STRATIGRAPHY

GEO132

FLUVIAL ENVIRONMENTS

INTRODUCTION
 A stream or river is essentially a unidirectional flow confined to a channel
 Detritus farther removed from the source makes its way to the sea, carried along by the
great freshwater vascular system that drains the lands
 A channel changes along its length
 Size, gradient, channel pattern, discharge, and nature of sediment load change
progressively
 A river constantly changes. Arranging, and rearranging, adjusting, and exchanging its
sedimentary load
 There is a net erosion in the upper reaches of the stream and net deposition in the
downstream reaches

PHYSIOGRAPHY
 There are there styles of river:
o Meandering
o Braided
o Anastomosing
 These styles of river produce different kinds of sedimentary deposit
 The types of rivers are classified using the concept of sinuosity
o Sinuosity is the ratio of channel length to valley length
L
o S= channel
Lvalley
o Channels that have a sinuosity of less than 1.5 are said to be straight
 Braiding Index
o Twice the total length of islands and braid bars divided by valley length
2( Ltot )
 BI=
Lv
o This is an approximation of the sum of island or bar perimeters in a reach
o Note: for a straight channel S = 1 while BI = 0
 Braided refers to the multi-channel streams of low sinuosity and “anastomosing” to multi-
channel high-sinuosity streams

DEPOSITS OF MEANDERING STREAMS

 Channel Deposits
o Deposits formed within the active channel
o Channel lag deposit
 A lenticular sheet composed of the coarsest or heaviest materials available to the
river
 These accumulate in the deepest part of the channel along the thalweg
 Thinly and discontinuously mantle an erosion surface that represent the bottom of
the channel that has migrated laterally and are overlain by the finer-grained point
bar deposit
o Point Bar Deposit
 Arcuate or crescentic body of sand and maybe some gravely that forms by lateral
accretion on the convex bank of a river meander
 A major deposit
 Grain size decreases upward ad downstream
 Fining-upward is a distinctive characteristic of a fluvial sandstone
 Elongate or broad tabular sand bodies embedded in or interbedded with much
finer grained overbank deposits
 Scroll Bars
 A system of arcuate swells
 The top of a point bar deposit typically has a corrugated “accretional”
topography
 Reflect episodic lateral accretion of the point bar sheet due to variations in the
discharge and stage of the river
 Chute
 A minor channel
 A chute bar forms near the downstream end of the point bar where the chute
reneters the main flow
o Overbank Deposits
 Made by river floodwaters outside the channel
 Finer-grained than channel deposits
 Swale-fill Deposits
 Mud and plant debris laid down during flood in the furrows or swales between
scroll bars
 Levee Deposits
 Closest to the hannel
 Overlies swale fills
 Deposited by floodwaters out of the suspended load
 Thickest or highest at the channel bank and tapers onto the floodplain
 Grain size decreases distally away from the channel
  Sandy beds exhibit ripple cross lamination they are draped or overlain by
laminated muds
 Floodbasin Deposits
 Forms beyond the levees and near the margins of the floodplain
 Made of thin, muddy layers that settle out of the broad, shallow, ponded
floodwaters
 Finest-grained of all overbank deposits
 Muds are laminated or bioturbated and there may be some root mold,
desiccation cracks, films of evaporitic salts
 Organic matter may be abundant
 Crevasse-splay deposits
 Overlies the levee and floodbasin deposits
 Forms wehre floodwaters have breached the levee and spilled out onto its
gentle backslope and onto the floodplain
 Palmate or lobate bodies of sandy river sediment, generally thinner than a
meter locally incised into levee deposits
 Somewhat coarser than the sediments that make up the levees
 Bear thin tabular cross-bedding, flat lamination, and ripple lamination
 Channel-fill Deposits
 Overbank deposits made in channel segements rendered inactive by avulsion,
chute run-off, or meander neck cut-off
 Tends to be more resistant to erosion than point bar deposits and constrain the
meander belt to some degree
 Oxbow Lake
o Abandoned channel segement that remains after a meander cut-off
typically contains standing water
o Eventually fills with muddy, organics-rich lacustrine or river-flood
sediments
o Forms a curvate “plug” that partially circumscribes point bar deposits
o Muds may be laminated in part and bioturbated in parts.
o Roots may penetrate the top layer of the fill

DEPOSITS OF BRAIDED STREAMS

 Bedload is coarse and more voluminous than meandering streams
 Results when a channel deposits the coarser components of its bedload as medial braid bar
that splits the flow
 Longitudinal Bars
o Thin sheets of rhomboidal plan and elongate parallel to the main flow
 o Braid bars show fining upward. Clast orientation and imbrication, tabular cross
bedding with reactivation surfaces, and horizontal bedding that overlies cross bed
sets if they are present.
 Transverse Bars
o Has sinuous crests and slip faces arrayed across the channel.
o Grow and migrate in the downstream direction and produce extensive tabular
cross-bed cosets.