首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 15 毫秒
1.
Fluvio‐deltaic stratigraphy develops under continuous morphodynamic interactions of allogenic and autogenic processes, but the role and relative contribution of these processes to the stratigraphic record are poorly understood. We analysed synthetic fluvio‐deltaic deposits of several accommodation‐to‐supply cycles (sequences) with the aim to relate stratigraphic variability to autogenic and allogenic controls. The synthetic stratigraphy was produced in a series of long time‐scale (105 years) numerical experiments with an aggregated process‐based model using a typical passive‐margin topography with constant rates of liquid and solid river discharge subjected to sinusoidal sea‐level fluctuation. Post‐processing of synthetic stratigraphy allowed us to quantify stratigraphic variability by means of local and regional net sediment accumulation over equally spaced time intervals (1–10 kyr). The regional signal was subjected to different methods of time‐series analysis. In addition, major avulsion sites (>5 km from the coastline) were extracted from the synthetic stratigraphy to confirm the interpretations of our analyses. Regional stratigraphic variability as defined in this study is modulated by a long‐term allogenic signal, which reflects the rate of sea‐level fluctuation, and it preserves two autogenic frequency bands: the intermediate and high‐frequency components. The intermediate autogenic component corresponds to major avulsions with a median inter‐avulsion period of ca. 3 kyr. This component peaks during time intervals in which aggradation occurs on the delta plain, because super‐elevation of channel belts is a prerequisite for large‐scale avulsions. Major avulsions occur occasionally during early stages of relative sea‐level fall, but they are fully absent once the coast line reaches the shelf edge and incision takes place. These results are consistent with a number of field studies of falling‐stage deposition in fluvial systems. The high‐frequency autogenic component (decadal to centennial time scales) represents mouthbar‐induced bifurcations occurring at the terminal parts of the system, and to a lesser extent, partial or small‐scale avulsions (<5 km from the coastline). Bifurcation intensity correlates strongly with the rate of progradation, and thus reaches its maximum during forced regression. However, its contribution to overall stratigraphic variability is much less than that of the large‐scale avulsions, which affect the entire area downstream of avulsion nodes. The results of this study provide guidelines for predicting fluvio‐deltaic stratigraphy in the context of co‐existing autogenic and allogenic processes and underscore the fact that the relative importance and the type of autogenic processes occurring in fluvio‐deltaic systems are governed by allogenic forcing.  相似文献   

2.
We analyzed the latest Early Cretaceous to Miocene sections (~110–7 Ma) in 11 New Jersey and Delaware onshore coreholes (Ocean Drilling Program Legs 150X and 174AX). Fifteen to seventeen Late Cretaceous and 39–40 Cenozoic sequence boundaries were identified on the basis of physical and temporal breaks. Within‐sequence changes follow predictable patterns with thin transgressive and thick regressive highstand systems tracts. The few lowstands encountered provide critical constraints on the range of sea‐level fall. We estimated paleowater depths by integrating lithofacies and biofacies analyses and determined ages using integrated biostratigraphy and strontium isotopic stratigraphy. These datasets were backstripped to provide a sea‐level estimate for the past ~100 Myr. Large river systems affected New Jersey during the Cretaceous and latest Oligocene–Miocene. Facies evolved through eight depositional phases controlled by changes in accommodation, long‐term sea level, and sediment supply: (1) the Barremian–earliest Cenomanian consisted of anastomosing riverine environments associated with warm climates, high sediment supply, and high accommodation; (2) the Cenomanian–early Turonian was dominated by marine sediments with minor deltaic influence associated with long‐term (107 year) sea‐level rise; (3) the late Turonian through Coniacian was dominated by alluvial and delta plain systems associated with long‐term sea‐level fall; (4) the Santonian–Campanian consisted of marine deposition under the influence of a wave‐dominated delta associated with a long‐term sea‐level rise and increased sediment supply; (5) Maastrichtian–Eocene deposition consisted primarily of starved siliciclastic, carbonate ramp shelf environments associated with very high long‐term sea level and low sediment supply; (6) the late Eocene–Oligocene was a starved siliciclastic shelf associated with moderately high sea‐level and low sediment supply; (7) late early–middle Miocene consisted of a prograding shelf under a strong wave‐dominated deltaic influence associated with major increase in sediment supply and accommodation due to local sediment loading; and (8) over the past 10 Myr, low accommodation and eroded coastal systems were associated with low long‐term sea level and low rates of sediment supply due to bypassing.  相似文献   

3.
The adequate documentation and interpretation of regional‐scale stratigraphic surfaces is paramount to establish correlations between continental and shallow marine strata. However, this is often challenged by the amalgamated nature of low‐accommodation settings and control of backwater hydraulics on fluvio‐deltaic stratigraphy. Exhumed examples of full‐transect depositional profiles across river‐to‐delta systems are key to improve our understanding about interacting controlling factors and resultant stratigraphy. This study utilizes the ~400 km transect of the Cenomanian Mesa Rica Sandstone (Dakota Group, USA), which allows mapping of down‐dip changes in facies, thickness distribution, fluvial architecture and spatial extent of stratigraphic surfaces. The two sandstone units of the Mesa Rica Sandstone represent contemporaneous fluvio‐deltaic deposition in the Tucumcari sub‐basin (Western Interior Basin) during two regressive phases. Multivalley deposits pass down‐dip into single‐story channel sandstones and eventually into contemporaneous distributary channels and delta‐front strata. Down‐dip changes reflect accommodation decrease towards the paleoshoreline at the Tucumcari basin rim, and subsequent expansion into the basin. Additionally, multi‐storey channel deposits bound by erosional composite scours incise into underlying deltaic deposits. These represent incised‐valley fill deposits, based on their regional occurrence, estimated channel tops below the surrounding topographic surface and coeval downstepping delta‐front geometries. This opposes criteria offered to differentiate incised valleys from flood‐induced backwater scours. As the incised valleys evidence relative sea‐level fall and flood‐induced backwater scours do not, the interpretation of incised valleys impacts sequence stratigraphic interpretations. The erosional composite surface below fluvial strata in the continental realm represents a sequence boundary/regional composite scour (RCS). The RCS’ diachronous nature demonstrates that its down‐dip equivalent disperses into several surfaces in the marine part of the depositional system, which challenges the idea of a single, correlatable surface. Formation of a regional composite scour in the fluvial realm throughout a relative sea‐level cycle highlights that erosion and deposition occur virtually contemporaneously at any point along the depositional profile. This contradicts stratigraphic models that interpret low‐accommodation settings to dominantly promote bypass, especially during forced regressions. Source‐to‐sink analyses should account for this in order to adequately resolve timing and volume of sediment storage in the system throughout a complete relative sea‐level cycle.  相似文献   

4.
This article reports a stratigraphic and structural analysis of the Neogene‐Quaternary Valdelsa Basin (Central Italy), filled with up to 1000 m of uppermost Miocene to lower Pleistocene strata. The succession is subdivided into seven unconformity‐bounded stratigraphic units (synthems, or large‐scale depositional sequences) that include fluvio‐deltaic and shallow‐marine deposits. Structures related to basin shoulders and internal boundaries controlled the Neogene location and geometry of different depocentres. During the Tortonian‐Messinian, a buried NE‐trending high related to regional, basin‐transverse lineaments separated two adjacent sub‐basins. During the lower Pliocene, compressional displacement along NW‐trending, thrust‐related highs controlled the distribution of depocentres and dispersal of sediment. Extensional tectonics, although previously considered the dominant deformation style affecting the rear of the Northern Apennines since the late Miocene, is no longer considered a dominant control on tectono‐sedimentary development of the Valdelsa basin. Instead, the Valdelsa Basin shares features with continental hinterland basins of orogenic belts where compression, extension, and transcurrent stress fields determine a complex spatial and temporal record of accommodation and sediment supply. In the Valdelsa Basin tectonics and eustatic sea‐level fluctuations were dominant in forcing the deposition of sedimentary cycles at several scales. Zanclean and Gelasian large‐scale depositional sequences were mainly controlled by crustal shortening, whereas a eustatic signal was preferentially recorded during the Piacenzian. Smaller scale depositional sequences, common to most synthems, were controlled by orbitally forced glacio‐eustatic cycles.  相似文献   

5.
Peat horizons are characteristic features of delta plains worldwide. In this study, we tested the use of peat‐based correlations to assess the deformation of Holocene strata in the Po coastal plain (Northern Italy). The Holocene stratigraphy, about 30 km inland from the modern coastline consists of a peat‐bearing, estuarine and deltaic succession, up to 23 m thick. Through the analysis of 31 core data and 100 piezocone penetration tests, we identified and mapped three 10–40 cm‐thick peat layers (T1–T3) dated to 6.6–5.8, 5.5–5.0 and 3.3–2.7 cal kyr BP respectively. These peat horizons were found to be suitable stratigraphic markers within the Holocene succession over an area of about 200 km2. The mid‐late Holocene palaeogeography, reconstructed through high‐resolution peat correlation, supported by 72 radiocarbon dates, highlights a typical upper delta plain environment, with ribbon‐shaped distributary channels and swamp interdistributary areas. Peat layers are inclined towards E‐NE with gradients that increase downsection from ~0.016% (T3) to 0.021% (T1). The gradient of the oldest peat horizon is one order of magnitude larger than the slope of the modern delta plain (~0.0025%). We infer that peat horizons accumulated during periods of low sediment supply mainly controlled by autogenic processes and were deformed after deposition. Differential compaction of underlying sedimentary strata and recent tectonic activity of the buried Apenninic thrust systems are the most likely drivers of strata deformation. Based on isochore maps, we document that higher sedimentation rates in topographically depressed areas compensated, in part at least, the ongoing deformation, keeping unaltered the topographic gradient and the depositional environment. This study demonstrates that peat‐based correlation and mapping can shed lights on the mechanisms of strata accumulation and deformation in deltaic settings, constituting a robust basis for reconstructing delta evolution.  相似文献   

6.
Recent advances in our understanding of palaeovalleys are largely guided by examples from passive margins, in which accommodation increases down depositional dip. This study tests these models against a dataset from the Pennsylvanian Breathitt Group of the central Appalachian foreland basin, USA. This fluvio‐deltaic succession contains extensive erosionally based fluvio‐estuarine sand bodies that can be tracked over 80 km down depositional dip from a proximal zone of high accommodation close to the orogenic margin to a distal, lower accommodation zone close to the cratonic margin of the basin. The sand bodies are up to 25 m thick, multi‐storey and characterized in their lower parts by strongly amalgamated storeys containing sandy fluvial to estuarine bar accretion elements, and in their middle to upper parts by more fully preserved storeys up to 10 m thick and laterally extensive over 100s of metres. The upper storeys include abandonment channel‐fills of heterolithic marine or marginal marine deposits or muddy to sandy point‐bar elements. Three major regional‐scale architectures include: (i) Tabular sand bodies that everywhere incise open marine prodelta and mouth bar facies and are interpreted as palaeovalleys formed during falling stage and lowstand systems tracts, when eustatic sea‐level fall outpaced tectonic subsidence across the entire study area. (ii) Sand bodies that incise genetically related floodplain lake and/or bay‐fill minor mouth bar deposits up depositional dip and open marine prodelta and mouth bar facies down dip. These stacked distributary channel deposits map down dip into palaeovalleys and formed when up dip subsidence rate resulted in positive, but reduced rate of accommodation creation, while lower tectonic subsidence rate down‐dip resulted in incision. (iii) Sand bodies that incise genetically related floodplain, lake and/or bay‐fill minor mouth bars up dip and pass down‐dip into genetically related unconfined floodplain, prodelta and mouth bar deposits. These sand bodies represent stacked distributary channel fills and channel amalgamation was the product of high rates of lateral migration, typical of the behaviour of channels above their backwater reach. Case (2) sand bodies demonstrate that in rapidly subsiding foreland basins, cross‐shelf palaeovalleys may form down depositional dip from aggradational, distributive fluival strata. Additionally, the genetic relationship between stacked distributary channels and palaeovalleys supports recent models for palaeovalley formation that emphasize diachronous, cut‐and‐fill during falling stage and lowstands of relative sea level.  相似文献   

7.
The hydrodynamics of rivers approaching a receiving basin are influenced by the onset of backwater conditions that give rise to decelerating reach-average flow velocity and decreasing boundary shear stress. These changes occur across a spatial gradient over which decreasing sediment transport capacity triggers morphodynamic responses that include sediment deposition at the transition from uniform to nonuniform flow. As a consequence, the channel width-to-depth ratio and bed sediment grain size decrease downstream. While nonuniform flow and associated morphodynamic adjustments have been investigated in modern fluvial–deltaic systems, the impacts to fluvial–deltaic stratigraphy remain relatively unexplored. This represents an important unresolved gap: there are few contributions that link morphodynamic response to nonuniform flow, impacts on sediment deposition and influence on the rock record. This study uses a numerical model to explore how variable channel hydraulics influence long-term (1000s years) patterns of sediment deposition and development of stratigraphy. The model results indicate that: (a) nonuniform flow propagates upstream beyond the backwater transition that is traditionally estimated with a basic backwater length scale relationship. (b) Base-level fluctuations, especially rising, enhance the impact of nonuniform flow. (c) Sediment deposition shows large spatio-temporal variability, which ultimately contributes to unique stacking patterns of fluvial–deltaic stratigraphy. (d) Nonuniform flow imparts spatial variation in flow depth, channel bed slope and sediment grain size over the delta, and these signatures are potentially preserved and recognizable in the rock record.  相似文献   

8.
Late‐middle Miocene to Pliocene siliciclastics in the Northern Carnarvon Basin, Northwest Shelf of Australia, are interpreted as having been deposited by deltas. Some delta lobes deposited sediments near and at the shelf break (shelf‐edge deltas), whereas other lobes did not reach the coeval shelf break before retreating landward or being abandoned. Shelf‐margin mapview morphology changes from linear to convex‐outward in the northern part of the study area where shelf‐edge deltas were focused. Location and character of shelf‐edge deltas also had significant impact on along‐strike variability of margin progradation and shelf‐edge trajectory. Total late‐middle and late Miocene margin progradation is ca. 13 km in the south, where there were no shelf‐edge deltas, vs. ca. 34 km in the north where shelf‐edge deltas were concentrated. In the central area, the deltas were arrested and accumulated a few kilometres landward of the shelf break, resulting in an aggradational shelf‐edge trajectory, in contrast to the more progradational trajectory farther north. This illustrates a potential limitation of shelf‐edge trajectory analysis: only where shelf‐edge deltas occur, there is sufficient sediment available for the shelf‐edge trajectory to record relative sea‐level fluctuations reliably. Small‐scale (ca. 400 m wide) incisions were already conspicuous on the coeval slope even before deltas reached the shelf break. However, slope gullies immediately downdip from active shelf‐edge deltas display greater erosion of underlying strata and are wider and deeper (>1 km wide, ca. 100 m deep) than coeval incisions that are laterally offset from the deltaic depocenter (ca. 0.7 km wide, ca. 25 m deep). We interpret this change in slope‐gully dimensions as the result of greater erosion by sediment gravity flows sourced from the immediately adjacent shelf‐edge deltas. Similarly, gullies also incised further (up to 6 km) into the outer shelf in the region of active shelf‐edge deltas.  相似文献   

9.
Deciphering the role slope topography plays in partitioning sediment on siliciclastic continental slope and base‐of‐slope systems helps our understanding of slope depositional processes in significant ways: (1) by validation of large‐scale depositional process models for continental margins, (2) by validation of numerical basin‐scale stratigraphic forward models used to test and deploy source‐to‐sink (S2S) concepts and (3) by creating models for setting reservoir presence and quality expectations in frontier areas poorly constrained by wells and seismic. A global database consisting of >700 km of drilled stratigraphy provide empirical rock data lacking from most S2S studies. Analysis of calibrated seismic stratigraphic units characterised using the contextual framework laid out in this paper show that both gross depositional environments (GDEs) and sand content occur across slope profiles in systematic ways. The challenge in using these observations to quantify reservoir risk and uncertainty lies with relating the observations to depositional processes that can be used to characterise frontier basins that lack calibration. Depositional process‐based understanding encoded in 3D stratigraphic forward models (SFM) can simulate both lithologies and GDEs providing broad predictions for exploration at the scale of an entire basin or slope system. Stratigraphic forward models allow the integration of S2S understanding and provide a framework for testing sediment‐partitioning hypotheses in frontier settings. Valid S2S models must balance sediment yield from the source catchments with sinks, and be consistent with basin specific observations. The proportions of GDEs across the slope provide additional validation criteria to ensure the models are plausible.  相似文献   

10.
Sequence‐stratigraphic models for fourth to sixth order, glacio‐eustatic sequences based only on relative sea‐level variations result in simplified and potentially false interpretations. Glacio‐eustatic sea‐level variations form only one aspect of cyclic climate variation; other aspects, such as variations in fluvial water discharge, vegetation cover, weathering and sediment supply can lead to variable sediment yield, thus adding complexity to sequence‐stratigraphic patterns normally attributed to sea‐level variations. Analogue flume models show a significant impact of water discharge on the timing and character of sequence boundaries, and on changes in the relative importance of systems tracts, as expressed in sediment volumes. Four deltas, generated under the influence of an identical sea‐level curve, and affected by different water‐discharge cycles were generated in the Eurotank facility: (1) constant discharge; (2) high‐frequency discharge variations (HFD); (3) discharge leading sea level by a quarter phase; (4) discharge lagging sea level by a quarter phase. HFD shift the parasequence stacking pattern consistently but do not alter large‐scale delta architecture. Water‐discharge changes that lead sea‐level changes result in high sediment yield during sea‐level rise and in the poor development of maximum flooding surfaces. Delta‐front erosion during sea‐level fall is expressed by multiple, small channels related to upstream avulsions, and does not result in an incised valley that efficiently routs sediment to the shelf edge. When water‐discharge changes lag sea‐level changes, sediment yield is high during falling sea level and results in rapid progradation during forced regression. Erosion from incised valleys is strong on the proximal delta top and dissipates towards the delta front. The combination of high discharge and sea‐level fall provides the most efficient mode of valley incision and sediment transport to the shelf edge. During sea‐level rise, low water discharge results in sediment starvation and well‐developed maximum flooding surfaces. Water‐discharge variations thus alter sequence‐stratigraphic patterns and provide an alternative explanation to the amplitude of sea‐level fall for generating either type 1 or 2 erosional unconformities.  相似文献   

11.
《Basin Research》2018,30(4):783-798
When we model fluvial sedimentation and the resultant alluvial stratigraphy, we typically focus on the effects of local parameters (e.g., sediment flux, water discharge, grain size) and the effects of regional changes in boundary conditions applied in the source region (i.e., climate, tectonics) and at the shoreline (i.e., sea level). In recent years this viewpoint has been codified into the “source‐to‐sink” paradigm, wherein major shifts in sediment flux, grain‐size fining trends, channel‐stacking patterns, floodplain deposition and larger stratigraphic systems tracts are interpreted in terms of (1) tectonic and climatic signals originating in the hinterland that propagate downstream; and (2) eustatic fluctuation, which affects the position of the shoreline and dictates the generation of accommodation. Within this paradigm, eustasy represents the sole means by which downstream processes may affect terrestrial depositional systems. Here, we detail three experimental cases in which coastal rivers are strongly influenced by offshore and slope transport systems via the clinoform geometries typical of prograding sedimentary bodies. These examples illustrate an underdeveloped, but potentially important “sink‐to‐source” influence on the evolution of fluvial‐deltaic systems. The experiments illustrate the effects of (1) submarine hyperpycnal flows, (2) submarine delta front failure events, and (3) deformable substrates within prodelta and offshore settings. These submarine processes generate (1) erosional knickpoints in coastal rivers, (2) increased river channel occupancy times, (3) rapid rates of shoreline movement, and (4) localized zones of significant offshore sediment accumulation. Ramifications for coastal plain and deltaic stratigraphic patterns include changes in the hierarchy of scour surfaces, fluvial sand‐body geometries, reconstruction of sea‐level variability and large‐scale stratal geometries, all of which are linked to the identification and interpretation of sequences and systems tracts.  相似文献   

12.
Results from analyses of the Arles‐Piton sediment core, retrieved from the apex of the Rhône Delta, highlight processes of Holocene deltaic construction controlled mainly by hydrosedimentary variability and channel avulsions. The alluvial suite was investigated for grain size, sedimentary structures, CaCO3, organic matter, heavy minerals and chrono‐stratigraphy (14C and archaeological/historical dates). The study shows the succession of six facies associations: a distributary channel (before 6157‐5843 BC), a swamp (5719‐5530/4796‐4463 BC), a distal flood plain (5719‐5530/4796‐4463 BC), a distributary channel (4796‐4463/2900‐2503 BC), a proximal flood plain (2900‐2503 BC/AD 270‐290), and a crevasse splay (after AD 270‐290). Substantial changes in hydrodynamics are strongly linked to three channel avulsions (before 6157‐5843 BC, after 4796‐4463 BC and after 2900‐2503 BC). A correlation with the whole channel avulsion history of the Rhône Delta allowed us to propose an average rhythm of channel avulsion of c. 1450 years. From 5719‐5530 BC to AD 270‐290, the flood plain aggraded at the average rate of 2.5 mm/a. The aggradation rates were higher both in the proximal and distal flood plains, where sedimentation process is continuous. They were lower both in the active distributary channels, because of frequent truncation of the alluvial suite, and the abandoned channels where detritic inputs are minimum. The sediment supply arriving to the upper Rhône Delta was derived mainly from proximal source areas (Massif Central, Southern Alps) during the last 8000 years, except during the hydrological changes of Roman antiquity during which detritic inputs were derived firstly from the Northern Alps and Southern Alps, and secondly from the Massif Central.  相似文献   

13.
The Quaternary glaciations had a profound impact on the geomorphology and stratigraphy of passive continental margins. The challenge is to resolve the contributions of the main forcing controls relative sea‐level change and sediment flux. The key to answer this question is to understand the interaction between the marine and terrestrial environments, where river dynamics play an essential role. A comprehensible three‐dimensional numerical model is presented in order to investigate quantitatively the behaviour of river–shelf sedimentary systems under glacio‐eustatic conditions. Distinctive features observed in the model results include river avulsion, delta‐lobe switching, incision and knickpoint migration. An important event in the development of the modelled river–shelf system is the establishment of a direct and inextricable link between the drainage basin and the depocentre on the shelf edge, thereby bypassing the exposed shelf. This is termed as ‘drainage connection’. In the model, the timing of drainage connection occurs over a broad interval when the model run is repeated many times with small differences in the initial topography, reflecting the sensitivity of the system to its initial state. It demonstrates the inherent variability in the evolution of a sedimentary system as a consequence of non‐linear behaviour. A statistical approach to modelling is suggested in order to deal with this problem.  相似文献   

14.
The Holocene Evolution of the Ebre Delta Catalonia, Spain   总被引:2,自引:0,他引:2  
1 IntroductionThefirstrelevantinformationaboutthegeologyandevolutionarytrendsoftheEbredeltacameaspartofastratigraphicstudybyMaldonadoA[1].Hementionedthatduringthelasttransgressiveevent,thatisbeforesealevelreacheditspresentlevel,deltaicprogradationonl…  相似文献   

15.
《Basin Research》2018,30(4):650-670
The Palaeogene Isparta Basin of southwestern Anatolia formed between two convergent arms of the Isparta Bend orocline of the Tauride orogen. The origin of this tightening orocline is hypothetically explained in plate‐tectonic terms. Basin sedimentation commenced on a down‐warped Mesozoic carbonate platform of a crustal block accreted at the end of Cretaceous to the southern margin of the Anatolian plate. The basin earliest deposits are Palaeocene reddish mudstones with a fossil‐barren condensed basal part and increasingly interspersed with thin calcarenitic turbidites towards the top. The supply of turbiditic sediment to the basin plain subsequently increased, as the upper‐bathyal basin plain became surrounded from both sides by a narrow littoral shelf with an advancing turbiditic slope ramp. A major forced regression occurred at the end of Bartonian, causing incision of subaerial to submarine valleys up 600 m deep, filled in with gravelly to sandy turbidites and debrisflow deposits during the subsequent rise of relative sea level. The half‐filled valleys were re‐incised due to a Rupelian forced regression and were fully filled with fluvio‐deltaic bayhead deposits during a final marine transgression that re‐established the basin‐margin biocalcarenitic shelf. The littoral environment then expanded across the shallowing basin, as the basin axial zone was up‐domed and eroded to bedrock level at the end of Oligocene and the basin was tectonically inverted in Miocene. The pattern of intra‐orocline foreland sedimentation documented by this case study provides tentative criteria for the recognition of synorogenic oroclines and for their distinction from post‐orogenic oroclines.  相似文献   

16.
ABSTRACT The Eridanos fluvio‐deltaic system, draining most of north‐western Europe, developed during the Late Cenozoic as a result of simultaneous uplift of the Fennoscandian shield and accelerated subsidence in the North Sea Basin. This seismo‐stratigraphic study aims to reconstruct the large‐scale depositional architecture of the deltaic portion of the basin fill and relate it to external controls. A total of 27 units have been recognized. They comprise over 62×103 km3 in the Southern North Sea Basin alone, and have an average delta surface area of 28×103 km2, which suggests that the size of the drainage area was about 1.1×106 km2. Water depth in the depocentre is seen to decrease systematically over time. This trend is interrupted by a deepening phase between 6.5 and 4.5 Ma that can be correlated with the simultaneous occurrence of increased uplift of the Fennoscandian shield, increased subsidence of the Southern North Sea Basin, and a long‐term eustatic highstand. All these observations point to a tectonic control on long‐term average rates of accommodation and supply. Controls on short‐term variations are inferred from variations in rates of sediment supply and bifurcation of the delta channel network. Both rates were initially low under warm, moist, relatively stable climate conditions. The straight wave‐dominated delta front gradually developed into a lobate fluvial‐dominated delta front. Two high‐amplitude sea‐level falls affected the Pliocene units, which are characterized by widespread delta‐front failures. Changes in relative sea level and climate became more frequent from the late Pliocene onward, as the system experienced the effects of glacial–interglacial transitions. Peaks in sedimentation and bifurcation rates were coeval with cold (glacial) conditions. The positive correlation between rates of supply and bifurcation on the one hand, and climate proxies (pollen and δ18O records) on the other hand is highly significant. The evidence presented in this study convincingly demonstrates the control of climate on time‐averaged sediment supply and channel‐network characteristics, despite the expected nonuniformity and time lags in system response. The presence of a clearly discernible climate signal in time‐averaged sediment supply illustrates the usefulness of integrated seismo‐stratigraphic studies for basin‐wide analysis of delta evolution on geological time scales.  相似文献   

17.
Middle Miocene to Pliocene siliciclastics of the Bare Formation represent a long‐lived (ca. 11 Myr) break in the otherwise carbonate‐dominated shelf of the Northern Carnarvon Basin, Northwest Shelf of Australia. The quartz‐sandstone interval is correlated with the appearance of spectacular clinoform sets mapped on 3D and dense 2D seismic data. Twenty‐seven clinoform sets are interpreted as delta lobes primarily based on their plan‐view morphology (strike‐elongate to lobate features) and their 40–100‐m‐high clinoform amplitudes. The delta lobes were deposited on outer‐shelf to shelf‐edge positions, and the older deltas show evidence of a higher degree wave reworking than the younger deltas. Measurements of the along‐strike (migration) and down‐dip (progradation) movement of these deltas are compared with relative sea‐level behaviour inferred from shelf‐edge trajectory analysis. Delta lobes exhibit greater lateral shifting during relative sea‐level rise, whereas delta lobes are more restricted to dip‐oriented fairways during sea‐level fall, although no major incised valleys have been identified. Long‐term (cumulative) progradation of this delta system and subsequent backstepping correlates with long‐term sea‐level fall and rise during the late middle and late Miocene. In addition, a long‐term northeastward migration trend for these delta lobes was likely a result of localized uplift of an inversion anticline in the Rosemary–Legendre Trend; the growth of this anticline probably steered the fluvial source for the delta system towards the northeast. The Bare Formation siliciclastic influx correlates with other middle Miocene increases in siliciclastic sediment supply worldwide. Global cooling and a shift to more arid conditions, negatively influencing vegetation cover, may have combined with more seasonally variable rainfall to generate the high sediment supply that built the deltas. Retreat of the siliciclastics could correlate with ice‐sheet growth in the Northern Hemisphere and/or increase in the Indonesian Throughflow and Leeuwin Current (ca. 1.6 Ma), which might have modified climate regionally.  相似文献   

18.
《Basin Research》2018,30(Z1):568-595
The continental slopes of the South China Sea (SCS), the largest marginal sea on the continental shelf of Southeast Asia, are among the most significant shelf‐margin basins in the world because of their abundant petroleum resources and a developmental history related to sea floor spreading since Late Oligocene time. Based on integrated analyses of seismic, well‐logging and core data, we systematically document the sequence architecture and depositional evolution of the northern continental slope of the SCS and reveal its responses to tectonism, sea‐level change and sediment supply. The infill of this shelf‐margin basin can be divided into seven composite sequences (CS1–CS7) that are bounded by regional unconformities. Composite sequences CS3 to CS7 have formed since Late Oligocene time, and each of them generally reflects a regional transgressive–regressive cycle. These large cycles can be further divided into 20 sequences that are defined by local unconformities or transgressive–regressive boundaries. Depositional–geomorphological systems represented on the continental slope mainly include shelf‐edge deltas, prodelta‐slope fans, clinoforms of the shelf‐margin slope, unidirectionally migrating slope channels, incised slope valleys, muddy slope fans, slope slump‐debris‐flow complexes and large‐scale soft‐sediment deformation of bedding. Changing sea levels, reflected by evidence from sequence architecture in the study area, are generally comparable with those of the Haq (1987) global sea level curve, whereas the regional transgressions and regressions were apparently controlled by tectonic uplift and subsidence. Composite sequences CS3 and CS4 formed from Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene time and represent continental‐slope deposition during a time of northwest‐northeast seafloor spreading and subsequent development of sub‐basins in the southwest‐central SCS. The development of composite sequences CS5 to CS7 after Middle Miocene time was obviously influenced by the Dongsha Movement during convergence between the SCS and Philippine Sea plates. Climatic variations and monsoon intensification may have enhanced sediment supply during Late Oligocene‒Early Miocene (25–21 Ma) and Late Pliocene‒Pleistocene (3–0.8 Ma) times. This study indicates that shelf‐edge delta and associated slope fan systems are the most important oil/gas‐bearing reservoirs in the SCS continental‐slope area.  相似文献   

19.
The Permian Ecca Group of the Karoo Basin, South Africa preserves an extensive well-exposed siliciclastic basin floor, slope and shelf-edge delta succession. The Kookfontein Formation includes multiple sedimentary cycles that display clinoform geometries and are interpreted to represent the deposits of a slope to shelf succession. The succession exhibits progradational followed by aggradational stacking of deltaic cycles that is related to a change in shelf-edge trajectory, and lies within two depositional sequences. Sediment was transferred to the slope via overextension of deltas onto and over the shelf edge, resulting in failure and re-adjustment of local slope gradients. The depositional facies and architecture of the Kookfontein Formation record the change from a bypass- to accretion-dominated margin, which is interpreted to reflect a decrease in sediment transport efficiency as the slope gradient decreased, slope length increased and shelf-edge trajectory rose. During this time the delivery system changed from point-sourced basin-floor fans fed by slope channels to starved basin-floor with sand-rich slope clinoforms. This is an example of a progradational margin in which the younger slope system is interpreted to be of a different style to the older slope system that fed the underlying sand-rich basin floor fans.  相似文献   

20.
We investigate the controls on the architecture of coarse‐grained delta progradational units (PUs) in the Pliocene Loreto basin (Baja California Sur, Mexico), a half‐graben located on the western margin of the Gulf of California. Dorsey et al. (1997b) argued that delta progradation and transgression cycles in the basin were driven by episodic fault‐controlled subsidence along the basin‐bounding Loreto fault. Here we test this hypothesis by a detailed analysis of the sedimentary architecture of 11 exceptionally well‐exposed, vertically arranged fluvio‐deltaic PUs, each of which shows lateral facies transition from proximal alluvial facies palaeo‐seaward into distal pro‐delta facies. Of these 11 PUs, seven exhibit a lateral transition from a shoal water to Gilbert‐delta facies associations as they are traced palaeo‐seaward. This transition is characterised by down‐transport development of foresets, which grow in height up to 35 m. Foreset units thicken in a basinward direction, with initially an oblique topset–foreset geometry that becomes increasingly sigmoidal. Each delta is capped by a shell bed that records drowning of the delta top. This systematic transition in delta architecture records increasing water depth through time during individual episodes of progradation. A mechanism that explains this transition is an accelerating rate of fault‐controlled subsidence during each PU. During episodes of low slip rate, shoal‐water deltas prograde across the submerged topography of the underlying delta unit. As displacement rate accelerates, increasing bathymetry at the delta front leads to steepening of foresets and initiation of Gilbert deltas. Subsequent delta drowning results from sediment starvation at the shoreline at high slip rates because of sediment trapping upstream. The observed delta architecture suggests that the long‐term (>100 kyr) history of slip on the Loreto fault was characterised by repetitive episodes of accelerating displacement accumulation. Such episodic fault behaviour is most likely to be because of variations in temporal and spatial strain partitioning between the Loreto fault and other faults in the Gulf of California. A physical explanation for the acceleration phenomenon involves evolving frictional properties on the episodically active Loreto fault.  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号