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1.
Mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sediment gravity flow deposits of Late Pennsylvanian to Early Permian age are exposed in the Death Valley - Owens Valley region of east-central California. The Mexican Spring unit constitutes the upper part of the Keeler Canyon Formation and is characterized by turbidites, debris flow deposits and megabreccias, all of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic composition. The mixed composition of the Keeler Canyon Formation provides an opportunity to link facies architecture to controls on depositional system development. Depositional relationships indicate that the deposits represent a non-channellized base of slope carbonate apron system with inner, outer and basinal facies associations. These gravity flow deposits are characterized by repeated stacked, small scale (<15 m) coarsening and thickening upward cycles with superimposed medium scale (>100 m) coarsening and thickening upward cycles. Contemporaneous outer shelf and upper slope deposits of the Tippipah Limestone are exposed at Syncline Ridge on the Nevada Test Site. The deposits consist of carbonate buildups directly overlain by cross bedded, quartz-rich sandstone and conglomerate which filled channels that traversed across the previously existing carbonate shelf. Detritus was transported to the west, down the upper slope by gully systems that fed the temporally persistent base of slope apron of the upper part of the Keeler Canyon Formation. This style of deposition differs from point-sourced siliciclastic submarine fan depositional systems. However, the Keeler Canyon system has lithofacies similar to some sandy siliciclastic turbidite systems, such as the delta-fed submarine ramp facies model, which is a line-sourced, shelf-fed system that is not supply limited. The mixed clastic apron systems of the Keeler Canyon Formation differ from classical carbonate aprons in that the former is characterized by an abundance of sedimentary cycles. Controls on the development of these cycles and of the facies distribution may have resulted from changes in type and rate of sediment supply, relative sea level changes and/or tectonic events. Interpretation of the data is focused on relative changes in sea level as the most significant control on development of the depositional system. Relative sea level changes serve two important functions: (1) they provide a mechanism for bringing coarse siliciclastic and bioclastic grains together on the outer shelf, and (2) shelf margin collapse may be initiated during relative lowstands allowing for transport of the sediment to the deep basin and development of deep basinal cycles. Therefore, an abundance of mixed clastic gravity flow deposits such as these in the rock record may be an indicator of periods of high frequency changes in relative sea level, which is a characteristic of Late Palaeozoic sea level history.  相似文献   

2.
In the Jebilet Palaeozoic inlier, 20 km north of Marrakech, there are extensive exposures of Carboniferous flysch deposits. Although there are some structural complications due to over-riding nappes with associated chaotic breccias, one clearly unbroken succession from basin-plain turbidites to shallow-marine deposits can be examined. The succession is more than 2 km thick and is dated as Upper Viscan in the uppermost part.The lowermost unit of B- and C-based turbidites shows no sequential organisation and is interpreted as a typical basin-plain association. Above this are similar turbidites arranged in thickening-upward sequences that may represent outer-fan or base-of-slope deposits. Succeeding these are thin-bedded turbidites with interbedded units formed by mass movement that represent a slope deposit. The overlying lenticular-bedded facies resembles previously described overflow deposits of submarine-fan channels, but is here interpreted as comprising storm-generated deposits on the outer shelf/upper slope. These deposits are genetically linked with the overlying parallel-laminated sandstones with irregular-rippled tops for which a storm-surge origin is suggested. The upper part of the succession shows cross-bedded, oolitic, bioclastic, sandy limestones with bipolar current structures sandwiched between low-energy siltstones containing thin-graded silt/sand beds. These are collectively interpreted as shelf deposits that formed under different depths due to transgressive-regressive events.The sequence differs from many described in the literature in that there is an absence of most submarine-fan facies. Locally a NNE-SSW basin strike is proposed with a basin margin to the ESE, but there is at present little control on regional palaeogeography.  相似文献   

3.
Anatomy of a modern open-ocean carbonate slope: northern Little Bahama Bank   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
The open-ocean carbonate slope north of Little Bahama Bank consists of a relatively steep (4°) upper slope between water depths of 200 and 900 m, and a more gentle (1–2°) lower slope between depths of 900 and 1300+ m. The upper slope is dissected by numerous, small, submarine canyons (50–150 m in relief) that act as a line source for the downslope transport of coarse-grained carbonate debris. The lower slope is devoid of any well-defined canyons but does contain numerous, small (1–5 m) hummocks of uncertain origin and numerous, larger (5–40 m), patchily distributed, ahermatypic coral mounds. Sediments along the upper slope have prograded seaward during the Cenozoic as a slope-front-fill seismic facies of fine-grained peri-platform ooze. Surface sediments show lateral gradation of both grain size and carbonate mineralogy, with the fine fraction derived largely from the adjacent shallow-water platform. Near-surface sedimentary facies along the upper slope display a gradual downslope decrease in the degree of submarine cementation from well-lithified hardgrounds to patchily cemented nodular ooze to unlithified peri-platform ooze, controlled by lateral variations in diagenetic potential and/or winnowing by bottom currents. Submarine cementation stabilizes the upper part of the slope, allowing upbuilding of the platform margin, and controls the distribution of submarine slides, as well as the headward extent of submarine canyons. Where unlithified, sediments are heavily bioturbated and are locally undergoing dolomitization. Upper slope sediments are also ‘conditioned’eustatically, resulting in vertical, cyclic sequences of diagenetically unstable (aragonite and magnesian calcite-rich) and stable (calcite-rich) carbonates that may explain the well-bedded nature of ancient peri-platform ooze sequences. Lower slope sediments have prograded seaward during the Cenozoic as a chaotic-fill seismic facies of coarse-grained carbonate turbidites and debris flow deposits with subordinate amounts of peri-platform ooze. Coarse clasts are ‘internally’derived from fine-grained upper slope sediments via incipient cementation, submarine sliding and the generation of sediment gravity flows. Gravity flows bypass the upper slope via a multitude of canyons and are deposited along the lower slope as a wedge-shaped apron of debris, parallel to the adjacent shelf edge, consisting of a complex spatial arrangement of localized turbidites and debris flow deposits. A proximal apron facies of thick, mud-supported debris flow deposits plus thick, coarse-grained, Ta turbidites, grades seaward into a distal apron facies of thinner, grain-supported debris flow deposits and thinner, finer grained Ta-b turbidites with increasing proportions of peri-platform ooze. Both the geomorphology and sedimentary facies relationships of the carbonate apron north of Little Bahama Bank differ significantly from the classic submarine fan model. As such, a carbonate apron model offers an alternative to the fan model for palaeoenvironmental analysis of ancient, open-ocean carbonate slope sequences.  相似文献   

4.
Shelf‐edge deltas are a key depositional environment for accreting sediment onto shelf‐margin clinoforms. The Moruga Formation, part of the palaeo‐Orinoco shelf‐margin sedimentary prism of south‐east Trinidad, provides new insight into the incremental growth of a Pliocene, storm wave‐dominated shelf margin. Relatively little is known about the mechanisms of sand bypass from the shelf‐break area of margins, and in particular from storm wave‐dominated margins which are generally characterized by drifting of sand along strike until meeting a canyon or channel. The studied St. Hilaire Siltstone and Trinity Hill Sandstone succession is 260 m thick and demonstrates a continuous transition from gullied (with turbidites) uppermost slope upward to storm wave‐dominated delta front on the outermost shelf. The basal upper‐slope deposits are dominantly mass‐transport deposited blocks, as well as associated turbidites and debrites with common soft‐sediment‐deformed strata. The overlying uppermost slope succession exhibits a spectacular set of gullies, which are separated by abundant slump‐scar unconformities (tops of rotational slides), then filled with debris‐flow conglomerates and sandy turbidite beds with interbedded mudstones. The top of the study succession, on the outer‐shelf area, contains repeated upward‐coarsening, sandstone‐rich parasequences (2 to 15 m thick) with abundant hummocky and swaley cross‐stratification, clear evidence of storm‐swell and storm wave‐dominated conditions. The observations suggest reconstruction of the unstable shelf margin as follows: (i) the aggradational storm wave‐dominated, shelf‐edge delta front became unstable and collapsed down the slope; (ii) the excavated scars of the shelf margin became gullied, but gradually healed (aggraded) by repeated infilling by debris flows and turbidites, and then new gullying and further infilling; and (iii) a renewed storm wave‐dominated delta‐front prograded out across the healed outer shelf, re‐establishing the newly stabilized shelf margin. The Moruga Formation study, along with only a few others in the literature, confirms the sediment bypass ability of storm wave‐dominated reaches of shelf edges, despite river‐dominated deltas being, by far, the most efficient shelf‐edge regime for sediment bypass at the shelf break.  相似文献   

5.
The Otekura Formation (Early Jurassic, Pseudaucella zone) at Sandy Bay comprises part of a 10+ km thick, regressive, forearc shelf and slope sequence, the Hokonui facies belt of the Rangitata Geosyncline. The Otekura Formation is dominantly fine grained, being mostly mudstone, silty mudstone and siltstone. The sediments are volcanogenic throughout. The upper 150 m of the formation contains two 20 m thick, channelized bodies of medium-thick bedded sandy flysch, each associated with thin bedded muddy flysch interpreted as overbank turbidites. Directional indicators within the channel sequence indicate emplacement from the south-southwest. In contrast, rare turbidites that occur below the channel sequence, within the background mudstone sediment, were emplaced from the east, i.e. at right angles to the channelized flows. The immediately overlying Omaru Formation contains more abundant macrofossils, intraclastic conglomerates, and appreciable amounts of traction-emplaced cross-bedded sand. Bioturbated calcareous siltstones with an in situ molluscan fauna follow (Boatlanding Formation), and are of shelf origin. The Omaru Formation is therefore interpreted as a shelf-slope break deposit, and the Otekura Formation as an upper slope facies. Reconnaissance studies indicate that the Otekura Formation is underlain by several kilometres of dominantly fine grained, deep water slope sediments, containing occasional sand and conglomerate filled channels similar to those here described in detail from the Otekura Formation. Such channels are inferred to form when a mass-transported sand, derived from failure higher on the slope, ploughs erosively into the sea floor. After their incision, the channels served for a short time as conduits for downslope transport of sediment, the redeposited deposits of which are found filling each channel. Both channel fills at Sandy Bay are capped by thin-bedded turbidites inferred to have overspilled from similar channels nearby on the slope.  相似文献   

6.
华南海相深水重力沉积相模式   总被引:10,自引:0,他引:10  
通过对华南地区诸多海相盆地深水沉积物的详细解剖,识别出一个由重力搬运沉积形成的完整岩类系列,包括孤立岩块、滑动滑塌和重力流沉积三个基本端元大类。这些重力流沉积以不同的型式组合构成了三大类七亚类各具特征的深水沉积体系。Ⅰ陆源碎屑体系包括(1)海底扇和(2)轴向搬运沉积亚体系。Ⅱ碳酸盐体系包括(1)碳酸盐缓坡,(2)沟槽型碳酸盐斜坡和(3)碳酸盐陡坡。Ⅲ混合物源体系包括(1)碳酸盐斜坡体系与陆屑海底扇组合;(2)碳酸盐斜坡体系与火山碎屑重力流轴向搬运沉积体系。  相似文献   

7.
Shelf‐edge deltas record the potential magnitude of sediment delivery from shallow water shelf into deep water slope and basin floor and, if un‐incised, represent the main increment of shelf‐margin growth into the basin, for that period. The three‐dimensional complexity of shelf‐edge delta systems and along‐strike variability at the shelf edge in particular, remains understudied. The Permian–Triassic Kookfontein Formation of the Tanqua Karoo Basin, South Africa, offers extensive three‐dimensional exposure (>100 km2) and therefore a unique opportunity to evaluate shelf‐edge strata from an outcrop perspective. Analysis of stratal geometry and facies distribution from 52 measured and correlated stratigraphic sections show the following: (i) In outer‐shelf areas, parasequences are characterized by undeformed, river‐dominated, storm‐wave influenced delta mouth‐bar sandstones interbedded with packages showing evidence of syn‐depositional deformation. The amount and intensity of soft‐sediment deformation increases significantly towards the shelf edge where slump units and debris flows sourced from collapsed mouth‐bar packages transport material down slope. (ii) On the upper slope, mouth‐bar and delta‐front sandstones pinch out within 2 km of the shelf break and most slump and debris flow units pinch out within 4 km of the shelf break. (iii) Further down the slope, parasequences consist of finer‐grained turbidites, characterized by interbedded, thin tabular siltstones and sandstones. The results highlight that river‐dominated, shelf‐edge deltas transport large volumes of sand to the upper slope, even when major shelf‐edge incisions are absent. In this case, transport to the upper slope through slumping, debris flows and un‐channellized low density turbidites is distributed evenly along strike.  相似文献   

8.
Abstract Although shelf‐edge deltas are well‐imaged seismic features of Holocene and Pleistocene shelf margins, documented outcrop analogues of these important sand‐prone reservoirs are rare. The facies and stratigraphic architecture of an outcropping shelf‐edge delta system in the Eocene Battfjellet Formation, Spitsbergen, is presented here, as well as the implications of this delta system for the generation of sand‐prone, shelf‐margin clinoforms. The shelf‐edge deltas of the Battfjellet Formation on Litledalsfjellet and Høgsnyta produced a 3–5 × 15 km, shelf edge‐attached, slope apron (70 m of sandstones proximally, tapering to zero on the lower slope). The slope apron consists of distributary channel and mouth‐bar deposits in its shelf‐edge reaches, passing downslope to slope channels/chutes that fed turbiditic lobes and spillover sheets. In the transgressive phase of the slope apron, estuaries developed at the shelf edge, and these also produced minor lobes on the slope. The short‐headed mountainous rivers that drained the adjacent orogenic belt and fed the narrow shelf, and the shelf‐edge position of the discharging deltas, made an appropriate setting for the generation of hyperpycnal turbidity currents on the slope of the shelf margin. The abundance of organic matter and of coal fragments in the slope turbidites is consistent with this notion. Evidence that many of the slope turbidites were generated by sustained turbidity currents that waxed then waned includes the presence of scour surfaces and thick intervals of plane‐parallel laminae within turbidite beds in the slope channels, and thick spillover lobes with repetitive alternations of massive and flat‐laminated intervals. The examined shelf‐edge to slope system, now preserved mainly below the shelf break and dominated by sediment gravity‐flow deposits, has a threefold stratigraphic architecture: a lower, progradational part, in which the clinoforms have a slight downward‐directed trajectory; a thin aggradational zone; and an upper part in which clinoforms backstep up onto the shelf edge. A greatly increased density of erosional channels and chutes marks the regressive‐to‐transgressive turnaround within the slope apron, and this zone becomes an angular unconformity up near the shelf edge. This unconformity, with both subaerial and subaqueous components, is interpreted as a sequence boundary and developed by vigorous sand delivery and bypass across the shelf edge during the time interval of falling relative sea level. The studied shelf‐margin clinoforms accreted mostly during falling stage (sea level below the shelf edge), but the outer shelf later became estuarine as sea level became re‐established above the shelf edge.  相似文献   

9.
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11.
The Gulf of Cadiz is swept by the strong saline Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW). On the Algarve Margin (South Portugal), this current has constructed fine-grained contourite drifts. This margin is dissected by the Portimao Canyon and three short channels that only incise the upper slope, and are absent on a terrace located at mid-slope depths along the Algarve Margin. High-resolution seismic profiles and sediment cores highlight the original architecture of the sedimentary deposits on this terrace. Coarse-grained lenticular chaotic bodies formed during major relative sea-level lowstands are intercalated within the drift. The lobate shape and sandy nature of the lenticular chaotic bodies and their location at the mouths of the three short channels suggest they are gravity-generated deposits that are perched on the middle continental slope.In the Gulf of Cadiz, the interaction between contour current and gravity processes is strongly controlled by climatic variations and relative sea-level changes during the late Quaternary. During cold periods when sea-level was low, erosion intensified on the continental shelf and the deepest part of MOW was active. Sediment was transported downslope through the channels and deposited on sedimentary lobes perched on the mid-slope terrace. During warm periods when relative sea-level was high, the supply of sediment from the shelf was shut off and the shallowest part of MOW was more active. Contourite drifts fill the channels and bury the sandy lobes.  相似文献   

12.
The subalpine to montane zones within the Critical Zone (CZ) of the Colorado Front Range, USA outside Pleistocene glaciation limits are characterized by the abundance of stratified and multilayered slope deposits exhibiting depths >1 m. Initial luminescence dating for the upper sediment layers in different profiles give last glacial ages ranging between 40 and 12 ka. A periglacial origin by solifluction is hypothesized for these slope deposits, which is corroborated by geomorphic and sedimentologic parameters. The stratified slope sediments have a strong influence on the physical and chemical properties as well as on soil forming processes in the CZ. Examples are provided for the sediment derived contribution of some elements and common clay minerals together and the great importance of slope sediments as barriers and pathways for the interflow that runs in sediment layers are shown.  相似文献   

13.
ABSTRACT The Sumeini Group formed along the passive continental margin slope that bounded the northeastern edge of the Arabian carbonate platform. With the initial development of this passive continental margin in Oman during Early to Middle Triassic time (possibly Permian), small carbonate submarine fans of the C Member of the Maqam Formation developed along a distally steepened slope. The fan deposits occur as several discrete lenticular sequences of genetically related beds of coarsegrained redeposited carbonate (calciclastic) sediment within a thick interval of basinal lime mudstone and shale. Repeated pulses of calciclastic sediment were derived from ooid shoals on an adjacent carbonate platform and contain coarser intraclasts eroded from the surrounding slope deposits. Sediment gravity flows, primarily turbidites with lesser debris flows and grain flows, transported the coarse sediments to the relatively deep submarine fans. Channel erosion was a major source of intraformational calcirudite. Two small submarine fan systems were each recurrently supplied with calciclastic sediment derived from point sources, submarine canyons. The northern fan system retrogrades and dies out upsection. The southern fan system was apparently longer-lived; calciclastic sediments in it are more prevalent and occur throughout the section. The proximal portions of this fan system are dominated by channelized beds of calcirudite which represent inner- to mid-fan channel complexes. The distal portions include mostly lenticular, unchannelized beds of calcarenite, apparently mid- to outer-fan lobes. Carbonate submarine fans appear to be rare in the geological record in comparison with more laterally continuous slope aprons of coarse redeposited sediment. The carbonate submarine fans of the C Member apparently formed by the funnelling of coarse calciclastic sediment into small submarine canyons which may have developed due to rift and/or transform tectonics. The alternation of discrete sequences of calciclastic sediment with thick intervals of ‘background’ sediment resulted from either sea-level fluctuations or pulses of tectonic activity.  相似文献   

14.
利用多个地震数据体的地震反射特征,分析了孟加拉湾若开盆地深水沉积体系的不同沉积结构单元类型(峡谷、水道及水道复合体、天然堤—漫溢沉积、朵体以及块体搬运沉积)的典型地震响应特征、及其发育的位置,构建了研究区陆架—陆坡—盆底的沉积结构单元演化模式。研究表明,一个深水沉积体系垂向上自下而上的组合样式为:底部块体搬运沉积及厚层大规模朵体沉积,上覆水道复合体沉积,之后为水道—天然堤复合体沉积、以及一些小规模朵体沉积,顶部为薄层深海泥岩沉积。横向上自陆架向深海盆地的发育模式表现为:陆架/上陆坡峡谷—上陆坡侵蚀型水道—下陆坡侵蚀沉积型水道—沉积型水道—盆地朵体。  相似文献   

15.
We document upper slope sedimentary process and strata on the passive margin of the north-western South China Sea (SCS) using multibeam bathymetry and high-resolution seismic data. The upper slope can be divided into two segments based on geomorphology, strata, and sediment supply. (1) The east segment is characterised by deep incised canyons and gullies, and slope failure. Submarine canyons with both U- and V-shaped morphology (13–28 km long × 2–4 km wide) are oriented NNE–SSW or NNW–SSE and are approximately perpendicular to the slope. Erosion is dominant, with escarpments, slumps, and several mass transport deposits (MTDs). Shelf-margin clinoforms show strongly upward vertical aggradation with time and are strongly aggradational in style. Since 5.5 Ma, the shelf break line migrated southwards and then retreated to its present position. The segment is classified as erosion-dominated due to insufficient sediment supply. (2) The west segment has a smooth surface, gentle gradient, and a strongly progradational style, with MTDs triggered by high sedimentation rates. Shelf-margin clinoforms display a combination of progradational and aggradational stacking patterns. The shelf break line migrated southwards with time. The segment is classified as deposition-dominated, resulting from plentiful sediment supply. Depositional models have been constructed for each segment: a constant shelf break model with insufficient sediment supply in the east, and a migration shelf break model with plenty sediment supply in the west. This case study contributes to the understanding of the upper slope sedimentary process and stratigraphic style under different sediment supply conditions.  相似文献   

16.
Contourite origin for shelf and upper slope sand sheet, offshore Antarctica   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
A widespread (3200 km2), thick (10 cm to > 100 cm) sand deposit exists on the continental shelf and upper slope offshore of the Pennell Coast, Antarctica. The sand body occurs at water depths between 200 and 1200 m. The mean grain size of the sand varies from 3·3 phi to 1·2 phi, and the composition is dominantly volcanic. The only source for this volcanic material is Cape Adare, a volcanic headland. Sands are transported up to 70 km from Cape Adare by a westward‐flowing circumpolar boundary current that impinges on the upper slope and shelf. Radiocarbon dates from the sand and from the glacial unit beneath it indicate that the deposit formed within the past 9000 years. The occurrence of this sand sheet demonstrates the ability of contour currents to assemble extensive sand bodies on the shelf and upper slope and the relatively rapid rate at which these deposits may form.  相似文献   

17.
Thick turbidites accumulated along the northern margin of the Iapetus Ocean in Britain from mid-Ordovician to late Silurian times. Recent plate tectonic reconstructions hold that, during subduction, packets of these sediments, together with the underlying pelagic facies and thin portions of the uppermost ocean crust, were stripped from the descending plate and accreted to the inner trench wall on the Laurentian (North American) continental margin. The resulting accretionary prism is represented today by the Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the Southern Uplands of Scotland and the Longford-Down massif of Ireland. In these areas major reverse faults separate tracts of steeply dipping greywackes and mudstones with minor amounts of cherts and basalts. These tracts are up to several kilometres wide; their constituent beds face predominantly to the northwest, away from the site of the ancient ocean, while becoming progressively younger in each major fault slice towards the Iapetus suture in the southeast. From the stratigraphic sequences in these fault slices the sedimentary history of a portion of the Iapetus Ocean, and the British sector of its northern margin, can be reconstructed. In the Southern Uplands the earliest turbidites (mid- and late-Ordovician) are preserved in the northernmost fault slices. Regional facies trends, and vertical facies analysis, suggest that they accumulated in a trench dominated by a series of relatively small lower trench slope-derived fans. Pelagic sediments of the same age are found in the fault slices to the south, suggesting that the Ordovician turbidites were confined to the trench. During the lower and middle Llandovery, volcaniclastic trench turbidites were separated from quartz-rich ocean-floor turbidites (represented in the southern fault slices) by an elongate rise, on which pelagic deposits accumulated. This is interpreted as the outer trench high. In late Llandovery times the rise was overwhelmed, and thick laterally derived quartzose turbidites blanketed both the trench and the ocean floor. Sedimentation was strongly influenced by the evolution of the accretionary prism. By Llandovery times a trench slope break had emerged, supplying sediment both south to the trench and north to an upper slope basin in the Midland Valley of Scotland. In this basin early Silurian turbidites were followed by shallow-water and terrestrial sediments. Most of the sediment was derived from the emergent trench slope break: the volcanic arc and the Grampian orogenic belt to the north provided little or no detritus. Throughout the Ordovician and Silurian, sediment in the trench and on the ocean floor was derived from the volcanic arc, from the lower trench slope/trench slope break, from a degrading plutonic/metamorphic terrain (the Grampian Orogen), and locally by a minor amount of submarine sliding from carbonate-capped volcanic seamounts. Progressive elevation of the trench slope break in Silurian (and perhaps late Ordovician) times indicates that sediment from the arc-orogen hinterland must have bypassed the upper slope in the unexposed section of the margin to the northeast of the Southern Uplands, and travelled into the area axially along the trench floor.  相似文献   

18.
The Late Proterozoic Conception Group, exposed on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada, is a 4 km thick turbidite succession containing a conformable 300 m thick sequence of diamictites (the Gaskiers Formation) near the base. Massive and crudely-stratified diamictites form beds up to 25 m thick which have a tabular geometry with slightly erosive basal contacts and are interbedded with mudstones and fine-grained, thin-bedded turbidites. These diamictites are interpreted as submarine debris flow deposits. Disrupted diamictites form strongly deformed units that contain large, complexly folded rafts of mudstone and turbidite facies. These diamictite units are interpreted as submarine slumps. Diamictites contain glacially-striated and faceted clasts; clasts and matrix are predominantly of volcanic provenance. One outcrop shows interbedded volcanic agglomerate and diamictite, and volcanic bombs can also be identified. The interbedding of diamictites with turbidites and the stratigraphic context provided by the thick sequences of turbidites below (Mall Bay Formation) and above (Drook Formation) indicate a deep marine slope setting of diamictite deposition. Diamictite facies record remobilization and downslope transfer of large volumes of unstable volcanic and glacial debris initially deposited in a shallower water marginal marine zone. The regional tectonic framework suggests the Conception Group accumulated in a deep, southward-opening ensialic rift basin with active but waning volcanic centres to the north. The Gaskiers Formation may be representative of other Late Precambrian glacially-influenced diamictite sequences that were deposited around the North Atlantic region and in Europe. These deep marine diamictite sequences characterized by debris flows, turbidites, and slump deposits, can be contrasted with more extensive shallow marine shelf diamictite sequences found in association with dolomites and tidally influenced shallow water facies in other basinal settings.  相似文献   

19.
Shingled Quaternary debris flow lenses on the north-east Newfoundland Slope   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
Debris flow deposits are the principal component of Quaternary continental slope sediments between the north-east Newfoundland Shelf and central Orphan Basin. In seismic profiles, these deposits occur as shingled, elongate, acoustically transparent lenses with their long axes orientated downslope. Deposits of individual flows form positive mounds on the sea floor; subsequent flows were diverted by the pre-existing topography into bathymetric lows between older debris flow deposits. These deposits show a large variation in the area of sea floor covered by individual flows (about 60–1000 km2), average thickness of deposits (9–37 m) and volume of sediment displaced (1–27 km3). The ratio of average thickness to a measure of deposit diameter, termed the aspect ratio, has a threefold variation from 0·0006 to 0·0021. Very low depositional slopes and low aspect ratios suggest relatively low viscosities, probably due to inmixing of water during downslope transport. Stratified sediments form three distinct horizons and are locally interbedded with the debris flow deposits. These are mainly hemipelagic deposits. The slope and rise to the west of the Orphan Basin are constructional in character. The apparent absence of upper slope erosional features and the abundance of debris flow deposits on the slope suggest that the supply of sediment to the continental slope occurred predominantly during times of maximum extent of Quaternary glacial ice. The ice sheet grounding line during several glacial maxima must have been situated at or near the present shelf break, supplying vast amounts of sediment directly to the upper slope. Oversteepening and subsequent slope failures fed material into deeper water.  相似文献   

20.
南海西部表层沉积物碳酸盐分布特征及其溶解作用   总被引:5,自引:0,他引:5  
李学杰  陈芳  刘坚  黄雪华 《地球化学》2004,33(3):254-260
碳酸盐是海洋沉积物的重要组成部分,在南海表层沉积物中含量最高可超过 70%,因此深入研究现代碳酸盐的分布特征具有十分重要的意义.对南海西部底质的大量取样分析表明,该区 CaCO3含量在上陆坡最高,其中在北部和中南部含量较高,中部和东南部含量较低,其分布特征主要受陆源物质供给量的控制,与陆架的宽度和陆坡的坡度密切相关.CaCO3最富集区出现在水深 400~600 m的上陆坡区,其中水深 500~600 m内的平均含量最高,达 44.37%,水深超过 1 300 m时含量开始明显下降,表明溶解作用增强.对 CaCO3含量与水深关系进行多项式拟合,结果表明,本区没有出现碳酸盐溶解作用突然增强的溶跃面;但在水深 3 500 m附近,拟合曲线出现转折点, CaCO3含量由随水深迅速下降变为相对稳定,因此该水深应为碳酸盐临界补偿深度.  相似文献   

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