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1.
Estimating palaeowind strength from beach deposits   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  
Abstract The geological record of past wind conditions is well expressed in the coarse gravel, cobble and boulder beach deposits of Quaternary palaeolakes in the Great Basin of the western USA and elsewhere. This paper describes a technique, using the particle‐size distribution of beach deposits, to reconstruct palaeowind conditions when the lakes were present. The beach particle technique (BPT) is first developed using coarse beach deposits from the 1986–87 highstand of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, combined with instrumental wind records from the same time period. Next, the BPT is used to test the hypothesis that wind conditions were more severe than at present during the last highstand of Lake Lahontan (≈ 13 ka), which only lasted a decade or two at most. The largest 50 beach clasts were measured at nine beach sites located along the north, west and south sides of Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, all of which formed in 1986–87. At these sites, the largest clast sizes range from 10 to 28 cm (b‐axis), and fetch lengths range from 25 to 55 km. Nearshore wave height was calculated by assuming that the critical threshold velocity required to move the largest clasts represents a minimum estimate of the breaking wave velocity, which is controlled by wave height. Shoaling transformations are undertaken to estimate deep‐water wave heights and, ultimately, wind velocity. Wind estimates for the nine sites, using the BPT, range from 6·5 to 17·4 m s?1, which is in reasonable agreement with the instrumental record from Salt Lake City Airport. The same technique was applied to eight late Pleistocene beaches surrounding the Carson Sink sub‐basin of Lake Lahontan, Nevada. Using the BPT, estimated winds for the eight sites range from 9·7 to 27·1 m s?1. The strongest winds were calculated for a cobble/boulder beach with a fetch of 25 km. Instrumental wind records for the 1992–99 period indicate that wind events of 9–12 m s?1 are common and that the strongest significant wind event (≥ 9 m s?1 for ≥ 3 h) reached an average velocity of 15·5 m s?1. Based on this preliminary comparison, it appears that the late Pleistocene western Great Basin was a windier place than at present, at least for a brief time.  相似文献   

2.
古风力是一项重要的古气候指标,其定量恢复是一个难题。风作用于水体产生的波浪大小间接地反映了风力,能够为古风力的恢复提供思路。发育于破浪带和冲浪回流带的破浪沙坝、沿岸沙坝分别记录了破浪和冲浪过程,作者分别介绍利用古湖泊中发育的破浪沙坝和沿岸沙坝进行古波况和古风力恢复的原理和操作流程。(1)根据破浪沙坝的几何形态,可以将其厚度与破浪水深建立函数关系,而破浪水深又由破浪波高决定,因此破浪沙坝厚度可以恢复破浪波高,据此可以进一步根据波浪统计关系恢复有效波高、根据风浪关系恢复风力。此方法依托以下3个参数: 单期次的破浪沙坝厚度、破浪沙坝的基座坡角、古风程。(2)沿岸沙坝厚度近似记录了冲浪的极限高度,后者受控于有效波高,据此也可以恢复有效波高和风力。此方法依托以下5个参数: 单期次的沿岸沙坝厚度、古(平均)水深、古风程、古风向相对于岸线的入射角、组成沿岸沙坝的沉积物粒度。上述2种方法综合性较强,涉及古风向、古地形坡度、风程或盆地直径、古水深等参数的恢复,需要综合运用古地貌恢复、去压实校正、古岸线识别、古水深恢复等技术,并需要结合波浪理论。古湖泊滨岸带地层中保存有大量的滩坝沉积,利用其恢复古波况和古风况具有一定的应用前景,能够有助于更详细地重建沉积盆地的古地理背景。  相似文献   

3.
Guichen Bay on the south‐east coast of South Australia faces west towards the prevailing westerly winds of the Southern Ocean. The bay is backed by a 4 km wide Holocene beach‐ridge plain with more than 100 beach ridges. The morphology of the Guichen Bay strandplain complex shows changes in the width, length, height and orientation of beach ridges. A combination of geomorphological interpretation, shallow geophysics and existing geochronology is used to interpret the Holocene fill of Guichen Bay. Six sets of beach ridges are identified from the interpretation of orthorectified aerial photographs. The ridge sets are distinguished on the basis of beach‐ridge orientation and continuity. A 2·25 km ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) profile across the beach ridges reveals the sedimentary structures and stratigraphic units. The beach ridges visible in the surface topography are a succession of stabilized foredunes that overlie progradational foreshore and upper shoreface sediments. The beach progrades show multiple truncation surfaces interpreted as storm events. The GPR profile shows that there are many more erosion surfaces in the subsurface than beach ridges on the surface. The width and dip of preserved beach progrades imaged by GPR shows that the shoreface has steepened from around 2·9° to around 7·5°. The changes in beach slope are attributed to increasing wave energy associated with beach progradation into deeper water as Guichen Bay was infilled. At the same time, the thickness of the preserved beach progrades increases slightly as the beach prograded into deeper water. Using the surface area of the ridge sets measured from the orthophotography, and the average thickness of upper shoreface, foreshore and coastal dune sands interpreted from the GPR profile, the volume of Holocene sediments within three of the six sets of beach‐ridge accretion has been calculated. Combining optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages and volume calculations, rates of sediment accumulation for Ridge Sets 3, 4 and 5 have been estimated. Linear rates of beach‐ridge progradation appear to decrease in the mid‐Holocene. However, the rates of sediment accumulation calculated from beach volumes have remained remarkably consistent through the mid‐ to late Holocene. This suggests that sediment supply to the beach has been constant and that the decrease in the rate of progradation is due to increasing accommodation space as the beach progrades into deeper water. Changes in beach‐ridge morphology and orientation reflect environmental factors such as changes in wave climate and wind regime.  相似文献   

4.
Beach ridges in macrotidal environments experience strong multi‐annual to multi‐decennial fluctuations of tidal inundation. The duration of tide flooding directly controls the duration of sediment reworking by waves, and thus the ridge dynamics. Flume modelling was used to investigate the impact of low‐frequency tidal cycles on beach ridge evolution and internal architecture. The experiment was performed using natural bioclastic sediment, constant wave parameters and low‐frequency variations of the mean water level. The morphological response of the beach ridge to water level fluctuations and the preservation of sedimentary structures were monitored by using side‐view and plan‐view photographs. Results were compared with the internal architecture of modern bioclastic beach ridges in a macrotidal chenier plain (Mont St. Michel Bay, France) surveyed with ground‐penetrating radar. The experimentally obtained morphologies and internal structures matched those observed in the field, and the three ridge development stages identified in ground‐penetrating radar profiles (early transgressive, late transgressive and progradational) were modelled successfully. Flume experiments indicate that flat bioclastic shapes play a key role in sediment sorting in the breaker zone, and in sediment layering in the beach and washover fans. Water level controls washover geometry, beach ridge evolution and internal structure. Low water levels allow beach ridge stabilization and sediment accumulation lower on tidal flats. During subsequent water level rise, accumulated sediment becomes available for deposition of new washover units and for bayward extension of the beach ridges. In the field, low‐frequency water level fluctuations are related to the 4·4 year and 18·6 year tidal cycles. Experimental results suggest that these cycles may represent the underlying factor in the evolution of the macrotidal chenier coast at the multi‐decadal to centennial time scale.  相似文献   

5.
This study addresses gaps in understanding the relative roles of sea‐level change, coastal geomorphology and sediment availability in driving beach erosion at the scale of individual beaches. Patterns of historical shoreline change are examined for spatial relationships to geomorphology and for temporal relationships to late‐Holocene and modern sea‐level change. The study area shoreline on the north‐east coast of Oahu, Hawaii, is characterized by a series of kilometre‐long beaches with repeated headland‐embayed morphology fronted by a carbonate fringing reef. The beaches are the seaward edge of a carbonate sand‐rich coastal strand plain, a common morphological setting in tectonically stable tropical island coasts. Multiple lines of geological evidence indicate that the strand plain prograded atop a fringing reef platform during a period of late‐Holocene sea‐level fall. Analysis of historical shoreline changes indicates an overall trend of erosion (shoreline recession) along headland sections of beach and an overall trend of stable to accreting beaches along adjoining embayed sections. Eighty‐eight per cent of headland beaches eroded over the past century at an average rate of ?0·12 ± 0·03 m yr?1. In contrast, 56% of embayed beaches accreted at an average rate of 0·04 ± 0·03 m yr?1. Given over a century of global (and local) sea‐level rise, the data indicate that embayed beaches are showing remarkable resiliency. The pattern of headland beach erosion and stable to accreting embayments suggests a shift from accretion to erosion particular to the headland beaches with the initiation of modern sea‐level rise. These results emphasize the need to account for localized variations in beach erosion related to geomorphology and alongshore sediment transport in attempting to forecast future shoreline change under increasing sea‐level rise.  相似文献   

6.
《Sedimentology》2018,65(3):721-744
Storm surges generated by tropical cyclones have been considered a primary process for building coarse‐sand beach ridges along the north‐eastern Queensland coast, Australia. This interpretation has led to the development of palaeotempestology based on the beach ridges. To better identify the sedimentary processes responsible for these ridges, a high‐resolution chronostratigraphic analysis of a series of ridges was carried out at Cowley Beach, Queensland, a meso‐tidal beach system with a >3 m tide range. Optically stimulated luminescence ages indicate that 10 ridges accreted seaward over the last 2500 to 2700 years. The ridge crests sit +3·5 to 5·1 m above Australian Height Datum (ca mean sea‐level). A ground‐penetrating radar profile shows two distinct radar facies, both of which are dissected by truncation surfaces. Hummocky structures in the upper facies indicate that the nucleus of the beach ridge forms as a berm at +2·5 m Australian Height Datum, equivalent to the fair‐weather swash limit during high tide. The lower facies comprises a sequence of seaward‐dipping reflections. Beach progradation thus occurs via fair‐weather‐wave accretion of sand, with erosion by storm waves resulting in a sporadic sedimentary record. The ridge deposits above the fair‐weather swash limit are primarily composed of coarse and medium sands with pumice gravels and are largely emplaced during surge events. Inundation of the ridges is more likely to occur in relation to a cyclone passing during high tide. The ridges may also include an aeolian component as cyclonic winds can transport beach sand inland, especially during low tide, and some layers above +2·5 m Australian Height Datum are finer than aeolian ripples found on the backshore. Coarse‐sand ridges at Cowley Beach are thus products of fair‐weather swash and cyclone inundation modulated by tides. Knowledge of this composite depositional process can better inform the development of robust palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from the ridges.  相似文献   

7.
Grain size and sorting represent two key parameters when characterizing sediments or modelling beach morphology and sediment transport. Traditionally, an average value for grain size or sorting is often assumed for the entire area, determined from only a few sediment samples, ignoring any spatial (or temporal) variability in sediment characteristics. This contribution uses a data set of physical surface sediment samples from 53 beach locations around the south‐west peninsula of the United Kingdom, in addition to bi‐monthly, high spatial resolution (mean 240 samples) digital grain‐size surveys from a high‐energy, oceanic, sandy beach (Perranporth, North Cornwall). Systematic spatial variations in grain size and sorting were consistently observed in the seaward direction across the intertidal zone of sandy beaches, with grain‐sizes coarsening and sorting improving by up to 51·7% and 64·3%, respectively. This variability was deterministically related to the time‐averaged, antecedent‐adjusted energy dissipated by breaking waves, with the observed maximum grain‐size and sorting values correlating with the location of peak wave energy dissipation (r2 = 0·998, P < 0·01).  相似文献   

8.
Aerial photographs taken in the 1963 and 2001 and bathymetric charts, in conjunction with coastal processes are analyzed to assess changes in rate of shoreline position, seabed level, and seabed grain sizes along the Tabarka–Berkoukech beach at the north-western Tunisian coastline. The littoral cell of this beach, 12-km-long, is bounded by pronounced embayments and rocky headlands separated by sandy stretches. Although not yet very much undeveloped, this littoral is still experienced degradation and modification, especially along its shoreline, with significant coastal erosion at some places. Results obtained from analysis of shoreline position indicate that El Morjene Beach is experienced a landward retreat of more than −62 m, at a maximum rate of −1.64 m/year, whereas the El corniche beach is advanced about 16–144 m, at an average rate of 0.42 m–3.78 m/year. This beach accretion has been formed on the updrift side of the Tabarka port constructed between 1966 and 1970. Comparison of bottom contours deduced from bathymetric charts surveyed in 1881 and 1996 off the coastline between Tabarka Port and El Morjene Beach identifies erosional areas (sediment source) and accretionary zones (sediment sink). Erosion (0.87–4.35 cm/year) occurs between El kebir River Mouth and El Morjene beach, whereas accretion exists in the zone down wind of the port ranges between 0.87 and 5.21 cm/year. Morphological analyses of the shoreline and the seabed of the study nearshore area indicate that shoreline retreat corresponds to areas of seabed scour (sediment source) while shoreline accretion is associated with areas of seabed deposition (sediment sink). Furthermore, simulation of wave propagation using STWAVE model combined with grain size distributions of the seabed shows that fine sands are much dominated in depositional areas with low wave energy, whereas coarser sands in erosive zones with high wave energy. The results obtained suggest that the change of seabed morphology, wave height pattern and grain size sediment have a great influence on the modification of shoreline morphology and dynamics.  相似文献   

9.
通过现场实地踏勘、拍照、开挖探槽、利用卫星图解译等方法,对乌伦古湖环布伦托海区域和吉力湖北部乌伦古河现代三角洲地区的湖泊滨岸沉积环境和沉积体系进行了现代沉积调查。研究表明乌伦古湖滨岸沉积环境可以划分为基岩型湖岸、砾质湖岸、砂质湖岸、泥质湖岸等4种类型,发育山前基岩型湖岸、侵蚀基岩型湖岸、砾质冲积扇-扇三角洲、砾质辫状河三角洲、砾质滩坝、砂质滩坝、砂质三角洲、风成沙丘和泥质沼泽等9种滨岸沉积体系。山前基岩湖岸分布在布伦托海的北部,主要发育小型塌积扇、倒石锥和狭窄的湖滩。侵蚀型基岩湖岸位于布伦托海西岸和东北角地区,发育湖滩宽20~40 m。砾质冲积扇-扇三角洲沉积体系分布在布伦托海西北部25.8 km狭长区域,表现为一系列冲积扇-扇三角洲体系在山前形成裙边状展布的辫状平原,顺流向长5~15 km。砾质辫状河三角洲体系发育在布伦托海西部,砾质滩坝发育在砾质三角洲前缘,沉积物一般为中砾和粗砾,泥质含量低。现代乌伦古河三角洲位于吉力湖北部,沙丘广泛分布在布伦托海东部的三角洲平原。砂质滩坝发育在布伦托海东岸南部地区,滩坝带宽30~100 m,发育大量障碍痕、冰划痕。泥质沼泽占据湖岸总长度29.22 km,沼泽地带植物繁茂,水动力微弱,泥质和有机质含量高。根据卫星照片推测乌伦古湖水位可能发生过3次较大的下降,现代乌伦古河三角洲可能经过了4个发育阶段,但目前缺乏地质年代学证据。构造格局控制了湖泊边界的地形地貌特征,平行构造线走向容易形成规模较大的沉积体系,垂直构造走向形成的沉积体系规模较小。寒旱地区湖泊周缘入湖河流较少,具有季节性和暂时性特点,洪水泥石流、塌积扇等重力沉积体系比较发育。湖泊封冻是寒旱区湖泊区别于温暖地区湖泊的重要特征。在相同气候背景下,源汇地区的高差和河流的流程、流量决定了沉积物的供给总量和沉积体系的特征。湖盆边界形态影响沿岸流的发育,也影响湖泊风动力方向和强度。乌伦古湖滨岸沉积体系的多样性对研究古代湖泊滨岸沉积体系具有重要的启发,开展湖泊滨岸沉积环境和沉积体系调查对完善陆相湖盆沉积体系模式,对发现新的储层类型,对重建湖泊古地理环境具有重要的意义。  相似文献   

10.
Data from a moderate energy, meso-tidal beach on the east side of Delaware Bay, New Jersey, USA, revealed the significance of both beach width as a source for aeolian transport and the effect of tidal rise on source width. Wind speeds averaged over 17·1 min, recorded 6 m above the crest of a 0·5 m high dune, ranged from 11·6 to 12·7 m s?1 during the experiment. The highest observed rate of transport on the beach was 0·0085 kg m?1 s?1, monitored at rising low tide when the average wind speed was 11·6 m s?1 across 0·35 mm diameter surface sediments. The wind direction was oblique to the shoreline, creating a source width of 34 m. The reduction in the width of the beach as a source for aeolian transport during rising tide was approximately arithmetic, whereas the reduction in volume of sediment trapped was exponential. Aeolian transport effectively ceased when source width was less than 8 m. Wind conditions, moisture content of the surface sediments and presence of binding salts did not appear to vary dramatically, and no coarse grained lag deposit formed on the surface of the beach. The decrease in rate of sediment trapped through time in the tidal cycle is attributed to differences in source width. Sediment deposited in the litter behind the active beach by strong winds during the rising tide was eroded during the high water period by the high waves and storm surge generated by these winds, and net losses of sediment were observed despite initial aeolian accretion.  相似文献   

11.
Recent LiDAR surveys have revealed that on postglacially uplifting coasts of Estonia rhythmic coastal landforms (beach ridge sequences and foredune plains) occur to a considerable extent. We studied four of them to reveal age and periodicity in these multiple ridge systems and discussed their genesis in the Subatlantic (semi‐continental) conditions of the Baltic Sea area. Using recent models of Fennoscandian uplift due to glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), we constructed Holocene apparent sea level curves for the study sites at Õngu, Mänspe, Haldi and Keibu; converted distance–height shore profiles into time series (including corrections on shore profile non‐linearity and variations in GIA‐eustasy balance); and analysed the patterns using spectral analysis. It was suggested that due to non‐tidal conditions, relatively low‐energy hydrodynamic forcing and small aeolian contribution, the ridges mark ancient shorelines. They are relatively modest in height (mostly 0.2–1 m), form regular and extensive (up to 150 ridges) patterns, and date back to ~9000 years before present. We studied <5‐ka‐old sections. The mean ridge spacing varied, depending also on coastal slope, between 21 and 39 m. Both simple counting and spectral analysis involved some specific limitations, yet the estimates for typical spacing were alike, at 32 (±5) years. The regular nature of the low‐ridge patterns originated from relative sea level lowering and gradual sediment accretion/erosion. However, the progradation was rather uplift‐ than accretion‐driven and the stepwise process in ridge formation was probably not autocyclic. It was governed or modulated by quasi‐periodic 25–40 year cyclicity in local wave forcing, relative sea level variations and wind conditions. Being most likely connected to the North Atlantic Oscillation, the quasi‐regular, decadal‐scale, similarly phased variations may magnify each other's effect on the westerly exposed coasts of Estonia. Additionally, some other (e.g. event‐driven) mechanisms may also be present.  相似文献   

12.
Clastic, depositional strandplain systems have the potential to record changes in the primary drivers of coastal evolution: climate, sea‐level, and the frequency of major meteorological and oceanographic events. This study seeks to use one such record from a southern Brazilian strandplain to highlight the potentially‐complex nature of coastal sedimentological response to small changes in these drivers. Following a 2 to 4 m highstand at ca 5·8 ka in southern Brazil, falling sea‐level reworked shelf sediment onshore, forcing coastal progradation, smoothing the irregular coastline and forming the 5 km wide Pinheira Strandplain, composed of ca 500 successive beach and dune ridges. Sediment cores, grab samples and >11 km of ground‐penetrating radar profiles reveal that the strandplain sequence is composed of well‐sorted, fine to very‐fine quartz sand. Since the mid‐Holocene highstand, the shoreline prograded at a rate of ca 1 to 2 m yr?1 through the deposition of a 4 to 6 m thick shoreface unit; a 1 to 3 m thick foreshore unit containing ubiquitous ridge and runnel facies; and an uppermost beach and foredune unit. However, the discovery of a linear, 100 m wide barrier ridge with associated washover units, a 3 to 4 m deep lagoon and 250 m wide tidal inlet within the strandplain sequence reveals a period of shoreline transgression at 3·3 to 2·8 ka during the otherwise regressive developmental history of the plain. The protected nature of Pinheira largely buffered it from changes in precipitation patterns, wave energy and fluvial sediment supply during the time of its formation. However, multiple lines of evidence indicate that a change in the rate of relative sea‐level fall, probably due to either steric or ice‐volume effects, may have affected this coastline. Thus, whereas these other potential drivers cannot be fully discounted, this study provides insights into the complexity of decadal‐scale to millennial‐scale coastal response to likely variability in sea‐level change rates.  相似文献   

13.
ABSTRACT Mixed‐sand‐and‐gravel beaches are a distinctive type of coarse‐clastic beach. Ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) and photographic records of previous excavations are used to investigate the stratigraphy and internal sedimentary structure of mixed‐beach deposits at Aldeburgh in Suffolk, south‐east England. The principles of radar stratigraphy are used to describe and interpret migrated radar reflection profiles obtained from the study site. The application of radar stratigraphy allows the delineation of both bounding surfaces (radar surfaces) and the intervening beds or bed sets (radar facies). The deposits of the main backshore berm ridge consist of seaward‐dipping bounding surfaces that are gently onlapped by seaward‐dipping bed sets. Good correspondence is observed between a sequence of beach profiles, which record development of the berm ridge on the backshore, and the berm ridge's internal structure. The beach‐profile data also indicate that backshore berm ridges at Aldeburgh owe their origin to discrete depositional episodes related to storm‐wave activity. Beach‐ridge plain deposits at the study site consist of a complex, progradational sequence of foreshore, berm‐ridge, overtop and overwash deposits. Relict berm‐ridge deposits, separated by seaward‐dipping bounding surfaces, form the main depositional element beneath the beach‐ridge plain. However, the beach ridges themselves are formed predominantly of vertically stacked overtop/overwash units, which lie above the berm‐ridge deposits. Consequently, beach‐ridge development in this progradational, mixed‐beach setting must have occurred when conditions favoured overtopping and overwashing of the upper beachface. Interannual to decadal variations in wave climate, antecedent beach morphology, shoreline progradation rate and sea level are identified as the likely controlling factors in the development of such suitable conditions.  相似文献   

14.
This paper describes a new method for assessing aeolian fetch distances in beach/dune systems. The remote‐sensing technique has advantages over currently used proxy measures of fetch distance, such as those based on tide gauges and beach profiles. The method uses a digital camera, global positioning system surveying, and a geographical information system software package to produce a rectified image of the beach surface. From this, direct measurements of the wet–dry beach boundary can be combined with wind direction measurements to determine fetch distance. The method offers an improvement on current approaches to sediment transport estimates: a 28‐day study on Magilligan Strand, Northern Ireland, showed that the commonly used high water mark approach overestimated fetch distance by 30% compared with the technique reported here.  相似文献   

15.
Although general trends in transgressive to highstand sedimentary evolution of river‐mouth coastlines are well‐known, the details of the turnaround from retrogradational (typically estuarine) to aggradational–progradational (typically coastal/deltaic) stacking patterns are not fully resolved. This paper examines the middle to late Holocene eustatic highstand succession of the Po Delta: its stratigraphic architecture records a complex pattern of delta outbuilding and coastal progradation that followed eustatic stabilization, since around 7·7 cal kyr bp . Sedimentological, palaeoecological (benthic foraminifera, ostracods and molluscs) and compositional criteria were used to characterize depositional conditions and sediment‐dispersal pathways within a radiocarbon‐dated chronological framework. A three‐stage progradation history was reconstructed. First, as soon as eustasy stabilized (7·7 to 7·0 cal kyr bp ), rapid bay‐head delta progradation (ca 5 m year?1), fed mostly by the Po River, took place in a mixed, freshwater and brackish estuarine environment. Second, a dominantly aggradational parasequence set of beach‐barrier deposits in the lower highstand systems tract (7·0 to 2·0 cal kyr bp ) records the development of a shallow, wave‐dominated coastal system fed alongshore, with elongated, modestly crescent beaches (ca 2·5 m year?1). Third, in the last 2000 years, the development of faster accreting and more rapidly prograding (up to ca 15 m year?1) Po delta lobes occurred into 30 m deep waters (upper highstand systems tract). This study documents the close correspondence of sediment character with stratal distribution patterns within the highstand systems tract. Remarkable changes in sediment characteristics, palaeoenvironments and direction of sediment transport occur across a surface named the ‘A–P surface’. This surface demarcates a major shift from dominantly aggradational (lower highstand systems tract) to fully progradational (upper highstand systems tract) parasequence stacking. In the Po system, this surface also reflects evolution from a wave‐dominated to river‐dominated deltaic system. Identifying the A–P surface through detailed palaeoecological and compositional data can help guide interpretation of highstand systems tracts in the rock record, especially where facies assemblages and their characteristic geometries are difficult to discern from physical sedimentary structures alone.  相似文献   

16.
The Early Oligocene (Late Rupelian) Alzey Formation (Mainz Basin, Upper Rhine Graben, Germany) records the development of a rocky coast depositional system during transgression. The formation unconformably overlies Permian bedrock across a composite transgressive ravinement surface. Exposure of the surface shows a succession of subplanar bedrock terraces, separated by near‐vertical risers. Terraces show a broad staircase geometry and display wave‐erosional features (notches, sea stacks, furrows). Detailed sedimentological and palaeoecological investigations reveal prograding beachface and shoreface depositional units that overlie terraces and are adjacent to risers. Terraces are interpreted as wave‐cut platforms, backed by palaeocliffs. The staircase architecture records the episodic landward migration of palaeoshorelines onto palaeotopographic highs during the Early Oligocene. Stacking patterns of gravelly beach and shoreface associated units (facies tracts) indicate successive episodes of terrace cutting, beach development, drowning and shoreline backstepping during an overall relative sea‐level rise. The exceptional preservation of the stair‐cased rocky shore may be attributed to a highly jerky rising relative sea‐level, as the result of the conjugated effects of rift‐controlled tectonic subsidence and eustatic sea‐level oscillations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

17.
A 4·7 km2 field of sediment waves occurs in front of the Slims River delta in Kluane Lake, the largest lake in the Yukon Territory. Slims River heads in the Kaskawulsh Glacier, part of the St Elias Ice Field and discharges up to 400 m3 s?1 of water with suspended sediment concentrations of up to 7 g l?1. The 19 km long sandur of Slims River was created in the past 400 years since Kaskawulsh Glacier advanced and dammed the lake and the sandur has advanced into Kluane Lake at an average rate of 48 m a?1. However, this rate is decreasing as flow is diverted from Slims River because of the retreat of the Kaskawulsh Glacier. The sandur and a road constructed on the delta remove coarse‐grained sediment, so the river delivers dominantly mud to the lake. Inflow during summer generates quasi‐continuous turbidity currents with velocities up to 0·6 m s?1. The front of the delta consists of a plane surface sloping lakeward at 0·0188 (1·08°). A field of sediment waves averaging 130 m in length and 2·3 m in amplitude has developed on this surface. Slopes on the waves vary from ?0·067 (?3·83°, i.e. sloping in the opposite direction to the regional slope) to 0·135 (7·69°). The internal structure of the sediment waves, as documented by seismic profiling, shows that sedimentation on the stoss portion of the wave averages 2·7 times that on the lee portion. Rates of sediment accumulation in the wave field are about 0·3 m a?1, so these lacustrine waves have formed in a much shorter period of time (less than 200 years) and are advancing upslope towards the delta much more quickly (1 to 2 m a?1) than typical marine sediment waves. These waves formed on the flat surface of the lake floor, apparently in the absence of pre‐existing forms, and they are altered and destroyed as the wave field advances and the characteristics of the turbidity currents change.  相似文献   

18.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》1999,18(4-5):593-609
Well-developed coarse-grained palaeo-shoreline deposits are found along the rising margins of the Konya basin, marking the former extent of a now desiccated Late Pleistocene lake. This study evaluates the depositional environments and the sequential evolution of a shoreline system that developed at the northern margin of the Konya palaeolake near Göçü. Several laterally continuous quarry sections provided an excellent opportunity for studying spatial and temporal changes of depositional environments and related lake-level fluctuations. Eight principal sedimentary facies and six major lithostratigaphic units have been identified in these deposits representing progradational and retrogradational episodes of shoreline development. The lowest sequence is an aggradational unit formed by wind-driven currents and waves in a sand-dominant lake bottom above the wave base. It is overlain by a convoluted palaeosol 14C dated to ca 28,300 bp representing a major lowering of lake levels. Following an unconformity, the next sequence is characterised by large-scale gravelly clinoforms that progressively offlap/downlap onto the underlying sequence, and correspond to progradation of a foreshore resulting from storm-originated oscillating and unidirectional currents, avalanching processes and minor subaqueous debris flows. It is overlain by an areally extensive lensoid body of structureless clays comprising a thin organic layer, abundant rootlets and freshwater mollusc shells, formed from suspension fallout in a quiet, very shallow freshwater lagoonal environment. This phase, representing a more minor lake regression, has been 14C dated to ca. 21,960–20,730 bp. The final sequences include large-scale sand waves and bars, which developed by storm-originated wave surges and strong shoreline currents, and prograding delta foresets. These sequences indicate a renewed lake transgression to higher water levels, before a final regression after 17,500 bp. Lack of tectonic deformation and the overall sedimentary characteristics of the beach system at Göçü clearly suggest that the sedimentary evolution of the system is closely related to lake-level fluctuations resulting from long- and short-term hydro-climatic changes. Successive stages of lake-level rises and large amounts of supply of coarse grained material imply a positive hydrological balance and relatively high rates of sediment discharge from the adjacent hillslopes.  相似文献   

19.
Luminescence ages from a variety of coastal features on the North Carolina Coastal Plain provide age control for shoreline formation and relative sea-level position during the late Pleistocene. A series of paleoshoreline ridges, dating to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5a and MIS 3 have been defined. The Kitty Hawk beach ridges, on the modern Outer Banks, yield ages of 3 to 2 ka. Oxygen-isotope data are used to place these deposits in the context of global climate and sea-level change. The occurrence of MIS 5a and MIS 3 shorelines suggests that glacio-isostatic adjustment (GIA) of the study area is large (ca. 22 to 26 m), as suggested and modeled by other workers, and/or MIS 3 sea level was briefly higher than suggested by some coral reef studies. Correcting the shoreline elevations for GIA brings their elevation in line with other sea-level indicators. The age of the Kitty Hawk beach ridges places the Holocene shoreline well west of its present location at ca. 3 to 2 ka. The age of shoreline progradation is consistent with the ages of other beach ridge complexes in the southeast USA, suggesting some regionally contemporaneous forcing mechanism.  相似文献   

20.
Over the past 100 years, the Isles Dernieres, a low lying barrier island chain along the coast of central Louisiana, Usa , has undergone more than 1 km of northward beach face retreat with the loss of 70% of its surface area. The erosion results from a long term relative sea level rise coupled with day to day wind and wave action that ultimately favours erosion over deposition. At a site in the central Isles Dernieres, 8 days of wind and beach profile measurements during the passage of one winter cold front documented aeolian erosion and deposition patterns under both onshore and offshore winds. For offshore winds, the theoretical erosion rate, based on wind shear velocity, closely matched the measured erosion rate; for onshore winds, the theoretical rate matched the measured rate only after being corrected by a factor that accounted for beach face morphology. In late February 1989, a strong cold front moved into coastal Louisiana. That cold front stalled over the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in 4 days of strong northerly winds at a study site on the Isles Dernieres. During those 4 days, the wind moved sand from the backshore to the upper beach face. When the cold front finally moved out of the area, the wind shifted to the south and decreased in strength. The onshore wind then restored some of the upper beach face sand to the backshore while increased wave activity moved the rest into the nearshore. The theoretical estimate of 1·28 m3 m?1 for the rate of sand transport by the northerly wind compares well with the measured backshore erosion rate of 1·26 m3 m?1, which was determined by comparing beach profiles from the start and end of the period of northerly winds. The theoretical estimate of 0·04 m3 m?1 for the rate of sand transport by the southerly wind, however, is notably less than the measured rate of 0·45 m3 m?1. The large discrepancy between the two rates can be explained by a difference in the shear velocity of the wind between the beach face, where the erosion occurred, and the backshore, where the wind stress was measured. Using an empirical relationship for the wind shear drag coefficient as a function of coastal environment, the theoretical estimate for the rate of sand transport by the southerly wind becomes 0·44 m3 m?1  相似文献   

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