbonate accumulation rate at the initial water depth is the only necessary condition to cause continuous negative feedbacks to the sediment accumulation rates. Under these conditions, the top of the carbonate platform gradually deepens until it is below the active photic zone and drowns despite the strong maximum growth potential of the carbonate production factory. This result effectively resolves the paradox of a drowned carbonate platform. Test modelling runs conducted with 2·5 m and 15 m initial sea water depths at bracketed rates of relative sea‐level rise have determined how fast the system catches up and maintains the ‘keep‐up’ phase. This is the measure of time necessary for the basin to respond fully to external forcing mechanisms. The duration of the ‘catch‐up’ phase of platform response (termed ‘carbonate response time’) scales with the initial sea water depth and the platform‐top aggradation rate. The catch‐up duration can be significantly elongated with an increase in the rate of relative sea‐level rise. The transition from the catch‐up to the keep‐up phases can also be delayed by a time interval associated with ecological re‐establishment after platform flooding. The carbonate model here employs a logistical equation to model the colonization of carbonate‐producing marine organisms and captures the initial time interval for full ecological re‐establishment. This mechanism prevents the full extent of carbonate production to be achieved at the incipient stage of relative sea‐level rise. The increase in delay time due to the carbonate response time and self‐organized processes associated with biological colonization increase the chances for platform drowning due to deepening of water depth (> ca 10 m). Furthermore this implies a greater likelihood for an autogenic origin for high‐frequency cyclic strata than has been estimated previously.  相似文献   

4.
The Valanginian is a period of global environmental change as illustrated by sedimentary, palaeontological, geochemical and climatic perturbations. A production crisis in most of the carbonate platforms suggests important changes in palaeoenvironmental conditions. During the same time interval, a major positive excursion in δ13C, the Weissert Event, suggests perturbations of the carbon cycle from the latest Early Valanginian to the Early Hauterivian. In order to better understand the link between these changes, sea‐level fluctuations have been reconstructed in detail from the Middle Berriasian to the earliest Hauterivian. Sections from the Peri‐Vocontian Zone (South‐east France) have been investigated because of the good quality of outcrops on the carbonate platforms, their margins and in the Vocontian Basin. Sections ranging from the most proximal zone (Swiss Jura) to the basin were interpreted in terms of sequence stratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy, and correlated at high resolutions. Using the identified small, medium and large‐scale sequences as well as depositional geometries, sea‐level fluctuations were reconstructed. Two main trends are evidenced during the studied interval: (i) the peak amplitude (magnitude) of the sea‐level fluctuations increased gradually from the Middle Berriasian to the Early Valanginian, and reached a maximum (more than 50 m) from the middle Early Valanginian to the Valanginian/Hauterivian boundary; and (ii) sea‐level variations were quite symmetrical during the Late Berriasian, slightly asymmetrical during the Early Valanginian and strongly asymmetrical (fast sea‐level rise, slow fall) from the latest Early Valanginian to the earliest Hauterivian. Moreover, three orders of sea‐level fluctuations were recognized in the sedimentary rocks of the Peri‐Vocontian Zone. Platform‐basin correlations and cyclostratigraphic interpretations of the basinal sections evidence an astronomical control on the sea‐level variations, mainly by the two eccentricity cycles of 100 and 400 kyr. The increase in the amplitude of the sea‐level fluctuations and their change from symmetrical to asymmetrical can be related to the onset of a major cooling event in the Early Valanginian. Fast transgressions followed by slower regressions would correspond to waxing and waning of high‐latitudinal ice during most of the Valanginian, especially from the latest Early Valanginian to the latest Late Valanginian. Glacio‐eustatic sea‐level fluctuations in tune with the 100 and 400 kyr eccentricity cycles are in agreement with glaciations during the Valanginian.  相似文献   

5.
Sea‐level surges caused by sirocco wind are frequent in the northern Adriatic. Added to the local spring‐tide amplitude of about 40 cm, they should not be disregarded when estimating the elevation of maritime archaeological structures in relation to their function at the time of their construction. Based on the statistical analysis of the frequency and distribution of hourly sea‐level surges at Trieste, Rovinj, and Venice, realistic estimates of functional heights for sea‐level reconstructions to be applied to archaeological remains of coastal structures, e.g., fish tanks, appear to be approximately 120–130 cm near Trieste and around 95–105 cm in the Rovinj area. These exceed the value of 60 cm recently proposed by a group of archaeologists. Such underestimation tends to lower by about half a meter (in relation to certain previous estimates) sea‐level position in Roman times along the coast of Istria. The sea level during this period should be derived from more accurate sea‐level indicators such as marine biological remains preserved on archaeological structures.  相似文献   

6.
Many pre‐Mesozoic records of Earth history are derived from shallow water carbonates deposited on continental shelves. While these carbonates contain geochemical proxy records of climate change, it is the stratal architecture of layered carbonate units that often is used to build age models based on the idea that periodic astronomical forcing of sea‐level controls the layering. Reliable age models are crucial to any interpretation of rates and durations of environmental change, but the physical processes that actually control this stratal architecture in shallow water carbonates are controversial. In particular, are upward‐shallowing stacks of carbonate beds bounded by flooding surfaces (‘parasequences’) truly a record of relative sea‐level change? The purpose of this study is to examine a tidal flat that is actively accumulating carbonate stratigraphy, and to determine the relative importance of tidal channel migration (poorly known, but investigated here) and Holocene sea‐level rise (well‐known) in controlling post‐glacial parasequence architecture. This work represents a field study of peritidal carbonate accumulation at Triple Goose Creek, north‐west Andros Island. By integrating surface facies maps with differential global positioning system topographic surveys, a quantitative relationship between facies and elevation is derived. Sedimentary facies are sensitive to elevation changes as small as 5 cm, and are responding to both internal (distance to nearest tidal channel) and external (sea‐level rise) controls. The surface maps also are integrated with 187 sediment cores that each span the entire Holocene succession. While flooding of the Triple Goose Creek area should have occurred by ca 4500 years ago, preservation of Holocene sediment did not begin until 1200 years ago. The tidal channels are shown to be stationary, or to migrate sluggishly at up to 6 cm per year. Therefore, while the location of tidal channels is responsible for the modern mosaic of surface facies, these facies and the channels that control them have not migrated substantially during the ca 1200 years of sediment accumulation at Triple Goose Creek. Once the region was channellized, vertical and lateral shifts in facies, such as the landward retreating shoreline, expanding mangrove ponds and seaward advancing inland algal marsh, are driven by changes in relative sea‐level and sediment supply, not migrating channels. While stratigraphic columns look different depending on the distance to the nearest tidal channel, the overall parasequence architecture everywhere at Triple Goose Creek records an upward‐shallowing trend controlled by the infilling of accommodation space generated by post‐glacial sea‐level rise.  相似文献   

7.
Existing models of coastal occupation, in one form or another, embrace the assumption that changes in mean sea level were the prime driver for shifts in coastal resource productivity of consequence to coastal foragers. Focusing on the North West Shelf of Australia, this paper considers the role of physical sedimentary processes in understanding both past coastal resource productivity and the archaeology of drowned coastal landscapes. From a review of up‐to‐date literature on sea‐level related coastal formation process related to the North West Shelf, we describe the complex interplay of sea‐level change and sedimentary processes in determining (i) coastal resource availability, and (ii) archaeological site preservation potential through time. We argue that human behavioral models that have been linked solely to changes in sea level change from ca. 45 ka onward along the Australia continental shelf have inadequately accounted for local sedimentary regimes. It is not past sea‐level per se, which is of relevance to coastal productivity and human behavioral ecology models but changes in tidal regimes, coastal configurations and sedimentation. We conclude that our understanding of maritime adaptations for Sahul (Greater Australia) remain incomplete without investigating former coastlines and archaeological information that now lies submerged offshore.  相似文献   

8.
Late Quaternary landscape development along the Rancho Marino coastal range front in the central‐southern Pacific Coast Ranges of California has been documented using field mapping, surveying, sedimentary facies analysis and a luminescence age determination. Late Quaternary sediments along the base of the range front form a single composite marine terrace buried by alluvial fans. Marine terrace sediments overlie two palaeoshore platforms at 5 m and 0 m altitude. Correlation with the nearby Cayucos and San Simeon sites links platform and marine terrace development to the 125 ka and 105 ka sea‐level highstands. Uplift rate estimates based on the 125 ka shoreline angle are 0.01–0.09 m ka?1 (mean 0.04 m ka?1), and suggest an increase in regional uplift along the coast towards the NW where the San Simeon fault zone intersects the coastline. Furthermore, such low rates suggest that pre‐125 ka uplift was responsible for most of the relief generation at Rancho Marino. The coastal range front landscape development is, thus, primarily controlled by post 125 ka climatic and sea‐level changes. Post 125 ka sea‐level lowering expanded the range front piedmont area to a width of 7.5 km by the 18 ka Last Glacial Maximum lowstand. This sea‐level lowering created space for alluvial fan building along the range front. A 45 ± 3 ka optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age provides a basal age for alluvial fan building or marks the time by which distal alluvial fan sedimentation has reached 300 m from the range front slope. Fan sedimentation is related to climatic change, with increased sediment supply to the range front occurring during (1) glacial period cold stage maxima and/or (2) the Late Pleistocene–Holocene transition, when respective increases in precipitation and/or storminess resulted in hillslope erosion. Sea‐level rise after the 18 ka lowstand resulted in range front erosion, with elevated localised erosion linked to the higher relief and steeper slopes in the SE. This study demonstrates that late Quaternary coastal range front landscape development is driven by interplay of tectonics, climatic and sea‐level change. In areas of low tectonic activity, climatic and sea‐level changes dominate coastal landscape development. When the sea‐level controlled shoreline is in close proximity to the coastal range front, localised patterns of sedimentation and erosion are passively influenced by the pre‐125 ka topography. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

9.
Sedimentation in the upstream reaches of incised valleys is predominantly of alluvial origin and, in most cases, independent from relative sea‐level or lake‐level oscillations. Preserved facies distributions record the depositional response to a combination of allogenic factors, including tectonics, climate and landscape evolution. Tectonics drive fluvial aggradation and degradation through local changes in gradient, both longitudinal and transverse to the valley slope. This article deals with a Pliocene–Pleistocene fluvial valley fill developed in the north‐eastern shoulder of the Siena Basin (Northern Apennines, Italy). Evolution of the valley was not influenced by sea‐level or lake‐level changes and morphological and depositional evolution of valley resulted from extensional tectonics that gave rise to normal and oblique‐slip faults orthogonal and parallel to the valley axis. Data from both field observations and geophysical study are interpreted to develop a comprehensive tectono‐sedimentary model of coeval longitudinal and lateral tilting of the developing alluvial plain. Longitudinal tilting was generated by a transverse, upstream‐dipping normal fault that controlled the aggradation of fining‐upward strata sets. Upstream of the fault zone, valley back‐filling generated an architecture similar to that of classic, sea‐level‐controlled, coastal incised valleys. Downstream of the fault zone, valley down‐filling was related to an overwhelming sediment supply sourced and routed from the active fault zone itself. Lateral tilting was promoted by the activity of a fault oriented parallel to the valley axis, as well as by different offsets along near orthogonal faults. As a result, the valley trunk system experienced complex lateral shifts, which were governed by interacting fault‐generated subsidence and by the topographic confinement of progradational, flank‐sourced alluvial fans.  相似文献   

10.
Geological and archaeological investigations on the western Alaska Peninsula establish relationships between postglacial sea level changes and regional settlement patterns, which are linked to the spatial and temporal distribution of marine and estuarine resources. Isostatic emergence dominated relative sea‐level changes since deglaciation, but erosional landforms and gaps in the archaeological record suggest that site preservation has varied because of the interplay of eustatic sea level rise, isostatic uplift, and tectonic deformation. Coastal subsidence associated with a major earthquake about 2200 yr B.P. is linked with a 300‐year hiatus in the regional archaeological record. A shift from estuarine to littoral and offshore resources following this period demonstrates the impact of such dynamic sea level fluctuations on the shape and biological productivity of the coastal zone. However, changes in village organization, house form, and subsistence base that define several archaeological phases arise from both environmental and sociopolitical instability. Models of culture change should accommodate local and regional geological boundary conditions in the North Pacific and similarly dynamic settings. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  相似文献   

11.
《Sedimentology》2018,65(4):1170-1212
Barrier‐island system evolution is controlled by internal and external forcing mechanisms, and temporal changes in these mechanisms may be recorded in the sedimentary architecture. However, the precise role of individual forcing mechanisms is rarely well understood due to limited chronological control. This study investigates the relative role of forcing conditions, such as antecedent topography, sea‐level rise, sediment supply, storms and climate changes, on the evolution of a Holocene wave‐dominated barrier‐island system. This article presents temporal reconstruction of the depositional history of the barrier‐island system of Rømø in the Wadden Sea in unprecedented detail, based on ground‐penetrating radar profiles, sediment cores, high‐resolution dating and palynological investigations, and shows that ca 8000 years ago the barrier island formed on a Pleistocene topographic high. During the initial phase of barrier evolution, the long‐term sea‐level rise was relatively rapid (ca 9 mm year−1) and the barrier was narrow and frequently overwashed. Sediment supply kept pace with sea‐level rise, and the barrier‐island system mainly aggraded through the deposition of a ca 7 m thick stack of overwash fans. Aggradation continued for ca 1700 years until sea‐level rise had decreased to <2 mm year−1. In the last ca 6000 years, the barrier prograded 4 to 5 km through deposition of a 10 to 15 m thick beach and shoreface unit, despite a long‐term sea‐level rise of 1 to 2 mm year−1. The long‐term progradation was, however, interrupted by a transgression between 4000 years and 1700 years ago. These results demonstrate that the large‐scale morphology of the Danish Wadden Sea shoreline influences the longshore sediment transport flux and the millennial‐scale dispersal of sediment along the shoreline. On decadal to centennial timescales, major storms induced intense beach and shoreface erosion followed by rapid recovery and progradation which resulted in a highly punctuated beach and shoreface record. Major storms contributed towards a positive sediment budget, and the sustained surplus of sediment was, and still is, instrumental in maintaining the aggradational–progradational state of the barrier island.  相似文献   

12.
Autostratigraphy is the stratigraphy generated by large‐scale autogenesis, developed based on the full recognition of the non‐equilibrium behaviour of depositional systems in response to steady external forcing. The existing autostratigraphic concepts were derived mostly from studies of river deltas growing during a single rise or fall of base level (or relative sea level). The present study challenges to extend the autostratigraphic framework to the alluvial‐shelf system growing through steady base‐level cycles by two‐dimensional tank experiments. During each experimental run, the base level was changed symmetrically, wherein through cycles, the rise and fall had the same constant rate (|Rbl|) and period (Tbl), and thus the same constant amplitude (Abl), but with no basin tectonism. In total, nine runs with different combinations of |Rbl| and Abl were performed. The experimental results brought the following implications. (i) The shelf‐transiting active depositional system takes non‐equilibrium responses in earlier base‐level cycles, during each of which the system experiences episodes of degradation with base‐level fall. (ii) After the system has sufficiently grown through cycles, non‐equilibrium responses change into equilibrium responses, whereby the shelf‐transiting alluvial system, whether retrogradational or progradational, is free from degradation and continues to aggrade but with a gradually decreasing rate of aggradation. (iii) The alluvial topset river tentatively but autogenically attains a graded state during the falling limb of an intermediate cycle, which separates the earlier degradation‐inclusive and later aggradation‐sustainable cycles. (iv) The number (or duration) of cycles elapsed prior to this phase‐transition is linearly proportional to the amplitude (or the square of the period) of base‐level cycles, with a coefficient defined by the rates of base‐level change and sediment supply. Such a growth pattern does not necessarily hold when considering long‐term tectonic subsidence or uplift. These notions help to understand the stratigraphic architectures of natural alluvial‐shelf systems evolved through base level cycles.  相似文献   

13.
Fluctuations in relative sea level, tectonic movement, and sedimentation during the late Pleistocene to Holocene in the Hisarönü Gulf (SE Aegean Sea) and surrounding area were investigated with a high‐resolution geophysical survey and underwater archaeological observations. The Hisarönü Gulf has been affected by vertical tectonic movements and rising sea level following the last glacial period (20,000 yr B.P.). High‐resolution seismic data were interpreted to reveal the structure of the late Pleistocene to Holocene deposits and determine the location of the paleoshoreline. In order to describe the relative rise of sea level, principles of sequence stratigraphy were used for the late Pleistocene to Holocene transition, and submerged archaeological remains and bioerosional indicators were used for the late Holocene period. A comparison of archaeological observations in the study area with the known regional sea level curve indicates that the relative rise in sea level for the late Holocene is, for the most part, due to the tectonic subsidence of the coastal plain. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.  相似文献   

14.
Selected archaeological, stratigraphical, sedimentological, hydrological, sea level, and 14C data are considered in order to ascertain the times and rates of saltmarsh, floodplain, river swamp, and alluvial terrace development in the lower Savannah River valley. Archaeological data are emphasized in the elucidation of these developmental trends and their environmental correlates. It is concluded that the modern environments associated with the categories of archaeological sites examined (estuarine shell middens, river swamp point bar sites, raised terrace/point bar sites) are not representative of local conditions during occupation(s). Accordingly, a mid-Holocene development of lower energy depositional environments is documented, along with a corresponding shift in subsistence-settlement patterning that suggests more diffuse, or broad spectrum, socio-economic strategies. A base level (sea level) dominance on river sedimentation, even far inland from the coast, may also be indicated.  相似文献   

15.
This article focuses on local paleohydrological changes experienced by the Las Pitas and Miriguaca Rivers in the south‐central Andes of Argentina and their impacts on hunter‐gatherers as they transitioned to food‐producing communities 7000–3000 cal. yr B.P. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on geomorphology, alluvial sedimentology, and diatom evidence indicates a dry phase of reduced streamflow between ca. 6700 and 4800 cal. yr B.P. for the Las Pitas River, and 6600 and 3000 cal. yr B.P. for the Miriguaca River. A phase of more humid environmental conditions commenced after ca. 4900 cal. yr B.P. along the Las Pitas River, and after 3000 cal. yr B.P. along the Miriguaca River. Differences in the chronology and magnitude of hydrological changes along both rivers are related to topographic and hydrological characteristics of their respective watersheds. Higher catchment elevation and enhanced orographic precipitation favored greater sensitivity for the Las Pitas River to short humid events during the middle‐to‐late Holocene. The archaeological evidence suggests that the paleohydrological changes within these catchments played a significant role in human occupational dynamics such that the Las Pitas River offered better environmental conditions for human occupation relative to the Miriguaca River as foragers increasingly relied on plant and animal domestication.  相似文献   

16.
Analysis of Holocene sediment accumulation in the Guadiana estuary (southern Portugal) during sea‐level rise since ca. 13 cal. ka BP was used to simulate the long‐term morphological evolution of the lower Guadiana estuary and the associated intertidal zone for 21st‐century predicted sea‐level rises. Three sea‐level rise scenarios given by the IPCC ( 2007 ) were used in the simulations of morphology using a large‐scale behaviour‐oriented modelling approach. Sedimentation rate scenarios were derived both from the Holocene evolution of the estuary and from a semi‐empirical estimation of present‐day sediment aggradation. Our results show that the net lateral expansion of the intertidal zone area would be about 3–5% of the present intertidal zone area for each 10 cm rise in sea level. Under constraints imposed by the lack of fluvial sediment supply, the lateral expansion of the landward boundary of the intertidal zone will occur mainly in the Portuguese margin of the Guadiana estuary, while submergence of the salt marshes will occur in the Spanish margin. Therefore the Spanish margin is highly vulnerable to both sea‐level rise and lack of sediment supply. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

17.
To understand the depositional processes and environmental changes during the initial flooding of the North China Platform, this study focuses on the Lower to Middle Cambrian Zhushadong and Mantou formations in Shandong Province, China. The succession in the Jinan and Laiwu areas comprises mixed carbonate and siliciclastic deposits composed of limestone, dolostone, stromatolite, thrombolite, purple and grey mudstone, and sandstone. A detailed sedimentary facies analysis of seven well‐exposed sections suggests that five facies associations are the result of an intercalation of carbonate and siliciclastic depositional environments, including local alluvial fans, shallowing‐upward carbonate–siliciclastic peritidal cycles, oolite dominant shoals, shoreface and lagoonal environments. These facies associations successively show a transition from an initially inundated tide‐dominated carbonate platform to a wave‐dominated shallow marine environment. In particular, the peritidal sediments were deposited during a large number of depositional cycles. These sediments consist of lime mudstone, dolomite, stromatolite and purple and grey mudstones. These shallowing‐upward cycles generally resulted from carbonate production in response to an increase of accommodation during rising sea‐level. The carbonate production was, however, interrupted by frequent siliciclastic input from the adjacent emergent archipelago. The depositional cycles thus formed under the influence of both autogenetic changes, including sediment supply from the archipelago, and allogenic control of relative sea‐level rise in the carbonate factory. A low‐relief archipelago with an active tidal regime allowed the development of tide‐dominated siliciclastic and carbonate environments on the vast platform. Siliciclastic input to these tidal environments terminated when most of the archipelago became submerged due to a rapid rise in sea‐level. This study provides insights on how a vast Cambrian carbonate platform maintained synchronous sedimentation under a tidal regime, forming distinct cycles of mixed carbonates and siliciclastics as the system kept up with rising relative sea‐level during the early stage of basin development in the North China Platform.  相似文献   

18.
The growth and decay of the end‐Ordovician Gondwanan glaciation is globally reflected by facies changes in sedimentary sequences, which record a major eustatic fall and subsequent rise in the Hirnantian Stage at the end of the Ordovician. However, there are different reported estimates of the magnitude and pattern of sea‐level change. Particularly good evidence for end‐Ordovician sea‐level change comes from a sequence at Meifod in central Wales, which has a karstified limestone unit within a channel incised into marine shelf sediments. Pre‐glacial (Rawtheyan) mudstones have a diverse fauna suggesting a mid‐to‐deep‐shelf water depth of c. 60 m. The channel, 20 m deep, was incised into these mudstones and partially filled with a mixture of fine sand and detrital carbonate. The taphonomy of bioclasts and intraclasts indicates that many had a long residence time on the sea floor or suffered diagenesis after shallow burial before being resedimented into the channel. The presence of carbonates on the Welsh shelf is atypical and they are interpreted as having accumulated as patches during a minor regression prior to the main glacio‐eustatic fall. Comparison of the carbon stable‐isotopic values of the bioclast material with the global isotopic record confirms that most of the material is of Rawtheyan age, but that some is Hirnantian. The resedimented carbonates lithified rapidly and formed a limestone, several metres thick, in the deepest parts of the channel. As sea‐level fell, this limestone was exposed and eroded into karstic domes and pillars with a relief of over 2 m. The overall, glacio‐eustatic, sea‐level fall is estimated to be in excess of 80 m. A succeeding sea‐level rise estimated to be 40–50 m is recorded in the laminated crust that mantles the karstic domes and pillars. The crust is formed of encrusting bryozoans, associated cystoids, crinoid holdfasts and clusters of the brachiopod Paromalomena, which is normally associated with mid‐shelf environments. Fine sands buried the karst topography and accumulated to fill the channel. In the sandstones at the base of the channel there is a Hirnantia fauna, while in the sandstones high in the channel‐sequence there is cross‐stratification characteristic of mid‐shoreface environments. This would indicate a fall of sea‐level of c. 30 m. The subsequent major transgression marking the end of the glaciation is not recorded at the Meifod locality, but nearby exposures of mudstones suggest a return to mid‐to‐deep‐shelf environments, similar to those that prevailed before the Hirnantian regression. The Meifod sequence provides strong evidence for the magnitude of the Hirnantian sea‐level changes and by implication confirm larger estimates for the size of the ice sheets. Smaller oscillations in relative sea‐level seen at Meifod may be local phenomena or may reflect eustatic changes that have not been widely reported elsewhere. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

19.
The lower Pliocene Belvedere Formation, cropping out in the Crotone Basin, southern Italy, exhibits a metre‐scale to decametre‐scale shallow‐marine cyclicity that shares features of both high‐frequency sequences linked to shoreline shifts and controlled by minor relative sea‐level and/or sediment supply changes, and sedimentological cycles unrelated to shoreline shifts. In order to better understand the high‐frequency sequence stratigraphic framework of this succession, an integration of sedimentological, micropalaeontological (micro‐foraminifera assemblages) and mineralogical (heavy mineral abundance) data is used. From a sedimentological/stratigraphic point of view, wave‐ravinement surfaces bounding high‐frequency sequences, and associated substrate‐controlled ichnofacies, are prominent in outcrop and document environmental and water‐depth changes, whereas bedset boundaries separating sedimentological cycles have a more subtle field appearance and are only associated with changes of environmental energy. Moreover, condensed deposits are present only above wave‐ravinement surfaces, and the high‐frequency sequences bounded by these surfaces have a thickness that is an order of magnitude greater than that of the bedsets. Micro‐foraminifera assemblages may change, and the content of heavy minerals usually increases, across wave‐ravinement surfaces, whereas both parameters do not change significantly across bedset boundaries. The abundance of heavy minerals is systematically higher, with respect to the underlying and overlying deposits, in the condensed shell beds that overlie wave‐ravinement surfaces. An integrated sedimentological, micropalaeontological and mineralogical approach represents a powerful tool to discriminate between wave‐ravinement surfaces bounding high‐frequency sequences and bedset boundaries, and in general to investigate at the intra high‐frequency sequence scale. This integrated approach is expected to be very useful in the study of potentially all shallow‐marine successions composed of small‐scale cycles, in order to delineate a detailed sequence stratigraphic framework and understand the factors that controlled the cyclicity.  相似文献   

20.
Incised valleys are canyon‐like features that initially form near the highstand shoreline and evolve over geological time as rivers erode into coastal plains and continental shelves to maintain equilibrium‐gradient profiles in response to sea‐level fall. Most of these valleys flood during sea‐level rise to form estuaries. Incised‐valley morphology strongly controls the rate of creation of sediment accommodation, valley‐fill facies architecture and the preservation potential of coastal lithosomes on continental shelves, and affects coastal physical processes. Nonetheless, little is known about what dictates incised‐valley size and shape and whether these metrics can be used to explain principal formation processes. The main control on alluvial channel morphology over human time scales is discharge; this is based on numerous empirical studies and is well‐constrained because all variables are easily measured at this short time scale. Knowledge of long‐term river evolution over a complete glacio‐eustatic cycle, on the contrary, remains largely conceptual, experimental and based on individual systems because variables that are thought to drive morphological change are not easily quantified. In spite of this difficulty, existing models of incised‐valley formation at the coast suggest that valley evolution is driven largely by downstream forcing mechanisms, highlighting sea‐level and shelf gradient/morphology as the dominant controls on valley incision. Although valleys are cut by rivers, whose channels are a direct reflection of discharge, little empirical data exist in coastal areas to address the degree to which valley evolution is governed by upstream controls. The late Quaternary is the best time period to examine because it provides the most complete sedimentary record and many variables, including sea‐level, tectonics, substrate lithology and drainage network characteristics, are accurately constrained. Here, 38 late Quaternary valleys along the coast of two different passive continental margins are compared, which suggests that valley shape and size are governed primarily by upstream, intrinsic controls such as discharge. Valley width, depth and cross‐sectional area are found to be predictable at the highstand shoreline and are scaled with the size of their drainage basin, which has important implications for estimating sediment discharge to continental shelves and deep water environments during periods of low sea‐level.  相似文献   

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