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1.
Submarine external levées are constructional features that develop outside slope channel systems, and are a volumetrically significant component of continental margins. However, detailed observations of their process sedimentology and depositional architecture are rare. Extensive exposures of external levées at multiple stratigraphic intervals and well‐constrained palaeogeographic positions in the Fort Brown Formation, Karoo Basin, South Africa, have been calibrated with research boreholes. This integrated data set permits their origin, evolution and anatomy to be considered, including high‐resolution analysis of sedimentary facies distribution and characterization of depositional sub‐environments. An idealized model of the stratigraphic evolution and depositional architecture of external levées is presented, and variations can be attributed to allogenic (for example, sediment supply) and autogenic (for example, channel migration) factors. Initiation of external levée construction is commonly marked by deposition of a basal sand‐rich facies with sedimentary structures indicating rapid deposition from unconfined flows. These deposits are interpreted as frontal lobes. Propagation of the parent channel, and resultant flow confinement, lead to partial erosion of the frontal lobe and development of constructional relief (levées) by flow overspill and flow stripping. Overall fining‐upwards and thinning‐upwards profiles reflect increased flow confinement and/or waning flow magnitude through time. Identification of a hierarchy of levée elements is not possible due to the absence of internal bounding surfaces or sharp facies changes. The down‐slope taper in levée height and increasing channel sinuosity results in increasing numbers of crevasse lobe deposits, and is reflected by the increased occurrences of channel avulsion events down‐dip. External levées from the Fort Brown Formation are silt‐rich; however their stratigraphic evolution and the distribution of many components (such as sediment waves and crevasse lobe) share commonalities with mud‐rich external levées. This unique integrated data set has permitted the first high‐resolution characterization of external submarine levée systems. 相似文献
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IAN A. KANE MASON L. DYKSTRA BENJAMIN C. KNELLER SACHA TREMBLAY WILLIAM D. McCAFFREY 《Sedimentology》2009,56(7):2207-2234
Seafloor images of coarse‐grained submarine channel–levée systems commonly reveal complex braid‐plain patterns of low‐amplitude bedforms and zones of apparent bypass; however, mechanisms of channel evolution and the resultant channel‐fill architecture are poorly understood. At Playa Esqueleto the lateral relationships between various elements of a deep‐marine slope channel system are well‐exposed. Specifically, the transition from gravel‐dominated axial thalwegs to laterally persistent marginal sandstones and isolated gravel‐filled scours is revealed. Marginal sandstones pass into a monotonous thin‐bedded succession which built to form relatively low‐relief levées bounding the channel belt; in turn, the levées onlap the canyon walls. Three orders of confinement were important during the evolution of the channel system: (i) first‐order confinement was provided by the erosional canyon which confined the entire system; (ii) confined levées built of turbidite sandstones and mudstones formed the second‐order confinement, and it is demonstrated that these built from overspill at thalweg margins; and (iii) third‐order confinement describes the erosional confinement of coarse‐grained thalwegs and scours. Finer‐grained sediment was transported in suspension and largely was unaffected by topography at the scale of individual thalwegs. Facies and clast analyses of conglomerate overlying channel‐marginal scours reveal that they were deposited by composite gravity flows, which were non‐cohesive, grain‐dominant debris flows with more fluidal cores. These flows were capable of basal erosion but were strongly depositional; frictional freezing at flow margins built gravel levées, while the core maintained a more fluidal transport regime. The resultant architecture consists of matrix‐rich, poorly sorted levées bounding better‐sorted, traction‐dominated cores. The planform geometry is interpreted to have consisted of a low‐sinuosity gravel braid‐plain built by accretion around mid‐channel and bank‐attached bars. This part of the system may be analogous to fluvial systems; however, the finer‐grained sediment load formed thick suspension clouds, probably several orders of magnitude thicker than the relief of braid‐plain topography and therefore controlled by the levées and canyon wall confinement. 相似文献
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The northern Gioia Basin of the south‐east Tyrrhenian Sea is a slope basin, ～ 20 km wide and ～ 50 km long, with a bathymetry of ≤ 1300 m, bounded by the Calabro‐Sicilian landmass and the Aeolian Island Arc. Coarse sediment is supplied from the Calabrian margin, where the shelf is very narrow to non‐existent, whereas the wider shelf on the Sicilian margin prevents supply by storing river‐fed sediments. The basin is dominated by the Gioia–Mesima canyon/channel system paralleled by a tongue‐shaped depositional lobe. Multibeam bathymetric surveys, sea floor reflectivity data and airgun seismic profiles reveal the recent evolution of the submarine system. Slope canyons and basin‐floor levéed channels formed where major rivers built deltas at the shelfless Calabrian margin and strong hyperpycnal flows predominated. The channels are a few hundred metres wide and a few tens of metres deep, with a downslope change from a straight to meandering pattern where the slope gradient decreases from 3·2% to 1·7%. The Mesima Channel has its lower segment abandoned because of avulsion and crevasse‐splay formation at an upslope bend. The adjacent Gioia Channel has had its upper segment straightened and lower segment entrenched because of erosional deepening of the Stromboli Valley into which it debouches and which acts as the local base level. Overbank features include levées, coalescent splays and ‘yazoo’ channels; their nature and surface characteristics depend upon the magnitude and sediment grain‐size of spill‐over flows. On an adjoining narrow shelf sliver of the Calabrian margin, in contrast, the coalescing plumes of sediment suspension supplied by an array of smaller coastal streams were apparently spilling over the shelf edge, scouring a funnel‐shaped bypass depression with chutes and forming an elongate, non‐channellized depositional lobe at the slope base. The study demonstrates the impact of sediment source type, shelf width, basin‐floor gradient and base‐level change on the style of deep‐water sedimentation. 相似文献
4.
Coarse‐grained deep‐water strata of the Cerro Toro Formation in the Cordillera Manuel Señoret, southern Chile, represent the deposits of a major channel belt (4 to 8 km wide by >100 km long) that occupied the foredeep of the Magallanes basin during the Late Cretaceous. Channel belt deposits comprise a ca 400 m thick conglomeratic interval (informally named the ‘Lago Sofia Member’) encased in bathyal fine‐grained units. Facies of the Lago Sofia Member include sandy matrix conglomerate (that show evidence of traction‐dominated deposition and sedimentation from turbulent gravity flows), muddy matrix conglomerate (graded units interpreted as coarse‐grained slurry‐flow deposits) and massive sandstone beds (high‐density turbidity current deposits). Interbedded sandstone and mudstone intervals are present locally, interpreted as inner levée deposits. The channel belt was characterized by a low sinuousity planform architecture, as inferred from outcrop mapping and extensive palaeocurrent measurements. Laterally adjacent to the Lago Sofia Member are interbedded mudstone and sandstone facies derived from gravity flows that spilled over the channel belt margin. A levée interpretation for these fine‐grained units is based on several observations, which include: (i) palaeocurrent measurements that indicate flows diverged (50° to 100°) once they spilled over the confining channel margin; (ii) sandstone beds progressively thin, away from the channel belt margin; (iii) evidence that the eroded channel base was not very well indurated, including a stepped margin and injection of coarse‐grained channel material into surrounding fine‐grained units; and (iv) the presence of sedimentary features common to levées, including slumped units inferring depositional slopes dipping away from the channel margin, lenticular sandstone beds thinning distally from the channel margin, soft sediment deformation and climbing ripples. The tectonic setting and foredeep architecture influenced deposition in the axial channel belt. A significant downstream constriction of the channel belt is reflected by a transition from more tabular units to an internal architecture dominated by lenticular beds associated with a substantially increased degree of scour. Differential propagation of the fold‐thrust belt from the west is speculated to have had a major control on basin, and subsequently channel, width. The confining influence of the basin slopes that paralleled the channel belt, as well as the likelihood that numerous conduits fed into the basin along the length of the active fold‐thrust belt to the west, suggest that proximal–distal relationships observed from large channels in passive margin settings are not necessarily applicable to axial channels in elongate basins. 相似文献
5.
Distributary channel systems are an important component of deltaic systems, but details of their branching pattern, stream‐order, internal variability and relation with adjacent levée, bay and bayhead delta are rather poorly documented in ancient examples. Photomosaic and measured sections collected along a gooseneck‐shaped canyon in southern Utah allow direct mapping of the branching pattern of an ancient distributary system. The main channel belt is ca 250 m wide and narrows to ca 200 m downstream of the branching point. A subordinate channel belt, ca 80 m wide, branches off of the main channel, forming a distinctly asymmetrical branching pattern. Water discharge in the main channel is estimated to be 85 to 170 m3 sec?1. Comparison with palaeodischarge estimates of trunk rivers mapped in previous studies suggests that the branching documented in this study probably is a fourth‐order split. The distributary channels are characterized by a U‐shaped geometry filled with medium‐grained, cross‐bedded sandstone, and are dominated by lateral accretion, suggesting limited lateral migration and moderate sinuosity. Tidally influenced facies and limited trace fossils indicate direct marine influence. The distributary channels erode into adjacent levée and underlying heterolithic bay‐fill deposits, and the marine influence suggests that they were deposited on a lower delta plain, rather than on a non‐marine floodplain. The subordinate channel fed a bayhead delta, suggesting that it was formed by a partial avulsion, rather than bifurcation around a mouth bar, as is more characteristic of terminal distributary channels. Channel‐floor drapes, bar‐accretion drapes and abandoned channel fills within the sandstone channel belts represent the most important heterogeneity from the perspective of reservoir characterization. 相似文献
6.
Preserved in Quebrada de las Lajas, near San Juan, Argentina, is an ancient subaqueous proglacial sedimentary succession that includes a small‐scale (ca 50 m thick and ca 200 m wide) channel–levée system with excellent exposure of the channel axis and levée sediments. Coeval deposition of both the channel axis and the levées can be demonstrated clearly by lateral correlation of individual beds. The channel axis consists predominantly of a disorganized, pebble to boulder conglomerate with a poorly sorted matrix. The channel axis varies from 10 to 20 m wide and has a total amalgamated thickness of around 50 m. Beds fine gradationally away from the cobble–boulder conglomerates of the channel axis within a few metres, transitioning to well‐organized pebble to cobble conglomerates and sandstones of the channel margin. Within 60 m outboard of the channel axis in both directions, perpendicular to the trend of the channel axis, the mean grain size of the beds in the levées is silt to fine‐grained sand. Deposits in this channel–levée system are the product of both debris flows (channel axis) and co‐genetic turbidity currents (channel margins and levées). Bed thicknesses in the levées increase for up to 10 to 25 m away from the channel axis, beyond which bed thicknesses decrease with increasing distance. The positions of the bed thickness maxima define the levée crests, and the thinning beds constitute the outer levée slopes. From these relationships it is clear that the levée crest migrated both away from and toward the channel axis, and varied in height above the channel axis from 4 to 5 m (undecompacted), whereas the height of the levée crest relative to the distal levée varied from 4·5 to 10 m, indicating that the channel was at times super‐elevated relative to the distal levée. Bed thickness decay on the outside of the levée crest can be described quite well with a power‐law function (R2 = 0·85), whereas the thickness decay from the levée crest toward the channel axis follows a linear function (R2 = 0·78). Grain‐size changes are quite predictable from the channel margin outward, and follow logarithmic (R2 = 0·77) or power‐law (R2 = 0·72) decay curves, either of which fit the data quite well. This study demonstrates that, in at least this case: (i) levée thickness trends can be directly related to channel‐flow processes; (ii) individual bed thickness changes may control overall levée geometry; and (iii) levée and channel deposits can be coeval. 相似文献
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选取受构造活动影响较弱的Rio Muni盆地近现代深水水道为研究样本,分段测量各水道的底床坡度和曲率,并进行相关性分析。研究认为:深水水道底床坡度与曲率呈幂函数关系,水道曲率随着坡度的增大而减小;但不同坡度条件下曲率变化速率表现出明显的差异——一般随坡度的减小,单位坡度变化范围内,曲率的增幅加大。坡度对水道曲率的控制作用主要体现在水道切谷底形和内部充填结构2个方面,其中对后者的影响作用最为显著。但实质上,坡度是通过对水道内部沉积物能量的控制,进而影响了其侵蚀及充填能力,最终使水道平面形态和内部充填结构发生变化。 相似文献
10.
深水水道沉积构型及其演化一直是沉积学界研究的热点。基于Rio Muni盆地深水区470 km2高分辨率三维地震数据,在精细地震解释的基础上,对研究区发育的深水水道的沉积构型、演化进行探讨。主要取得4点认识：(1)深水水道的弯曲度主要受控于物源供给和海底坡度,研究区发育弯曲水道、顺直水道2类深水水道;(2)起源于陆架边缘的深水水道,物源供给相对充分,弯曲度高,其剖面往往不对称,水道壁发育滑塌或阶地,垂向演化具有侧向迁移特征,发育废弃水道;(3)而起源于中上陆坡的深水水道,其弯曲度低,剖面具有U形特征,水道壁光滑无滑塌或阶地, 主要以垂向加积为主。由于物源供给不足,顺直水道逐渐被深海泥质披覆沉积充填;(4)同一条深水水道,由上陆坡向下陆坡,随着海底坡度的降低,其弯曲度呈增大趋势。 相似文献
11.
In this study, the distribution of channel‐bed sediment facies in the lowermost Mississippi River is analysed using multibeam data, complemented by sidescan sonar and compressed high‐intensity radar pulse seismic data, as well as grab and core samples of bed material. The channel bed is composed of a discontinuous layer of alluvial sediment and a relict substratum that is exposed on the channel bed and sidewalls. The consolidated substratum is made up of latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene fluvio‐deltaic deposits and is preferentially exposed in the deepest thalweg segments and on channel sidewalls in river bends. The exposed substratum commonly displays a suite of erosional features, including flutes that are quantitatively similar in form to those produced under known laboratory conditions. A total of five bed facies are mapped, three of which include modern alluvial deposits and two facies that are associated with the relict substratum. A radius of curvature analysis applied to the Mississippi River centreline demonstrates that the reach‐scale distribution of channel‐bed facies is related to river planform. From a broader perspective, the distribution of channel‐bed facies is related to channel sinuosity — higher sinuosity promotes greater substratum exposure at the expense of alluvial sediment. For example, the ratio of alluvial cover to substratum is ca 1·5:1 for a 45 km segment of the river that has a sinuosity of 1·76 and this ratio increases to ca 3:1 for a 120 km segment of the river that has a sinuosity of 1·21. The exposed substratum is interpreted as bedrock and, given the relative coverage of alluvial sediment in the channel, the lowermost Mississippi River can be classified as a mixed bedrock‐alluvial channel. The analyses demonstrate that a mixed bedrock‐alluvial channel boundary can be associated with low‐gradient and sand‐bed rivers near their marine outlet. 相似文献
12.
Well-exposed, vertically dipping, glacially polished outcrops of the Neoproterozoic Windermere Supergroup in the southern Canadian Cordillera include basin-floor deposits of the Upper Kaza Group overlain by slope channel complexes of the Isaac Formation. Within the 2·5 km thick Kaza and Isaac succession is an up to 360 m thick interval composed of diverse deep-water stratal elements including scour and interscour deposits, distributary channels, fine-grained turbidites, terminal splays, mass-transport deposits, erosional and levéed channels and avulsion splays, which collectively were formed during the development of an ancient passive-margin channel-lobe system. The proportion and vertical and lateral arrangement of stratal elements reveal three distinct complexes. The lower complex, consisting mostly of distributary channels and small and large scours, is interpreted to represent the detachment of lobes from an upflow levéed channel, wherein a well-developed channel-lobe transition zone was formed by efficient, siliciclastic flows during a period of sustained transport bypass and limited deposition coincident with the onset of falling relative sea level. The middle, comparatively thicker and more sandstone-rich complex, comprises distributary channel fills, fine-grained turbidites and lesser terminal splays that are interspersed with small scours, capped by a slope levéed channel filled with coarser-grained siliciclastic sediment. The abundance of basin-floor elements suggests negligible separation between the levéed channel and lobe, and therefore a poorly-developed channel-lobe transition zone, resulting from inefficient, siliciclastic-rich depositional flows that became dominant during lowstand and/or ensuing transgression. The stratal makeup of the upper complex resembles the lower detached complex, suggesting a return to efficient flows, and an abrupt change to mixed carbonate–siliciclastic sediments associated with highstand conditions. Accordingly, the stratigraphic architecture and stacking pattern of the Kaza–Isaac interval, which relate to the formation of multiple channel-lobe transition zones, were controlled by temporal changes in sediment supply and flow characteristics during the long-term progradation of the Laurentian continental margin. 相似文献
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This paper documents a subsurface trace fossil and ichnofabric study of the proximal parts of a structurally confined and channelized sand‐rich, lower slope and proximal basin‐floor deep‐marine system in the Middle Eocene Ainsa basin, Spanish Pyrenees. Five depositional environments are recognized based on sedimentary facies associations, depositional architecture and stratigraphic context (channel axis, channel off‐axis, channel margin, leveé‐overbank and interfan), as well as a channel abandonment phase. Each environment is characterized by distinct and recurring ichnofabrics. Ichnological measurements and observations were recorded from six cores recovered from six wells drilled at a spacing of between 400 m and 500 m at outcrop, and totalling 1213 m in length. From channel axis to levée‐overbank environments, there is a trend of increasing bioturbation intensity and ichnodiversity. Ichnofabrics in channel axis and channel off‐axis environments are characterized by low bioturbation intensity and low ichnodiversity. Thalassinoides‐dominated firmground ichnofabrics associated with erosive sediment gravity flows are common in these environments. In contrast, channel margin and levée‐overbank environments are characterized by ichnofabrics associated with high bioturbation intensity and ichnodiversity. Sediments of the interfan are characterized by the highest bioturbation intensity, associated with burrow mottling and an absence of primary sedimentary structures. This paper demonstrates that in core‐based studies, ichnofabric analysis is an important and valuable tool in discriminating between different environments in channelized deep‐marine siliciclastic systems. The results of this study should find wide applicability in reservoir characterization studies in the petroleum industry, in field‐based analogue ichnofabric studies and other core‐based studies in deep‐water siliciclastic systems worldwide such as the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. 相似文献
14.
JAMES R. MAYNARD 《Sedimentology》2006,53(3):515-536
Tectonic deformation of the land surface is known to influence the gradient, water and sediment discharge and the grain-size of modern fluvial systems. Any change in these variables alters the equilibrium of a fluvial system, potentially causing a change in channel morphology. 3D seismic data from the Tertiary (Miocene) age, Upper Frio Formation, Kelsey Field, South Texas, in the US are used to examine changing fluvial channel morphology through time during a period of active growth of a rollover anticline in the hangingwall of a normal fault (the Vicksburg Fault). The studied interval varies between 22 and 47 m thick, and spans several hundred thousand years. It consists of an alternation of fluvial sandstones, overbank mudstones and coal. Seismic extractions show the evolution of sinuous fluvial channels during a phase of growth fault activity. Prior to growth, a single sinuous channel is imaged. During growth, the fluvial system became decapitated by a developing rollover anticline, and a highly sinuous drainage network formed, with frequent avulsion events, headward propagation of streams and related stream capture. Increased channel sinuosity was spatially associated with increased avulsion frequency in the area down dip to the east of the rollover anticline, more than 10 km from the active fault. More than 25 m of relative accommodation developed on the flank of the growing rollover anticline compared with on the crest. The increased channel sinuosity is interpreted as reflecting an increase in longitudinal valley slope analogous to observations made in flume experiments and modern river systems. The increase in avulsion frequency is attributed to increased aggradation as the rivers adjusted back to equilibrium grade following the increase in slope. 相似文献
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Dimensions and architecture of late Pleistocene submarine lobes off the northern margin of East Corsica 总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2
Sandy lobe deposits on submarine fans are sensitive recorders of the types of sediment gravity flows supplied to a basin and are economically important as hydrocarbon reservoirs. This study investigates the causes of variability in 20 lobes in small late Pleistocene submarine fans off East Corsica. These lobes were imaged using ultra‐high resolution boomer seismic profiles (<1 m vertical resolution) and sediment type was ground truthed using piston cores published in previous studies. Repeated crossings of the same depositional bodies were used to measure spatial changes in their dimensions and architecture. Most lobes increase abruptly down‐slope to a peak thickness of 8 to 42 m, beyond which they show a progressive, typically more gradual, decrease in thickness until they thin to below seismic resolution or pass into draping facies of the basin plain. Lobe areas range from 3 to 70 km2 and total lengths from 2 to 14 km, with the locus of maximum sediment accumulation from 3 to 28 km from the shelf‐break. Based on their location, dimensions, internal architecture and nature of the feeder channel, the lobes are divided into two end‐member types. The first are small depositional bodies located in proximal settings, clustered near the toe‐of‐slope and fed by slope gullies or erosive channels lacking or with poorly developed levées (referred to as ‘proximal isolated lobes’). The second are larger architecturally more complex depositional bodies deposited in more distal settings, outboard more stable and longer‐lived levéed fan valleys (referred to as ‘composite mid‐fan lobes’). Hybrid lobe types are also observed. At least three hierarchical levels of compensation stacking are recognized. Individual beds and bed‐sets stack to form lobe‐elements; lobe‐elements stack to form composite lobes; and composite lobes stack to form lobe complexes. Differences in the size, shape and architectural complexity of lobe deposits reflect several inter‐related factors including: (i) flow properties (volume, duration, grain‐size, concentration and velocity); (ii) the number and frequency of flows, and their degree of variation through time; (iii) gradient change and sea floor morphology at the mouth of the feeder conduit; (iv) lobe lifespan prior to avulsion or abandonment; and (v) feeder channel geometry and stability. In general, lobes outboard stable fan valleys that are connected to shelf‐incised canyons are wider, longer and thicker, accumulate in more basinal locations and are architecturally more complex. 相似文献
17.
《Sedimentology》2018,65(3):877-896
A Froude‐scaled physical model of a proximal gravel‐bed braided river was used to connect the river morphological characteristics, and sedimentary processes and forms, to deposit geometry. High resolution continuous three‐dimensional topographic data were acquired from sequential photogrammetric digital elevation models paired with grain‐size surface maps derived from image analysis of textural properties of the surface. From these data, the full three‐dimensional development of the braided river deposit and grain‐size sorting patterns was compiled over an experimental time period of 41 h during which the model river reworked a large portion of the braided channel. The minimum surface of the deposit is developed progressively over time by erosion, migration and avulsion of channels, and by local scour at channel confluences. The maximum surface of the deposit is formed by amalgamation of braid bar surfaces and has less overall relief than the minimum surface. Confluence scour constitutes about 5% of the area of the minimum surface. Migration of individual confluences is limited to distances of the order of the width and length of the confluence, so that confluences do not form laterally extensive deposits and basal surfaces. Maximum and minimum surfaces have very similar grain‐size distributions, and there is no extensive basal coarse layer. Deposit maximum thickness is strongly associated with large channel confluences which occur as deeper areas along the main channel belt and make up a large proportion of the thickest portions of the deposit. 相似文献
18.
DONALD R. LOWE 《Sedimentology》2012,59(7):2042-2070
Deposits of submarine debris flows can build up substantial topography on the sea floor. The resulting sea floor morphology can strongly influence the pathways of and deposition from subsequent turbidity currents. Map views of sea floor morphology are available for parts of the modern sea floor and from high‐resolution seismic‐reflection data. However, these data sets usually lack lithological information. In contrast, outcrops provide cross‐sectional and lateral stratigraphic details of deep‐water strata with superb lithological control but provide little information on sea floor morphology. Here, a methodology is presented that extracts fundamental lithological information from sediment core and well logs with a novel calibration between core, well‐logs and seismic attributes within a large submarine axial channel belt in the Tertiary Molasse foreland basin, Austria. This channel belt was the course of multiple debris‐flow and turbidity current events, and the fill consists of interbedded layers deposited by both of these processes. Using the core‐well‐seismic calibration, three‐dimensional lithofacies proportion volumes were created. These volumes enable the interpretation of the three‐dimensional distribution of the important lithofacies and thus the investigation of sea floor morphology produced by debris‐flow events and its impact on succeeding turbidite deposition. These results show that the distribution of debris‐flow deposits follows a relatively regular pattern of levées and lobes. When subsequent high‐density turbidity currents encountered this mounded debris‐flow topography, they slowed and deposited a portion of their sandy high‐density loads just upstream of morphological highs. Understanding the depositional patterns of debris flows is key to understanding and predicting the location and character of associated sandstone accumulations. This detailed model of the filling style and the resulting stratigraphic architecture of a debris‐flow dominated deep‐marine depositional system can be used as an analogue for similar modern and ancient systems. 相似文献
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An air‐gun survey, conducted over a total distance of 4356 km in the western end of the Kurile Arc offshore, has revealed the architecture and evolution of the Kushiro submarine canyon and Tokachi submarine channels of the Tokachi‐oki forearc basin. The Kushiro submarine canyon, which runs along the eastern margin of the forearc basin, is characterized by an entrenchment of up to several hundred metres in depth. The Tokachi submarine channels, by contrast, occupy the centre of the basin and consist of small, branching and levéed channels. The Kushiro submarine canyon is not connected to the Tokachi River, which has the largest drainage area in eastern Hokkaido, with a catchment area of approximately 9010 km2 that includes high mountains and a volcanic region. Instead, the Kushiro submarine canyon exhibits an offset connection/quasi‐connection (probably having been connected during a prior sea‐level lowstand) with the Kushiro River (drainage area of 2500 km2) which contains the Kushiro Swamp at its mouth. To understand this unusual arrangement of rivers and submarine channels, acoustic facies analysis was undertaken to establish the seismic stratigraphy of the area. Subsurface strata can be divided into six seismic units of Miocene to Recent age. Analyses of seismic facies and isopach maps indicate that: (i) the palaeo‐Kushiro submarine canyon, which was ancestral to the Kushiro submarine canyon, was an aggradational levéed channel; and (ii) the palaeo‐Tokachi submarine channel was much larger than the present‐day channel and changed its course several times. Both the palaeo‐Kushiro submarine canyon and palaeo‐Tokachi submarine channel were fed predominantly by the ancestral Tokachi River, whereas the present‐day channels are no longer connected or quasi‐connected to the Tokachi River. Entrenchment of the Kushiro submarine canyon began in its distal reaches during the Early Pleistocene and propagated landward over time, which was possibly caused by base‐level fall (i.e. subsidence of the trench floor) or uplift of the forearc basin. Entrenchment of the upper part of the Kushiro submarine canyon began during the Middle Pleistocene, which may have been related to: (i) depositional progradation; (ii) uplift of the coastal area; or (iii) a change in source area from the ancestral Tokachi River to the Kushiro River. 相似文献
20.
The Bosphorus Strait accommodates two‐way flow between the Aegean and Black Seas. The Aegean (Mediterranean) inflow has speeds of 5 to 15 cm sec?1 in the strait and a salinity contrast of ～12‰ to 16‰ with the Black Sea surface waters on the shelf. An anastomosed channel network crosses the shelf and in water deeper than 70 m is characterized by first‐order channels 5 to 10 m deep, local lateral accretion bedding, muddy in‐channel barforms, and a variety of sediment waves both on channel floors and bar crests, crevasse channels entering the overbank area and levée/overbank deposits which are radiocarbon‐dated in cores to be younger than ～7·5 to 8·0 ka. This channel network accommodates the saline density current formed by the Mediterranean inflow. The density contrast between the density underflow and the ambient water mass is ～0·01 g cm?3, similar to the density contrast ascribed to low‐concentration turbidity currents in the deep sea. Channel‐floor deposits are sandy to gravelly with local shell concentrations. Low‐relief bedforms on the channel floor have relatively straight crests, upflow‐dipping cross‐stratification, heights 1 to 1·5 m and wavelengths 85 to 155 m. Bankfull flows are subcritical, so these probably are not antidunes. Bar tops are ornamented locally with mudwaves having heights 1 to 2 m and wavelengths ～20 to 100 m; these are potentially antidunes formed under shallow overbank flows. Towards the shelf edge, the degree of channel bifurcation increases dramatically and bar tops are dissected locally by secondary channels, some of which terminate in hanging valleys. Conical mounds on the shelf (possibly mud volcanoes or sites of fluid seepage) interact with the channel network by promoting accretion of muddy streamlined macroforms in their lee. This channel network may be one of the largest and most accessible natural laboratories on Earth for the study of continuously flowing density currents. Although the driver is salinity contrast, the underflow transports sufficient sediment to form levée wedges and large streamlined barforms, and presumably transports sediment into deep water. 相似文献