Soft‐sediment deformation structures in a Pleistocene glaciolacustrine delta and their implications for the recognition of subenvironments in delta deposits |
| |
| Authors: | MA?GORZATA PISARSKA‐JAMRO?Y PIOTR WECKWERTH |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Institute of Geology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Maków Polnych 16, 61‐606 Poznań, Poland (E‐mail: pisanka@amu.edu.pl);2. Institute of Geography, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, 87‐100 Toruń, Poland |
| |
| Abstract: | The development of soft‐sediment deformation structures in clastic sediments is now reasonably well‐understood but their development in various deltaic subenvironments is not. A sedimentological analysis of a Pleistocene (ca 13·1 to 15 10Be ka) Gilbert‐type glaciolacustine delta with gravity‐induced slides and slumps in the Mosty‐Danowo tunnel valley (north‐western Poland) provides more insight, because the various soft‐sediment deformation structures in these deposits were considered in the context of their specific deltaic subenvironment. The sediments show three main groups of soft‐sediment deformation structures in layers between undeformed sediments. The first group consists of deformed cross‐bedding (inclined, overturned, recumbent, complex and sheath folds), large‐scale folds (recumbent and sheath folds) and pillows forming plastic deformations. The second group comprises pillar structures (isolated and stress), clastic dykes with sand volcanoes and clastic megadykes as examples of water‐escape structures. The third group consists of faults (normal and reverse) and extensional fissures (small fissures and neptunian dykes). Some of the deformations developed shortly after deposition of the deformed sediment, other structures developed later. This development must be ascribed to hydroplastic movement in a quasi‐solid state, and due to fluidization and liquefaction of the rapidly deposited, water‐saturated deltaic sediments. The various types of deformations were triggered by: (i) a high sedimentation rate; (ii) erosion (by wave action or meltwater currents); and (iii) ice‐sheet loading and seasonal changes in the ablation rate. Analysis of these triggers, in combination with the deformational mechanisms, have resulted – on the basis of the spatial distribution of the various types of soft‐sediment deformation structures in the delta under study – in a model for the development of soft‐sediment deformation structures in the topsets, foresets and bottomsets of deltas. This analysis not only increases the understanding of the deformation processes in both modern and ancient deltaic settings but also helps to distinguish between the various subenvironments in ancient deltaic deposits. |
| |
| Keywords: | Clastic dykes glaciodeltaic sediments glaciolacustrine delta NW Poland Pleistocene sheath folds slump folds soft‐sediment deformation water‐escape structures |
|
|
