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1.
The 3·2 km long Rose Creek fan delta of west‐central Nevada is prograding from an active rift margin into the 32 m deep Walker Lake. A case study of the forms, processes and facies of this fan delta reveals that the proximal and medial zones mainly are of sub‐aerial origin, and the distal zone is of lacustrine origin. Pebbly to bouldery rock‐avalanche mounds >100 m thick (Facies A) and muddy to bouldery debris flow levées 0·5 to 2·0 m thick (Facies B) dominate the proximal zone, whereas mostly matrix‐supported cobbly pebbly debris flow lobes 0·1 to 1·0 m thick (Facies C) typify the medial zone. Surficial pebble lags and gully fills (Facies D) are widespread in both zones but, in exposures, comprise only partings or lenticles between debris flow units. The distal fan delta mainly consists of lakeshore to lake‐bottom tracts formed by extensive wave reworking of debris flow facies. Nearshore deposits include erosional cobbly boulder lag beaches (Facies E), pebbly constructional beaches attached at headcuts or on barrier spits (Facies F), pebbly upper shoreface (Facies G) and sandy lower shoreface (Facies H) tracts positioned lakeward of the beach, and pebbly landward‐dipping foresets (Facies I) and backshore‐pond sand and mud (Facies J) present landward of the spits. Erosional lag beaches fringe the windward north side of the fan‐delta front, attached constructional beaches characterize the central zone, and southward‐elongating barrier spits typify the leeward south side, extending from the zone of greatest projection of the fan delta into the lake. Shoreline facies asymmetry results from largely unidirectional longshore drift caused by high fetch to the north and minimal fetch to the south, combined with the arcuate shape of the fan‐delta front. The spits overlie a platform deposited below common wave base consisting of south‐east‐trending cones of pebbly Gilbert foresets (Facies K) and sandy toesets (Facies L). Typically slumped silt and mud (Facies M) fringe both this platform and lower shoreface sand in deeper water. This case demonstrates facies types and patterns that are inconsistent with the widely promoted fan‐delta facies model having a front consisting of an apron of radially directed Gilbert foresets deposited where sub‐aerial flows enter the lake. The Rose Creek fan‐delta front instead features a sharp contact between sub‐aerial and lakeshore facies formed where waves erode, sort and redistribute heterogeneous debris flow sediment into the various shallow‐to‐deep lake facies. Gilbert foresets are present only in the lee of the fan delta where sediment moving by longshore drift reaches the brink of the spit front. This facies scenario results from the infrequency of fan‐building events versus nearly constant wind‐induced waves, a scenario that, in contrast to the popular Gilbert model, probably is the norm for fan deltas. The level of Walker Lake, and thus the position of wave reworking on the Rose Creek fan delta, fluctuated over a range of ～157 m during the last 18 kyr, producing complex interfingering between sub‐aerial and lakeshore facies across a 1700 m wide radial belt, typifying a wave‐modified, freestand lacustrine fan delta.  相似文献   

2.
Daihai Lake, a modern lacustrine rift basin, located in Inner Mongolia, North China, serves as an important modern analog for understanding deltaic depositional processes in an active rift setting. Two of the deltas (Yuanzigou delta and Bulianghe delta) on the margins of Daihai Lake were surveyed to compare and contrast stacking patterns using aerial photographs, field trenching and sediment sampling. Shallow cores and trench data collected from the margins of Daihai Lake indicate that a variety of depositional processes have been active since Daihai Lake formed. Two 3-D sedimentation models which employ chronostratigraphic correlation technique were generated. The chronostratigraphic sedimentation models predict and represent the architectures and sand-body continuity of sediments. Stratigraphical coincidence of the broad sheeted drifts and channel erosion suggests a coupling between downslope and alongslope processes. Distributary mouth bars are prevalent in the front of deltas on steeper slopes due to the dominance of down-slope flows. On the contrary, the along-slope currents favor the development of distal bar deposits with sheeted sandbodies on gentle depositional slopes. This study provides an insight into the architecture of complex sedimentary facies associated with highlighting key differences between downslope flows and alongslope currents. The distribution of sand within these deltas is of particular interests, with applications in understanding the architecture of hydrocarbon reservoirs formed in lacustrine rift basin.  相似文献   

3.
《Sedimentary Geology》1999,123(3-4):199-218
Gravelly shoreline deposits of the latest Pleistocene highstand of Lake Lahontan occur in pristine depositional morphology, and are exposed in gravel pits along Churchill Butte in west-central Nevada. Four environments differentiated at this site are alluvial fan/colluvium, lakeshore barrier spit, lake lower-shoreface spit platform, and lake bottom. Lakeshore deposits abut, along erosional wave headcuts, either unsorted muddy to bouldery colluvium fringing Churchill Butte bedrock, or matrix-supported, cobbly and pebbly debris-flow deposits of the Silver Springs fan. The lakeshore barrier spit is dominated by granule pebble gravel concentrated by wave erosion of the colluvial and alluvial-fan facies. The lakeward side of the barrier consists of beachface deposits of well-sorted granules or pebbles in broad, planar beds 1–10 cm thick and sloping 10–15°. They interfinger downslope with thicker (10–25 cm) and less steep (5–10°) lakeward-dipping beds of fine to medium pebble gravel of the lake upper shoreface. Interstratified with the latter are 10–40-cm-thick sets of high-angle cross-beds that dip southward, alongshore. Higher-angle (15–20°), landward-dipping foresets of similar texture but poorer sorting comprise the proximal backshore on the landward side of the barrier. They were deposited during storm surges that overtopped the barrier berm. Gastropod-rich sand and mud, also deposited by storm-induced washover, are found landward of the gravel foresets in a 15-m-wide backshore pond. Algal stromatolites, ostracodes, and diatoms accumulated in this pond between storm events. The lake lower shoreface, extending from water depths of 2 to 8 m, consists of a southward-prograding spit platform built by longshore drift. The key component of this platform is large-scale sandy pebble gravel in 16° southward-dipping `Gilbert' foresets that grade at a water depth of about 6–7 m to 4°-dipping sandy toesets. A shift from bioturbated lower-shoreface sand and silt, to flat and laminated lake-bottom silt and mud, occurs between water depths of 10–40 m and over a shore-normal distance of ≥250 m. This lake-bottom mud facies, unlike the others, is areally expansive.  相似文献   

4.
This raised delta structure is an ice-contact deltaic complex with a volume of c. 4.4.109 m3, deposited c . 9500 yr BP in a shallow wide 'fjord' during the retreat of the Scandinavian ice cap. The delta plain lies at an altitude of 200–223 m. It aggraded c . 20 m above the contemporaneous sea level during a regional marine regression. The braidplain palaeochannel characteristics indicate a peak meltwater discharge of 7–9 103 m3/s. Calculations based on a glacial ablation model indicate a mid-summer discharge of c . 5.5 103 m3/s. However, the fluvial topset of the delta has an erosive base whose altitude decreases upstream and indicates stream incision by more the 6 m below the contemporaneous sea level. The deep scour is ascribed to episodic floods over the relatively short delta plain, which exceeded direct ablation-associated discharges. The depositional time-span of the delta is assessed to have been 70 years, calculated from coastal gradient and shoreline displacement curves. The average sedimentation rate of the delta is thereby inferred to have been extremely high, c . 6. 107 m3/yr. The sedimentation is thought to reflect 'extreme' ice-margin conditions, where the sediment and water discharge was maximized by full-scale ablation, with simultaneous subglacial, englacial and supraglacial sediment and water supply. These conditions might further coincide with an abundant rainfall in the catchment area or the drainage of dammed waters, initiating episodic floods which eroded deep beneath sea level. As a whole, the study illustrates the hydrological conditions of proglacial sedimentation at the front of the rapidly retreating last Scandinavian ice cap.  相似文献   

5.
This paper presents a detailed analysis of the high‐resolution facies architecture of the Middle Pleistocene Porta subaqueous ice‐contact fan and delta complex, deposited on the northern margin of glacial Lake Weser (North‐west Germany). A total of 10 sand and gravel pits and more than 100 wells were examined to document the complex facies architecture. The field study was supplemented with a ground‐penetrating radar survey and a shear‐wave seismic survey. All collected sedimentological and geophysical data were integrated into a high‐resolution three‐dimensional geological model for reconstructing the spatial distribution of facies associations. The Porta subaqueous fan and delta complex consist of three fan bodies deposited on a flat lake‐bottom surface at the margin of a retreating ice lobe. The northernmost fan complex is up to 55 m thick, 6·2 km wide and 6·5 km long. The incipient fan deposition is characterized by high‐energy flows of a plane‐wall jet. Very coarse‐grained, highly scoured jet‐efflux deposits with an elongate plan shape indicate a high Froude number, probably >5. These jet‐efflux sediments are deposited in front of a large ～3·2 km long, up to 1·2 km wide, and up to 25 m deep flute‐like scour, indicating the most proximal erosion and bypass area of the jet that widens and deepens with distance downstream to the region of maximum turbulence (approximately five times the conduit diameter). Evidence for subsequent flow splitting is given by the presence of two marginal gravel fan lobes, deposited in front of 1·3 to 2·5 km long flute‐like scours, that are 0·8 to 1 km wide and 7 to 20 m deep. In response to continued aggradation, small jets developed at the periphery of these bar‐like deposits and filled in the low areas adjacent to the original superelevated regions, locally raising the depositional surface and characterized by large‐scale trough cross‐stratified sand and pebbly sand. The incision of an up to 1·2 km wide and up to 35 m deep channel into the evolving fan is attributed to a catastrophic drainage event, probably related to a lake outburst and lake‐level fall in the range of 40 to 60 m. At the mouth of this channel, highly scoured jet‐efflux deposits formed under hydraulic‐jump conditions during flow expansion. Subsequently, Gilbert‐type deltas formed on the truncated fan margin, recording a second lake‐level drop in the range of 30 to 40 m. These catastrophic lake‐level falls were probably caused by rapid ice‐lobe retreat controlled by the convex‐up bottom topography of the ice valley.  相似文献   

6.
Submarine turbidity currents are one of the most important processes for moving sediment across our planet; they are hazardous to offshore infrastructure, deposit petroleum reservoirs worldwide, and may record tsunamigenic landslides. However, there are few studies that have monitored these submarine flows in action, and even fewer studies that have combined direct monitoring with longer‐term records from core and seismic data of deposits. This article provides one of the most complete studies yet of a turbidity current system. The aim here is to understand what controls changes in flow frequency and character along the turbidite system. The study area is a 12 km long delta‐fed fjord (Howe Sound) in British Columbia, Canada. Over 100 often powerful (up to 2 to 3 m sec?1) events occur each year in the highly‐active proximal channels, which extend for 1 to 2 km from the delta lip. About half of these events reach the lobes at the channel mouths. However, flow frequency decreases rapidly once these initially sand‐rich flows become unconfined, and only one to five flows run out across the mid‐slope each year. Many of these sand‐rich, channelized, delta‐sourced flows therefore dissipated over a few hundred metres, once unconfined, rather than eroding and igniting. Upflow migrating bedforms indicate that supercritical flow dominated in the proximal channels and lobes, and also across the unconfined mid‐slope. These supercritical flows deposited thick sand beds in proximal channels and lobes, but thinner and finer beds on the unconfined mid‐slope. The distal flat basin records far larger volume and more hazardous events that have a recurrence interval of ca 100 years. This study shows how sand‐rich delta‐fed flows dissipate rapidly once they become unconfined, that supercritical flows dominate in both confined and unconfined settings, and how a second type of more hazardous, and much less frequent event is linked to a different scale of margin failure.  相似文献   

7.
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   

8.
The Middle Miocene Monowai Formation represents a gravel delta that prograded south into a flysch basin complex developed along the Moonlight Tectonic Zone, southern New Zealand. The delta-slope environment was characterized by a conglomeratic sequence up to 500 m thick. Most of the gravel was moved downslope by mass-transport processes. A complete spectrum exists from synsedimentary slide sheets (up to 10 m thick and 100 m long) that retain pre-sliding sedimentary structures, to more mature mass-transported sediment types in which all original structures have been destroyed. The most distal deposits include ungraded homogeneous pebble conglomerates up to 3 m thick. Some of the more mature redeposited conglomerate-sand-mud units (X–Y–Z sequences) are between 2 and 10 m thick; they comprise a basal X-division of bouldery conglomerate, a middle Y-division of pebbly mudstone or pebbly sandstone, and an upper Z-division of hydroplastically folded mudstone. Though X–Y–Z sequences may have been deposited from very proximal turbidity or fluxoturbidity currents, inertia-flow emplacement seems more likely. An inertia-flow mode of emplacement also seems most probable for the other redeposited sediment types described from the Monowai Formation.  相似文献   

9.
Digital echo sounding, SeaBeam swath bathymetry data and sediment cores were collected on the continental slope (1500–3700 m water depth) off southeastern Tasmania in order to study sedimentary processes in the vicinity of an ocean disposal site. The new bathymetry data show that the shallower limits of the disposal site are positioned on the seaward edge of a gently dipping (3°) mid‐slope shoulder, between 1200 and 2100 m water depth. The slope below the disposal site is relatively steep (6.5°) and is cut by submarine canyons which lead into the adjacent East Tasman Saddle. The SeaBeam bathymetry data show a small submarine canyon traversing the slope in 2400 m water depth directly downslope from the disposal site, with local slopes of up to 22°. The canyon feeds into a perched basin at 2450 m, which could be acting as a local sediment trap. Short (<90 cm) gravity cores indicate that indurated erosional surfaces characterise the slope environment. The cores contain Upper Cretaceous (upper Campanian) sandstones and siltstones, which in places crop out on the sea floor where they are locally draped by a thin (0–30 cm), modern layer of hemipelagic calcareous ooze. Five cores collected from the vicinity of the disposal site had lead and zinc concentrations in the surface 1 cm of 10.3 ± 5.0 and 39.5 ± 19.6 mg/kg, respectively, significantly greater than the background values (2.9 ± 1.4 for lead and 21.2 ± 5.4 for zinc) which characterise the underlying unit that is composed of the same hemipelagic calcareous ooze. Lead and zinc are constituents of the dumped material, jarosite, which, after mixing with slope sediments, can be used as sediment tracers. One core contains a fining‐upwards bed which is also elevated in lead and zinc. This is interpreted as evidence for dispersal of the jarosite from the disposal site downslope to depths >3000 m via turbidity flows sometime during the past 24 years. Current meter data collected from 30 m above the sea floor over one year at the disposal site show that bottom currents attain speeds of up to 0.46 m/s. The current events are attributed to eddies shed by the East Australia Current. The measured bottom currents are capable of transporting fine‐grained hemipelagic muds and could provide a trigger mechanism for turbidity flows.  相似文献   

10.
Sediments deposited in a lake at the front of a glacier in the Svartisen area, Norway, have been studied between 1957 and 1974. Until 1959, they were almost completely covered by an outwash plain (sandur), but subsequent erosion has exposed glacial lake sediments more than 70 m deep within a rock basin about 2·5 km long and 1 km wide. The basin was filled by sand and silt carried from beneath the glacier Austerdalsisen by two rivers, each of which deposited a delta in the lake. As the deltas advanced, laminated pro-delta silt was covered by crossbeds of fine sand and silt, and by near-horizontal sheets of fine sediments laid down between the delta-fronts and the distal end of the rock basin. Although both slumping and loading caused minor disturbance of sediments at the lake floor, deformation was of local significance only. Movement of a mass of sediment across the floor, probably triggered by a ‘seismic event’ related to movement of the glacier or to calving at the floating tongue, created a recumbent fold in laminated sand and silt, but transfer of sediment over the lake bed was rare once it had been deposited. Varves are not common at Austerdalsisen, indicating that water temperature, lake chemistry or variations of water and sediment discharge from the glacier were unfavourable for their formation; rhythmic deposition from density flows of sediments carried from beneath the glacier rarely occurred within the Austerdalsisen basin.  相似文献   

11.
This article reports on an Early Saalian proglacial lake formed between the Scandinavian Ice Sheet and the front of the Sudeten Mountains, Poland. Sediments investigated at Mys?ów point to a transition from glacifluvial to glaciolacustrine environments. The bulk of the sediments was deposited in deep‐water Gilbert‐type deltas (A–E complexes). A delta plain (topset) gradually passes into a subaerial plateau and then a clastic shoreline and the subaquatic slope of a prograding delta (foreset). The glaciolacustrine lithofacies represent a number of lake‐basin environments, from marginal subaqueous slopes to distal parts of a subaqueous fan. Glaciolacustrine and glaciodeltaic deposits locally reach ?50–70 m in thickness. Analyses of A–E complexes indicate that the lake existed for more than 130 years and that its origin and evolution were closely connected with the ice front. This case study records lake sedimentation at an ice‐sheet margin with cohesionless gravity flows, turbidity currents, debris‐avalanching and, to a much lesser degree, parapelagic suspension fall‐out and ice‐raft dumping. In the initial stage, the lake extended more than 10 km to the south, and the deposition was relatively slow. In the second stage, recession of the ice sheet caused rapid growth of a delta. The third and ultimate stage coincided with the final glacial recession, with rapid deposition occurring only on the lake bottom. The model of the glaciolacustrine environment presented here may also be applicable to many other proglacial lakes in mountain areas.  相似文献   

12.
Sea‐floor topography of deep‐water folds is widely considered to have a major impact on turbidity currents and their depositional systems, but understanding the flow response to such features was limited mainly to conceptual notions inspired by small‐scale laboratory experiments. High‐resolution three‐dimensional numerical experiments can compensate for the lack of natural‐scale flow observations. The present study combines numerical modelling of thrusts with fault‐propagation folds by Trishear3D software with computational fluid dynamics simulations of a natural‐scale unconfined turbidity current by MassFlow‐3D? software. The study reveals the hydraulic and depositional responses of a turbidity current (ca 50 m thick) to typical topographic features that it might encounter in an orthogonal incidence on a sea‐floor deep‐water fold and thrust belt. The supercritical current (ca 10 m sec?1) decelerated and thickened due to the hydraulic jump on the fold backlimb counter‐slope, where a reverse overflow formed through current self‐reflection and a reverse underflow was issued by backward squeezing of a dense near‐bed sediment load. The reverse flows were re‐feeding sediment to the parental current, reducing its waning rate and extending its runout. The low‐efficiency current, carrying sand and silt, outran a downslope distance of >17 km with only modest deposition (<0·2 m) beyond the fold. Most of the flow volume diverted sideways along the backlimb to surround the fold and spread further downslope, with some overspill across the fold and another hydraulic jump at the forelimb toe. In the case of a segmented fold, a large part of the flow went downslope through the segment boundary. Preferential deposition (0·2 to 1·8 m) occurred on the fold backlimb and directly upslope, and on the forelimb slope in the case of a smaller fold. The spatial patterns of sand entrapment revealed by the study may serve as guidelines for assessing the influence of substrate folds on turbiditic sedimentation in a basin.  相似文献   

13.
《Sedimentary Geology》2007,193(1-4):167-192
The coarse-grained, ice-contact, Porta Subaqueous Fan/Delta Complex was deposited in glacial Lake Rinteln at the margin of the Saalian ice sheet that advanced south of the Weser Chains, NW Germany. The ice-proximal depositional system was up to 15 km long and 10 km wide. The present study deals with ice-proximal subaqueous fan deposits, which are interpreted as products of a subcritical plane-wall outflow jet that periodically passed into a supercritical jet with hydraulic jump. The proximal facies assemblage consists of the coarse, clast-supported gravelly deposits of a hyperconcentrated (high-density) effluent and of related cohesionless debris flows attributed to the conduit or immediate proximal jet outflow zone of flow establishment. The intermediate facies assemblage, attributed to the outflow jet proximal zone of flow transition, is dominated by normally graded and cross-stratified gravels with scour structures at their bases; these gravels were deposited by a high-density effluent capable of forming mouthbar-like features. These deposits pass downcurrent into an assemblage of planar parallel-stratified and planar and trough cross-stratified sands and pebbly sands (partially interpreted as antidunes), with abundant scour structures and intercalated layers of fine sand/silt and silty mud, attributed to the jet distal zone of flow transition. The distal facies assemblage consists of trough cross-stratified sands and pebbly sands, and is attributed to the outflow jet proximal zone of established flow. The sedimentary succession as a whole has wedge-shape geometry, with a gentle fan-shaped inclination of the bedding from the southeast to the southwest. Repeated vertical alternations of supercritical and subcritical deposits and muddy interlayers can be attributed to temporary fluctuations in the meltwater outflow, whereas the overall upward fining of the succession indicates a net decline of meltwater discharges.  相似文献   

14.
Abstract A study of the seafloor of the Gulf of Cadiz west of the Strait of Gibraltar, using an integrated geophysical and sedimentological data set, gives new insights into sediment deposition from downslope thermohaline bottom currents. In this area, the Mediterranean Outflow (MO) begins to mix with North Atlantic waters and separates into alongslope geostrophic and downslope ageostrophic components. Changes in bedform morphology across the study area indicate a decrease in the peak velocity of the MO from >1 m s?1 to <0·5 m s?1. The associated sediment waves form a continuum from sand waves to muddy sand waves to mud waves. A series of downslope‐oriented channels, formed by the MO, are found where the MO starts to descend the continental slope at a water depth of ≈700 m. These channels are up to 40 km long, have gradients of <0·5°, a fairly constant width of ≈2 km and a depth of ≈75 m. Sand waves move down the channels that have mud wave‐covered levees similar to those seen in turbidite channel–levee systems, although the channel size and levee thickness do not decrease downslope as in typical turbidite channel systems. The channels terminate abruptly where the MO lifts off the seafloor. Gravity flow channels with lobes on the basin floor exist downslope from several of the bottom current channels. Each gravity flow system has a narrow, slightly sinuous channel, up to 20 m deep, feeding a depositional lobe up to 7 km long. Cores from the lobes recovered up to 8·5 m of massive, well‐sorted, fine sand, with occasional mud clasts. This work provides an insight into the complex facies patterns associated with strong bottom currents and highlights key differences between bottom current and gravity flow channel–levee systems. The distribution of sand within these systems is of particular interest, with applications in understanding the architecture of hydrocarbon reservoirs formed in continental slope settings.  相似文献   

15.
High‐resolution swath bathymetry data collected in fjord‐lakes Pentecôte, Walker and Pasteur (eastern Québec, Canada) allowed imaging in great detail the deltas of four rivers in order to understand the factors controlling the formation and downslope evolution of bedforms present on their slopes. The morphometry and morphology of 199 bedforms reflect the behaviour of sediment density flows. The shape of the bedforms, mostly crescentic, and the relationships between their morphological properties indicate that they were formed by supercritical density flows and that they are cyclic steps. The crescentic shape suggests an upslope migration while the aspect ratios and increasing wavelengths with distance from the shore (and decreasing slopes) are compatible with a cyclic step origin. At the rollover point, the acceleration of the density flows on steep slopes produces tightly spaced hydraulic jumps and favours short wavelength and symmetrical bedforms. Further downslope, decreasing slopes and increasing specific discharge increase the wavelength and asymmetry of the bedforms. The wavelength and asymmetry are increased because density flows require longer distances to become supercritical again on lower slopes after each successive hydraulic jump. Bedform morphometry and morphology are used to reconstruct density flow behaviour downslope. Froude numbers are high near the rollover point and gradually decrease downslope as the slope becomes gentler. Conversely, the specific discharge and flow depth are low near the rollover point and gradually increase downslope as the flow either erodes sediments or becomes more dilute due to sediment deposition and water entrainment. The supercritical density flows are believed to be triggered mainly by hyperpycnal flows but some evidence of delta‐front slope failures is also observed. The differences in delta morphology and bedform development between the four deltas are linked to basin morphology and watershed hydrology, but also mainly to the fjord heritage of the lakes that allowed the focusing of sediment at the delta front.  相似文献   

16.
High-resolution seismic boomer profiles, with a vertical resolution of less than 1 m, together with piston cores and previous side-scan sonar data, are used to describe late Quaternary sedimentation on the Var deep-sea fan. Chronological control is provided by foram biostratigraphy and radiocarbon dating in cores, and is extended over the fan by seismic correlation. Regional erosional events correspond to the oxygen isotopic stage 2 and 6 glacial maxima. Cores and seismic data define a widespread surface sand layer that is correlated with prodelta failure in 1979 and subsequent submarine cable breaks. Numerical modelling constrains the character of this 1979 turbidity current. It originated from a relatively small slide on the upper prodelta that put sufficient material in suspension to form an accelerating turbidity current which eroded sand from the Var Canyon. The turbidity current was only 30 m thick on the Upper Valley, but experienced significant flow expansion in the Middle Valley to thicknesses of more than 120 m, where it spilled over the eastern Var Sedimentary Ridge at a velocity of about 2·5 m s?1. Other Holocene turbidity currents (with a recurrence interval of 1000 years) were somewhat muddier and thicker, but also deposited sand on the levees of the Middle Valley, and are inferred to have had a similar slide-related origin. Late Pleistocene turbidity currents deposited thick mud beds on the Var Sedimentary Ridge. The presence of sediment waves and the mean cross-flow slope inferred from levee asymmetry indicates that some of these flows were many hundreds of metres thick and flowed at velocities of about 0·35 m s?1. This contrast with Holocene turbidites suggests that a slide origin is unlikely. Estimated times for deposition of thick mud beds on the levees are many days to weeks. The Late Pleistocene flows may therefore result from hyperpycnal flow of glacial outwash in the Var River. The variation in the Late Pleistocene to Holocene turbidite sedimentation is controlled more by variations in sediment supply than by sea-level change.  相似文献   

17.
Sediments deposited in two small ice-contact lakes with low rates of sediment input have been studied in subaerial exposures. Sediment characteristics are a function of the water source (glacial meltwater versus non-meltwater), proximity to the glacier margin and lake shore, amount of supraglacial debris, and lake duration. Calving Lake expanded (and later partially drained) as a calving ice margin retreated. Nearshore deltas contain 1 × 105 m3 stratified sand and gravel deposited at rates up to 1 m/yr during a 9-yr interval. Deltaic sediment contains types A and B ripple-drift cross-lamination, draped lamination, and scour surfaces caused by variations in water-flow velocity and the amount of sediment settling from suspension. Most water inflow came from non-subglacial meltwater sources and was sediment-poor, so overflow and interflow sedimentation processes dominated the offshore environment. Offshore sediment generally contains massive silt or silt interbedded with fine-grained sand deposited at rates of 1.3-1.5 cm/yr. Iceberg gravity craters observed on the lake plain were formed when icebergs impacted the lake floor during calving events. In Bruce Hills Lake, proximity to glacier ice and the presence of supraglacial sediment formed coarsening-upward successions when debris fell directly from an ice ledge onto silty lacustrine sediment.  相似文献   

18.
ABSTRACT The Wagwater Trough is a fault-bounded basin which cuts across east-central Jamaica. The basin formed during the late Palaeocene or early Eocene and the earliest sediments deposited in the trough were the Wagwater and Richmond formations of the Wagwater Group. These formations are composed of up to 7000 m of conglomerates, sandstones, and shales. Six facies have been recognized in the Wagwater Group: Facies I-unfossiliferous massive conglomerates; Facies II—channelized, non-marine conglomerates, sandstones, and shales; Facies III-interbedded, fossiliferous conglomerates and sandstones; Facies IV—fossiliferous muddy conglomerates; Facies V—channelized, marine conglomerates, sandstones, and shales; and Facies VI—thin-bedded sheet sandstones and shales. The Wagwater and Richmond formations are interpreted as fan delta-submarine fan deposits. Facies associations suggest that humid-region fan deltas prograded into the basin from the adjacent highlands and discharged very coarse sediments on to a steep submarine slope. At the coast waves reworked the braided-fluvial deposits of the subaerial fan delta into coarse sand and gravel beaches. Sediments deposited on the delta-front slope were frequently remobilized and moved downslope as slumps, debris flows, and turbidity currents. At the slope-basin break submarine fans were deposited. The submarine fans are characterized by coarse inner and mid-fan deposits which grade laterally into thin bedded turbidites of the outer fan and basin floor.  相似文献   

19.
ABSTRACT Pebbly sediments of the shallow marine Abrioja fan-delta show pockets (bowl-shaped structures, partly filled with pebbles) and pillars (elongate structures, filled with sand and pebbles). These structures are most abundant in pebbly sediments deposited on a steep slope ( ca. 25°-10°) and are absent in conglomerates deposited on a slope of ca . 6° and less, although they are present in the pelitic top of these beds.
The pocket and pillar structures are interpreted as fluid escape structures originating from local liquefaction and fluidization, processes which are favoured by rapid deposition, rapid sediment accumulation, the presence of less permeable layers and an immature sediment texture.
These conditions are met in conglomeratic fan-deltas, which have steep slopes with immature sediments. It is concluded that the presence of fluid escape structures in conglomeratic sediments may indicate a steep depositional slope.  相似文献   

20.
Submarine sedimentation on a developing Holocene fan delta   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  
The submarine morphology, sediments, and three-dimensional geometry of a developing fan delta are described using data from acoustic surveys, bottom sampling, and observations from a manned submersible. The fan system is being built in a British Columbian fjord (water depth 410 m) supplied with coarse-grained sediments from a fjord-side river. Construction of the subaqueous fan began about 10–12,000 yr BP and is ongoing. The system is analogous to part of one fault-uplift sedimentation cycle in ancient fan deltas. Initially, when offshore relief was at a maximum, acoustically chaotic sediment wedges were emplaced over fjord-bottom glaciomarine deposits. Subsequent aggradation/progradation resulted in moderately dipping sequences interrupted by local chaotic units. The present fan surface (average slope 13°) is divided into six zones arranged concentrically from the fan apex, on the basis of form, sediment and process interpretations. Continued subaqueous fan growth results from settling of river-derived sediments from suspension and downslope sediment dispersal by episodic gravity flows, apparently fed by underflows from the river.  相似文献   

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