Continents:

Sources of Sediment
 Introduction
• The ultimate source of the clastic and chemical deposits on land
and in the oceans
 continental realm,
 weathering and erosion
 generate the sediment that is carried as bedload,
 in suspension
 dissolved salts to environments of deposition.

• Thermal and tectonic processes in the Earth’s mantle and crust

generate
 regions of uplift
 subsidence
 sources and sinks for sediment.

• Weathering and erosion processes acting on bedrock are strongly

controlled by
 climate
 topography.
 Introduction
• Rates of denudation and sediment flux into areas of
sediment accumulation are determined by a complex
system
 tectonic,
 thermal
 Isostatatic uplift,
 chemical and
 mechanical
 erosion by gravity, water, wind and ice.

• Climate, and climatic controls on vegetation, play a critical

role in this Earth System,
 can be considered as a set of linked tectonic, climatic and
surface denudation processes.
 FROM SOURCE OF SEDIMENT
TO FORMATION OF STRATA

• In the creation of sediments and sedimentary rocks

 The ultimate source of most sediment is bedrock exposed on
the continents .

• The starting point is the uplift of pre-existing bedrock of

 igneous
 metamorphic
 sedimentary

• Once elevated this bedrock undergoes weathering at the

land surface to create:
 clastic detritus
 release ions into solution in surface and near surface waters.
 FROM SOURCE OF SEDIMENT
TO FORMATION OF STRATA
• Process of erosion or removal of the weathered
material.
As dissolved or particulate matter by a variety of
mechanisms.
Deposited by physical, chemical and biogenic
processes in a sedimentary environment on land or in
the sea.

• The final stage is the lithification of the sediment

to form sedimentary rocks,
 then be exposed at the surface by tectonic processes.
 FROM SOURCE OF SEDIMENT
TO FORMATION OF STRATA

The pathway of processes involved in the formation of a succession of clastic

sedimentary rocks, part of the rock cycle.
 MOUNTAIN-BUILDING PROCESSES
PLATE TECTONIC CONCEPT  LATERAL /HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT

UPLIFT / SUBSIDENCE Vs PLATE MOTION

VERTICAL MOV. Vs LATERAL MOV.

LATERAL MOVEMENT : 3 POSSIBILTIES INTERACTION BETWEEN PLATE

DIVERGENT  SUBSIDENCE AND UPLIFT.

CONVERGENT UPLIFT AND SUBSIDENCE DUE TO CRUSTAL LOADING

TRANSFORM  SUBSIDENDECE /UPLIFT DUE TO BOTH SCRAT. AND LOAD

LATERAL MOV. PROMOTE VERTICAL MOV.

 MOUNTAIN-BUILDING PROCESSES
• Plate tectonic theory provides the processes the formation of mountains,
as well as explanation for all the main morphological features of the crust

• Plate movements and associated igneous activity

 Create the topographic contours of the surface of the Earth

 Areas of high ground on the surface of the globe today can be related
to plate boundaries.

 Orogenic belt, a mountain chain formed as a result of the collision of

the continental plates

 High ground also occurs on the flanks of major rifts, such as the East
African Rift Valley, where the crust is pulling apart.

 modified by erosion and deposition.

 MOUNTAIN-BUILDING PROCESSES
• Plate tectonic processes are the principal mechanisms
 generating uplift of the crust and creating areas of high ground

 provide the source of clastic sedimentary material.

• Vertical movements of the crust can also be related to mantle

movement

• The mantle has an uneven temperature distribution.

 some areas of the crust that are underlain by relatively hot
mantle

 Some other places the mantle below is cooler.

 MOUNTAIN-BUILDING PROCESSES
• The hot regions
 known as ‘plumes’,
 upwelling masses of buoyant mantle
 on a large scale  ‘superplumes’ that probably originate from
the core–mantle boundary.

• Above the hot buoyant mass of a superplume

 the continental crust is uplifted on a vast scale
 generate high plateau areas

• Plateaux are distant from any plate boundary,

 important areas of erosion
 generation of detritus for supply to sedimentary basins.
MORPHOLOGY OF CONTINENTAL MARGINS
IN THE WORLD
 COLLISION SYSTEM
 ACTIVE CONTINENTAL MARGIN
 ISLAND ARC
 PASSIVE CONTINENTAL MARGIN
 Morphology of Rift and
Juvenile Passive Continental margin
 GLOBAL CLIMATE
• The climate belts around the world are principally controlled by latitude

• The amount of energy from the Sun per unit area

 Less in polar regions
 Higher in equatorial zones
 Temperature gradient from pole to the Equator.

• These temperature variations determine the atmospheric pressure belts:

 high pressure regions occur at the poles
 low pressure at the Equator

• These differences in pressure give

 move air masses (wind) between areas of high pressure in the
subtropical and polar zones
 to regions of low pressure in between .
 GLOBAL CLIMATE
• The Coriolis force imparted by the rotation of the globe
 influences air movements
 produce a basic pattern of winds around the Earth.

• The Coriolis force is a consequence of the movement

 any body travelling towards or away from the poles
 over the surface of a rotating sphere

• such that any moving object – an air mass, water in the ocean,
 Will be deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere
 Will be deflectede to the left in the southern hemisphere
 GLOBAL CLIMATE
• The combination of temperature distribution and wind belts gives rise to
four main climate zones.

 Polar regions, lie mainly north and south of the Arctic and Antarctic
circles. They are regions of high pressure and low temperatures with
conditions above freezing only part of the year.

 Temperate, Between about 60° and 30° either side of the Equator,
moist mid-latitude climate belts which have strongly seasonal climates
and moderate levels of precipitation.

 The dry subtropical, variable in width depending on the configuration

of land masses in the latitudes of the tropics.

 Wet equatorial, zone of high rainfall and high temperatures.

 GLOBAL CLIMATE

The present-day world climate belts.

 WEATHERING PROCESSES
• Rock that is close to the land surface is subject to
 physical and chemical modification
 By a number of different weathering processes

• Start with water percolating

 down into joints formed by stress release as the rock
comes close to the surface
 most intense at the surface and in the soil profile.

• Weathering is the breakdown, alteration of bedrock by

 mechanical and chemical processes
 create a regolith (layer of loose material)
 available for transport away from the site
WEATHERING PROCESSES
 Physical weathering
These are processes that break the solid rock into pieces
 may separate the different minerals without involving any chemical
reactions.

The most important agents in this process are as follows.

 Freeze–thaw action
• Water entering cracks in rock expands upon freezing, forcing the
cracks to widen

• this process is also known as frost shattering

• extremely effective in areas that regularly fluctuate around 08° such

as high mountains in temperate climates and in polar regions .
 Physical weathering
Salt growth
• Seawater or other water containing dissolved
salts may also penetrate into cracks, especially
in coastal areas.

• Upon evaporation of the water, salt crystals

form and their growth generates localised, but
significant, forces

• can further open cracks in the rock.

 Physical weathering
 Temperature changes
• Rapid changes in temperature occur in some desert
areas where the temperature can fluctuate by several
tens of degrees Celsius between day and night;

• if different minerals expand and contract at different

rates, the internal forces created could cause the rock
to split.

• This process is referred to as exfoliation, as thin layers

break off the surface of the rock.
 Chemical weathering
Chemical wheathering involve changes to the minerals that make up a
rock. The reactions that can take place are as follows.

• Solution
 Most rock-forming silicate minerals have very low solubility in pure
water at the temperatures at the Earth’s surface.

 It is only under conditions of strongly alkaline waters that silica

becomes moderately soluble.

 Carbonate minerals are moderately soluble, especially if the

groundwater (water passing through bedrock close to the surface) is
acidic.

 Most soluble are evaporite minerals such as halite (sodium chloride)

and gypsum, which locally can form an important component of
sedimentary bedrock.
 Chemical weathering
• Hydrolysis

 Hydrolysis reactions depend upon the dissociation of H2O into

H⁺ and OH⁻ ions that occurs when there is an acidifying agent
present.

 Natural acids that are important in promoting hydrolysis include

carbonic acid (formed by the solution of carbon dioxide in
water) and humic acids, a range of acids formed by the bacterial
breakdown of organic matter in soils.

 Many silicates undergo hydrolysis reactions, for example the

formation of kaolinite (a clay mineral) from orthoclase (a
feldspar) by reaction with water
 Chemical weathering

• Oxidation
The most widespread evidence of oxidation is the
formation of iron oxides and hydroxides from
minerals containing iron.

The distinctive red-orange rust colour of ferric iron

oxides may be seen in many rocks exposed at the
surface, even though the amount of iron present
may be very small
 The products of weathering
• Material produced by weathering and erosion of material exposed on
continental land masses is referred to as terrigenous (meaning derived
from land).

• Terrigenous clastic detritus comprises minerals weathered out of bedrock,

lithic fragments and new minerals formed by weathering processes.

• Rock-forming minerals can be categorised in terms of their stability in the

surface environment .

• Stable minerals such as quartz are relatively unaffected by chemical

weathering processes and physical weathering simply separates the quartz
crystals from each other and from other minerals in the rock.
 The products of weathering
• Micas and orthoclase feldspars are relatively resistant to these processes.

• Plagioclase feldspars, amphiboles, pyroxenes and olivines all react very

readily under surface conditions and are only rarely carried away from the
site of weathering in an unaltered state.

• The most important products of the chemical weathering of silicates are

clay minerals .

• A wide range of clay minerals the most common are; kaolinite, illite,
chlorite and montmorillonite.

• Oxides of aluminium (bauxite) and iron (mainly haematite) also form

under conditions of extreme chemical weathering.
 The products of weathering

The relative stability of common silicate minerals under chemical weathering.

 Soil development
• Soil formation is an important stage in the
transformation of bedrock and regolith into detritus
available for transport and deposition.

• In situ (in place) physical and chemical weathering of

bedrock creates a soil that may be further modified by
biogenic processes.

• The roots of plants penetrating into bedrock can

enhance break-up of the underlying rock and the
accumulation of vegetation (humus) leads to a change
in the chemistry of the surface waters as humic acids
 Soil development
Regolith is a layer of loose
heterogeneous superficial
deposits
Covering solid rocks

In situ soil profile with a division into different horizons according to presence of
organic matter and degree of breakdown of the regolith.
 Soil development
• Soil profiles become thicker through time as bedrock is broken up and organic matter
accumulates,but a soil is also subject to erosion.

• Movement under gravity and by the action of flowing water may remove part or all of a soil
profile.

• These erosion processes may be acute on slopes and important on flatter-lying ground where
gullying may occur.

• The soil becomes disaggregated and contributes detritus to rivers.

• In temperate and humid tropical environments most of the sediment carried in rivers is likely
to have been part of a soil profile at some stage.

• Continental depositional environments are also sites of soil formation, especially the
floodplains of rivers.

• These soils may become buried by overlying layers of sediment and are preserved in the
stratigraphic record as fossil soils (palaeosols).
 EROSION AND TRANSPORT
• Weathering is the in situ breakdown of bedrock and erosion is the
removal of regolith material.

• Loose material on the land surface may be transported downslope under

gravity, it may be washed by water, blown away by wind, scoured by ice
or moved by a combination of these processes.

• Falls, slides and slumps are responsible for moving vast quantities of
material downslope in mountain areas

• but they do not move detritus very far, only down to the floor of the
valleys.

• The transport of detritus over greater distances normally involves water,

although ice and wind also play an important role in some environments .
 Erosion and transport under gravity
On steep slopes in mountainous areas and along cliffs movements downslope under gravity are
commonly the first stages in the erosion and transport of weathered material.
• Downslope movement, There is a spectrum of processes of movement of material
downslope .

• A landslide is a coherent mass of bedrock that has moved downslope without significantly
breaking up in the process.

• Many thousands of cubic metres of rock can be translated downhill retaining the internal
structure and stratigraphy of the unit.

• If the rock breaks up during its movement it is a rock fall, which accumulates as a chaotic
mass of material at the base of the slope.

• These movements of material under gravity alone may be triggered by an earthquake, by

undercutting at the base of the slope, or by other mechanisms, such as waterlogging of a
potentially unstable slope by a heavy rainfall.
.
 Erosion and transport under gravity
• Movement downslope may also occur when the regolith is lubricated by
water and there is soil creep.

• This is a much slower process than falls and slides and may not be
perceptible unless a hillside is monitored over a number of years.

• A process that may be considered to be intermediate between creep

movement and slides is slumping.

• Slumps are instantaneous events like slides but the material is plastic due
to saturation by water and it deforms during movement downslope.

• With sufficient water a slump may break up into a debris flow

 Scree and talus cones
• In mountain areas weathered detritus falls as grains, pebbles and boulders down
mountainsides to accumulate near the bottom of the slope.

• These accumulations of scree are often reworked by water, ice and wind but sometimes
remain preserved as talus cones, i.e. concentrations of debris at the base of gullies (

• These deposits are characteristically made up of angular to very angular clasts because
transport distances are very short, typically only a few hundred metres, so there is little
opportunity for the edges of the clasts to become abraded.

• A small amount of sorting and stratification may result from percolating water flushing
smaller particles down through the pile of sediment, but generally scree deposits are poorly
sorted and crudely stratified.

• Bedding is therefore difficult to see in talus deposits but where it can be seen the layers are
close to the angle of rest of loose aggregate material (around 30 degree).

• Talus deposits are distinct from alluvial fans because water does not play a role in the
transport and deposition
A scree slope or talus cone in a mountain area with strong physical weathering.
 Erosion and transport by water
• Erosion by water on hillsides is initially as a sheet wash, i.e. unconfined surface
run-off down a slope following rain.

• This overground flow may pick up loose debris from the surface and erode the
regolith.

• The quantity of water involved and its carrying capacity depends not only on the
amount of rainfall but also the characteristics of the surface:

• water runs faster down a steep slope, vegetation tends to reduce flow and trap
debris and a porous substrate results in infiltration of the surface water.

• Surface run-off is therefore most effective at carrying detritus during flash-flood

events on steep, impermeable slopes in sparsely vegetated arid regions.
 Erosion and transport by water
• Vegetation cover and thicker, permeable soils in temperate and tropical climates
tend to reduce the transport capacity of surface run-off.

• Sheet wash becomes concentrated into rills and gullies that confine the flow and
as these gullies coalesce into channels the headwaters of streams and rivers are
established.

• Rivers erode into regolith and bedrock as the turbulent flow scours at the floor
and margins of the channel, weakening them until pieces fall off into the stream.
Flow over soluble bedrock such as limestone also gradually removes material in
solution.

• Eroded material may be carried away in the stream flow as bedload, in

suspension, or in solution; the confluence of streams forms larger rivers, which
may feed alluvial fans, fluvial environments of deposition, lakes or seas.
 Erosion and transport by wind
• Winds are the result of atmospheric pressure differences that are partly due to
global temperature distributions

• Also local variations in pressure due to the temperature of water masses thatmove
with ocean currents, heat absorbed by land masses and cold air over high
glaciated mountain regions.

• A complex and shifting pattern of regions of high pressure (anticyclones) and low
pressure (depressions) regions generates winds all over the surface of the Earth.

• Winds experienced at the present day range up to storm force winds of 100km /h
to hurricanes that are twice that velocity.

• Winds are capable of picking up loose clay, silt and sand-sized debris from the land
surface.
 Erosion and transport by wind
• Wind erosion is most effective where the land surface is not bound by plants

• Hence it is prevalent where vegetation is sparse, in cold regions, such as near the
poles and in high mountains, and dry deserts.

• Dry floodplains of rivers, sandy beaches and exposed sand banks in rivers in any
climate setting may also be susceptible to wind erosion.

• Eroded fine material (up to sand grade) can be carried over distances of hundreds
or thousands of kilometres by the wind (Schutz 1980; Pye 1987).

• The size of material carried is related to the strength (velocity) of the air current.
 Erosion and transport by ice
• Glaciers in temperate mountain regions make a very significant
contribution to the erosion and transport of bedrock and regolith.

• The rate of erosion is between two and ten times greater in glaciated mountain areas
than in comparable unglaciated regions (Einsele 2000).

• In contrast, glaciers and ice sheets in polar regions tend to inhibit the
erosion of material because the ice is frozen to the bedrock: movement of
the ice in these polar ‘cold-based’ glaciers is mainly by shearing within the
ice body.

• In temperate (warmbased) glaciers, erosion of the bedrock by ice occurs

by two processes, abrasion and plucking.
 Erosion and transport by ice
• Glacial abrasion occurs by the frictional action of blocks of material embedded in
the ice (‘tools’) on the bedrock.

• These tools cut grooves, glacial striae, in the bedrock a few millimetres deep and
elongate parallel to the direction of ice movement:

• striae can hence be used to determine the pathways of ice flow long after the
ice has melted.

• The scouring process creates rock flour, clay and silt-sized debris that is
incorporated into the ice.

• Glacial plucking is most common where a glacier flows over an obstacle.

 DENUDATION AND LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION

• The lowering of the land surface by the combination of weathering and

erosion is termed denudation.

• Weathering and erosion processes are to some extent interdependent: it

is the combination of these processes that are of most relevance to
sedimentary geology,

• Rates and magnitudes at which denudation occurs and the implications

that this has on the supply of material to sedimentary environments.

• Rates of denudation are determined by a combination of topographic and

climatic factors, which in turn influence soil development and
vegetation, both of which also affect weathering and erosion.

• Different bedrock lithologies respond in different ways to these

combinations of physical, chemical and biological processes.
 Topography and relief
• A distinction needs to be made between the altitude of a terrain and its relief, which is the
change in the height of the ground over the area.

• A plateau region may be thousands of metres above sea level but if it is flat there may be
little difference in the rates of denudation across the plateau and a lowland region with a
comparable climate.

• With increasing relief the mechanical denudation rate increases as erosion processes are
more efficient.

• Rock falls and landslides are clearly more frequent on steepslopes than in areas of subdued
topography:

• Stream flow and overland water flow are faster across steeper slopes and hence have more
erosive power.

• A deeply incised topography consisting of steep sided valleys separated by narrow ridges
provides the greatest area of steep slopes for bedrock and regolith to be eroded.
 Topography and relief
• Relief tends to be greatest in areas that are undergoing uplift due to
tectonic activity and thermal doming due to hot-spots in the
mantle (Kearey & Vine 1996; Fowler 2005).

• Rejuvenation of the landscape by uplift occurs mainly around plate

boundaries, particularly convergent margins such as orogenic belts.

• In tectonically stable areas the relief is subdued due to weathering

and erosion resulting in a low, gentle topography.

• The cratonic centres of continental plates are typically regions of

low relief and hence rates of denudation are low.
 Climate controls on Denudation processes

• Chemical weathering processes are affected by factors that control the

rate and the pathway of the reactions.

• Water is essential to all chemical weathering processes and hence these

reactions are suppressed where water is scarce (e.g. in deserts).

• Temperature is also important, because most chemical reactions are more

vigorous at higher temperatures; hot climates therefore favour chemical
weathering.

• Water chemistry affects the reactions: the presence of acids enhances

hydrolysis and dissolved oxidising agents facilitate oxidation reactions
(Einsele 2000).
 Climate controls on Denudation processes
• The rates and efficiency of the reactions vary with different bedrock types.

• Rates of erosion are climatically controlled;

• The availability of water is important to the removal of regolith by sheetwash and the
extent to which rivers and streams erode soil and bedrock.

• Temperature is also significant: the presence of ice is important in

mountains because wet-based, rapidly moving glaciers are more efficient
at moving detritus than rivers.

• Denudation rates are therefore related to climatic regime, and general

patterns can be recognised in each of the main global climate belts.
 Wet tropical regions
• In hot, wet, tropical areas, chemical weathering is enhanced because of the higher
temperatures and abundance of water.

• Bedrock in these areas is typically deeply weathered and highly altered at the
surface:

• seemingly resistant lithologies such as granite are reduced to quartz grains and
clay as the feldspars and other silicate minerals are altered by surfac weathering
processes.

• In general, chemical weathering results in fine-grained detritus and partial solution

of the bedrock.

• High rainfall gives rise to high discharge in streams, although the dense permanent
vegetation in these settings reduces soil erosion by surface water, even on quite
steep slopes
 Arid subtropical regions
• The limited availability of water in arid regions means that chemical weathering
processes are subdued.

• The bedrock is frequently barren of soil or vegetation cover, so when rainfall does
occur it has little residence time on the land surface, and hence little time for
chemical alteration to take place.

• Mechanical breakdown can be significant, especially in desert regions where cold

nights and warm days promote freeze–thaw action, using whatever water is
available.

• The absence of soil and vegetation means that infrequent but violent rainstorms
can be very effective at removing surface detritus: flash-floods carry higher
amounts of detritus than equivalent volumes of water occurring steadily over a
longer time.

• Fine-grained debris is removed from the regolith by wind ablation, which is

significant in barren desert areas.
 Polar and cold mountain regions
• Chemical weathering is less significant in cold, dry regions where chemical
reactions are slower.

• In these areas physical weathering processes are more effective, although these
too rely on the presence of water.

• The products of weathering in cold mountains are typically debris of the bedrock,
broken up but with little or no change in the mineral composition.

• A granite breaks down into gravel clasts, plus grains of quartz, feldspar and other
rock-forming minerals.

• Most of the products of physical weathering are hence coarse material with little
clay generated or solution of the rock.
 Polar and cold mountain regions
• Mountain glaciers are very powerful agents of erosion as they move downslope
over rock, but in polar regions the ice is permanently frozen to bedrock and
erosion due to glacial action is minimal .

• Periglacial regions (areas that border glaciers) have a seasonal cover of snow that
melts in the summer months.

• The ground may remain frozen at depths of a few metres all year round
(permafrost ) and water accumulating near the surface may eventuallysaturate the
regolith and promote slumping on slopes.

• Repeated freezing and thawing of the regolith may also lead to creep downslope.
Wind ablation is important because of the sparse vegetation cover in subarctic
areas.
 Bedrock lithology and denudation
• The type of bedrock is a fundamental control on the rates and patterns of
denudation.

• The main factor is the rate at which weathering processes break down the rock to
make material available for erosion.

• The greatest variability is seen in humid climates where chemical weathering

processes are dominant because different lithologies are broken down, and hence
eroded, at widely different rates.

• The proportions of the rock-forming silicate minerals are the main factor: quartz-
rich rocks are least susceptible to breakdown, whereas mafic rocks such as basalts
are rapidly weathered and eroded.
 Bedrock lithology and denudation
• Large amounts of clay minerals are generated by the denudation of
terrains such as volcanic arcs, which are composed mainly of basaltic to
andesitic rocks.

• Under extreme chemical weathering of silicate rocks deep lateritic soils

develop: laterites are red soils composed mainly of iron oxides and
aluminium oxides.

• Limestone bedrock is primarily weathered by dissolution, and the pattern

of denudation is therefore dominated by development of karst scenery

• Solution related to joints and fractures in the rock leads to the formation
of deep, steep-sided canyons on the surface and cave systems
underground.
 Bedrock lithology and denudation
• Little clastic detritus is generated from the denudation of limestone
terrains: conglomerates of limestone clasts may form near the site of
erosion, but most of the material is in solution, with sandsized detritus
largely absent.

• A characteristic scenery also forms where the bedrock is poorly lithified:

badland terrains form by the deep erosion of weakly consolidated
sandstones and mudstones as large amounts of detritus are carried away.
 SEA-LEVEL CHANGES
AND SEDIMENTATION
• There is evidence from around the world today that the position of the shoreline is
not constant, even in the geologically short time-span of historical records.

• The first obvious cause is tectonic activity that moves the crust vertically, as well as
the horizontal movements due to plate motion.

• Second, there can be changes in the volume of water in the world’s oceans: this is
called ‘eustatic sea-level change’ (eustasy) and is caused by melting and freezing of
continental ice caps, among other things.

 Debates about the effects of global warming on the level of the sea worldwide have brought this
phenomenon to the attention of most people.

• Third, there is the effect of sedimentation: sand, gravel and mud piled up at the
shoreline can result in the shoreline moving away from its formerposition.
 SEA-LEVEL CHANGES
AND SEDIMENTATION
• These three factors ;
 tectonic uplift/subsidence,
 eustatic sea-level rise/fall, and
 sedimentation

• The character of sediment deposited in environments ranging from

 rivers and floodplains to
 shorelines,
 shelves and even
 deep seas i
• some way influenced by these three factors.

• The study of the relationships between sea-level changes and

sedimentation is often referred to as ‘sequencestratigraphy’.
 DENUDATION AND SEDIMENT SUPPLY:
SUMMARY
• The flux of material as bedload, suspended load and ions in solution to
depositional environments is a primary control on the character of the sediments
and facies that ultimately form.

• Thick successions of evaporite minerals cannot precipitate in lacustrine

environments without an abundant supply of the relevant anions and cations
from rivers draining nearby uplands.

• The characteristics of deltaic facies are fundamentally controlled by the grain size
of the sediment supplied, and, in fact, a delta can only form if there is sufficient
sediment supply in the first place.

• Carbonate-forming environments on shallow marine shelves can exist only in

places where there is a reduced flux of terrigenous clastic material .

• The starting point in any holistic view of depositional systems is therefore the
source of the sediment and the linked tectonic and climatic processes that
ultimately control the denudation of continental landmasses.
TERIMAKASIH