Geol 307: Sedimentation and Stratigraphy

Semester 071 2007

Lecture 15
Deltas and estuaries

Deltaic environments
Deltas form where a river enters a standing body of water (ocean, sea, lake) and forms a thick deposit. The morphology of delta is divided into delta plain (delta top) and delta front. The delta plain is the subaerial part of a delta (gradational upstream to a floodplain); the delta front (delta slope and prodelta) is the subaqueous component. Delta plains are commonly characterized by distributaries and flood basins (upper delta plain) or interdistributary bays (lower delta plain), as well as numerous crevasse splays. Upper delta plains contain facies assemblages that are very similar to fluvial settings.

 Mouth bars form at the upper edge of the delta front, at the mouth of distributaries; they are mostly sandy and tend to coarsen upwards. The delta slope is commonly 1-2 and consists of finer (usually silty) facies; the most distal prodelta is dominated by even finer sediment where deposition is mainly from suspension. Progradation (basinward building) of deltas leads to coarsening-upward successions, and progradation rates depend on sediment supply and basin bathymetry (water depth).

Delta front

The forms of modern deltas: a) the Nile delta, the original delta; b) the Mississippi delta, a river dominated delta; c) the Rhone delta, a wave dominated delta; d) the Ganges, a tide dominated delta.

Rhone delta

Controls on Delta
Controls - Tectonics - Climate (vegetation) -Eustatic sea level changes Basin controls : Subsidence (depth control) Hinterland controls: Slope, Relief & Discharge Determines grain size

Delta regime

Delta morpholophy

Delta facies

Waves & Tides(reworking sediment)

Galloways delta classification (1975): a triangular plot on which the relative importance of waves, tides and river processes factors is considered allows any modem delta to be classified into one of : 9 River-dominated delta (Mississippi delta) 9 Wave dominated delta ( Rhone delta ) 9 Tide dominated delta. ( Ganges delta )
Fluvial dominated

The drawback of this classification is that some modern deltas plot in the same part of the triangle but have very different morphologies and characteristics.

Wave dominated

Tide dominated

Galloways delta classification

 The 'Toblerone plot shown below is a modification of the Galloway triangle, adding another axis to show the grain size. However, even this does not provide a comprehensive classification scheme as factors such as the slope and depth of the 'receiving basin' (the sea or lake into which the delta is building) are not taken into account.

Grain size and hinterland slope controls

If gradient of the river is low, most of its bedload is deposited before the water arrives at the delta. Predominantly fine material (reworked and dispersed by waves, currents and tides) is accumulated in delta. With increasing river gradient, the flow velocity is greater and the proportion and size of the bedload increases. Delta at the mouths of braided rivers may be sandy or pebbly, requiring more energetic basinal processes to remobilize them. If the gradient of the hinterland adjacent to a lake or sea is very steep, an alluvial fan may form and build out as a partially subaqueous feature. In these cases the sediment body may be referred to as a fan delta; The term 'fan delta' is often loosely applied to any coarse-grained delta, although the usual definition is 'an alluvial fan which progrades into a standing body of water.

Types of deltas
Delta morphology reflects the relative importance of fluvial, tidal, and wave processes, as well as gradient and sediment supply
River-dominated deltas Wave-dominated deltas Tide-dominated deltas

River-Dominated Delta

River-dominated deltas
Occur in microtidal settings with limited wave energy, where delta-lobe progradation is significant and redistribution of mouth bars is limited

Wave-Dominated Delta
Wave-driven longshore drift redistributes sediment along the coast.

Wave-dominated deltas
Are characterized by mouth bars reworked into shoreparallel sand bodies and beaches

Wave- & Tide-Influenced Delta

Tide-dominated deltas
Exhibit tidal mudflats and mouth bars that are reworked into elongate sand bodies perpendicular to the shoreline

 When the channel on the delta top changes course, the former lobe is abandoned as a new site of deposition is occupied.

Delta cycle & post and syndepositonal effects on deltas

River-dominated deltas tend to have the most frequent changes in position of the active lobe, but avulsion of channel course also occurs in other delta types. The beds which mark the end of sedimentation on a delta lobe are known as the abandonment facies. In the upper part of the delta plain these will be peats or palaeosols which represent a low clastic supply to this part of the plain now that active lobe progradation has moved elsewhere on the delta.
Delta cycles: the facies succession preserved depends on the location of the vertical profile relative to the depositonal lobe of a delta

Avulsion -- major shift in river course during large flood

 Estuaries are semi-enclosed coastal water bodies where fluvial and marine processes interact. The mouths of many rivers are estuaries at present as a result of the relative sea level rise which has occurred since the last ice age. Under macrotidal regimes, the rise and fall of the tide and the ebb and flood tidal currents establish two sub-environments within the estuarine setting: tidal channels and tidal mudflats

Estuaries

Tidal channel The flow in the ebb and flood tides is funneled into single or multiple channels. Currents may
be powerful enough to cause scouring at he base, and gravelly debris including bioclastic debris brought in by onshore currents may be left as a lag in the channel floor. The flow within a tidal channel will move sand as a bedload and result in formation of bars. These bar deposits will show the characteristics of tidal sedimentation for example mud drapes on the cross beds. Herringbone cross stratification only develops in regions where the ebb and flood flow pathways overlap. Alternation of sand and mud as bar deposits produce a pattern of bedding referred to as inclined heterolithic stratification is seen in tidal channel deposits as alternating layers of sand and mud which dip into the axis of the channel, perpendicular to flow.

 Away from the areas of strong tidal currents lie tidal mudflats. These regions are flooded at high tide, and exposed when the tide falls. Fine sediment is carried in suspension across the mudflats on the rising tide, depositing as the tide turns and falls. Vegetation on the tidal flats traps sediment and mudflats are commonly sites of net accumulation. The succession built up is predominantly mud with thin sand sheets present if very high tides or storms wash coarser material across the flats. Evidence of vegetation is normally abundant, as is bioturbation by the fauna which live on the nutrient-rich mudflats.

Tidal mudflats

Tide-dominated estuaries have tidal channels with bars and tidal mudflats that contain tidal sedimentary structures (e.g., tidal bundles, heterolithic stratification)

Environments in tide dominated estuary

Wave-dominated estuaries
Along coasts with smaller tidal ranges wave action is important in estuarine settings. An inlet in the barrier allows water to pass through into the lagoon, a region of shallow, low-energy sedimentation. At the mouth of the river a bay head delta forms. This consists of delta top facies (channel and delta plain) which may be similar to those found in other deltaic environments, but are confined by the incised valley of the estuary.

Wave-dominated estuaries are partly enclosed by a coastal barrier and have well-developed bay-head deltas

Wave-dominated estuaries