STRATIGRAPHY

GEO132

DELTAIC ENVIRONMENTS

INTRODUCTION
 Progradational deposits made where the channel-confined flow of a river expands and
decelerates into standing water and drops its load
 Named after its “triangular” shape
 The architecture of a delta is determined by sub-delta bathymetry, by the rate of influx of
riverine sediments, nature of permanent ocean currents, and its texture

PHYSIOGRAPHY
 A delta has three physiographically contrasting parts
o Prodelta
 Deep-water region
 Sediments are deposited slowly
 bottomset
o Delta Front
 Site of most abundant sedimentation
 Progrades overt the prodelta
 foreset
o Delta platform
 Emergent or nearly emergent portion of the delta
 Heterogeneous sedimentation occurs in distributary channels, on levees, and
splays, in lakes and marhses, beaches, and barrier islands, lagoons, and tidal flats
 Topset
 The areal plan of the delta is governed by the relative importance of fluvial, wave, and
tidal processes.
o River-dominated
 Deposites made by distributaries
 Including deposits within the channel, in overbank sites, and at the channel mouth
 Elongateor birdfoot plans
o Wave-dominated
 Cuspate plan
 Form from continuous reworking of riverine sediments by ocean waves
 Associated with longshore currents
o Tide-dominated
 Irregular, estuarine plans
 Distributaries flare onto tide-swept platforms
  Tidal currents flow up and down the river channels on a regular basis and modify
riverine sediments into shore-perpendicular tidal ridges

DELTAIC SEDIMENTS AND SEDIMENTATION

 Subaqueous levees
o Lateral deposits that are underwater extensions of channel levees
 Channel-mouth bars
o Site of the most rapid sedimentation
o Fan-shaped or lobate caps of sand on subaqueous muddy “bulges” that form beyond
the mouth of a channel.
 Plane Jet
o A flat plume formed due to the emergence of river water from the channel mouth
with sufficient momentum
o As the jet decelerates and expands laterally it gradually drops suspended sediments
 Bar finger
o Forms due to channel-mouth sedimentation and channel elongation
o An elongate body that is tens of meters thick, doubly convex in transverse section
o Coarsens upward as the lower parts are deposited farthest from the channel mouth
 Levees
o Small near channel mouths
 Crevasse Splays
o Lobate wedges of sand and mud that ae channeled proximally and thicken distally
o Interbedded with other interdistributary deposits
o Splay Development
 Splays are particularly common in deltaic settings, forming as smaller deltas
within flooded areas adjacent to major channels. Splay growth is the primary
process for filling the space between distributary channels in fluvially-
dominated deltas.
 Prodelta mud
o Forms the foundation of the delta
o A thin layer and the most continuous of all delta deposits
 Distal Bar Sediments
o Laminated, contain thin graded beds or slumped sediments
 Ancient Deltas
o Records a typically coarsening-upward succession of mudstones and sandstones
o Fully marine at the bottom, non-marine or marginal-marine at the top
o The thickness reflects the depth of the body of water into which the delta prograded
o Thickness is also affected by tectonic subsidence or sea-level rise
 Channel Bifurcation
 o As fluvial flow enters a standing body of water, it rapidly loses velocity, decreasing
its capacity to transport sediment. The coarsest material is deposited in mid-channel,
forming a channel-mouth bar. Flow diverts around the bar, depositing additional
sediment in the form of channel margin bars or levees. The process repeats for
increasingly numerous, but smaller, channels as the delta advances basinward.

DELTA-MARGIN PROCESSES
 The edges of delta platforms are coasts and are sites of coastal depositional and erosional
processes
 These processes exert influence on the delta architecture

DELTA SUBSIDENCE AND OTHER DEFORMATIONS

 Some subsidence is due to loading of the crust, some is due to earl compaction and
dewatering of rapidly deposited sediments
 Localized rapid deposition such as on mouth bars causes instabilities that give rise to
slumps and debris flows, and turbidity currents the flow basinward onto the prodelta of
deeper waters
 Deformations
o Growth faults

 result from downdip increasing sedimentation rates; they develop

contemporaneously with sedimentation.

o Mud diapirs

 may form when thick prodelta deposits are covered by mouth-bar sands.

o Slumping
 can lead to the anomalous occurrence of shallow-water facies in prodelta deposits.

FLOW TYPES
 Homocypnal Flow
o If stream flow density is equal to that of the basin, the two mix thoroughly, leading to
rapid deposition of both coarse-and fine-grained sediment, producing Gilbert-type
deltas. This is typical of delta-building into freshwater lakes.a
o Gilbert-Type Deltas
 formed under conditions of homopycnal flow and consist of three major
components: bottomset beds of mud deposited by suspension in advance of the
delta; foreset beds composed of sand and gravel forming the delta front; and fluvial
topset deposits of gravel, sand, and mud.
 Hypercypnal Flow
o If stream flow density is greater than that of the basin, the flow remains in contact with
 the basin floor, eroding the previous surface and forming turbidite-like deposits. This
can occur where cold, sediment-laden water flows into a warm, clear lake or ocean.
 Hypocypnal Flow
o If stream flow density is less than that of the basin, after dropping the coarse load
fraction, fine sediment spreads like a blanket across the sea surface, slowly settling to
the sea floor. This is the typical condition for the generation of most marine deltas.

ESTUARINE SYSTEMS
 Estuarine systems are deltaic systems that form within drowned river valleys during the
latter stages of marine transgression into early stages of regression. They are smaller in
scale than deltas and tend to be dominated by a mixture of fluvial and tidal processes.