Deep-Water Turbidites and Submarine Fans

2006 ◽  
pp. 399-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
HENRY W. POSAMENTIER ◽  
ROGER G. WALKER
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
Submarine Fans

scholarly journals Autogenic influence on the morphology of submarine fans: an approach from 3D physical modelling of turbidity currents

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-368
Author(s):  
Cristiano Fick ◽  
Rafael Manica ◽  
Elírio Ernestino Toldo Junior
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
Physical Modelling ◽  
Sediment Concentration ◽  
Experimental Series ◽  
Turbidity Currents ◽  
Geometrical Parameters ◽  
Submarine Fans ◽  
Relative Standard ◽  
Length Width ◽  
Depositional Evolution

ABSTRACT: Autogenic controls have significant influence on deep-water fans and depositional lobes morphology. In this work, we aim to investigate autogenic controls on the topography and geometry of deep-water fans. The influence of the sediment concentration of turbidity currents on deep-water fans morphology was also investigated. From the repeatability of 3D physical modeling of turbidity currents, two series of ten experiments were made, one of high-density turbidity currents (HDTC) and another of low-density turbidity currents (LDTC). All other input parameters (discharge, sediment volumetric concentration and grain size median) were kept constant. Each deposit was analyzed from qualitative and quantitative approaches and statistical analysis. In each experimental series, the variability of the morphological parameters (length, width, L/W ratio, centroid, area, topography) of the simulated deep-water fans was observed. Depositional evolution of the HDTC fans was more complex, showing four evolutionary steps and characterized by the self-channelizing of the turbidity current, while LDTC fans neither present self-channelizing, nor evolutionary steps. High disparities on the geometrical parameters of the fans, as characterized by the elevated relative standard deviation, suggest that autogenic controls induced a stochastic morphological behaviour on the simulated fans of the two experimental series.

scholarly journals Paleoenvironmental change recorded in submarine fans: the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition in the Alpine foreland basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Euan Soutter ◽  
Ian Kane ◽  
Ander Martínez-Doñate ◽  
Adrian Boyce ◽  
Jack Stacey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Foreland Basin ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Submarine Fan ◽  
Paleoenvironmental Change ◽  
Submarine Fans ◽  
Alpine Foreland ◽  
Alpine Foreland Basin

The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) was a period of considerable environmental change, signifying the transition from Paleocene greenhouse to Oligocene icehouse conditions. Preservation of the sedimentary signal of such an environmental change is most likely in net-depositional environments, such as submarine fans, which are the terminal parts of sedimentary systems. Here, using sedimentological and stable isotope data from the Alpine foreland basin, we assess whether this major climatic transition influenced the stratigraphic evolution of submarine fans. Results indicate that submarine fan retreat in the Alpine foreland basin corresponds with positive δ13C excursions related to major global perturbations of the carbon cycle and cooling in the earliest Oligocene. Submarine fan retreat is suggested to be influenced by this cooling through enhanced aridity and reduced subaerial runoff from the Corsica-Sardinia hinterland. The influence of aridity was periodically overwhelmed by local environmental factors, such as hinterland uplift, which increased sediment supply to deep-water during arid periods. These results highlight that: 1) hinterland climate may play a greater role than sea-level in dictating sediment supply to deep-water and, 2) submarine fan evolution occurs through a complex interplay between climate, eustasy and tectonics, which makes robust interpretations of paleoenvironmental change from their stratigraphic record, without multi-proxy records, difficult.

A critical appraisal of Archean basin–craton complexes

1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 1213-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger G. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Alluvial Fan ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
Alluvial Fans ◽  
Submarine Fans ◽  
Facies Associations ◽  
Tectonic Style ◽  
Iron Formations ◽  
Basin Margin

Attempts have recently been made to define basins in the Superior Province. Criteria for outlining basin margins include the presence of oxide iron-formations, coarse clastic deposits, and felsic volcanics. However, oxide iron-formations commonly occur with turbidites in deep water, and do not define basin margins. Coarse clastics occur in two environmental settings in the Superior Province — subaerial alluvial fans and deep water submarine fans. They can only be used as basin margin indicators in the most general way. In many areas, submarine fan conglomerates stratigraphically overlie alluvial fan conglomerates, implying rapidly migrating 'basin margins' through time. An unjustified assumption has also been that the coarse clastics in any one 'basin' are time-equivalent. If they are diachronous, they do not necessarily define any one particular basin margin. There appears to be no a priori reason why felsic volcanics should mark basin margins unless the tectonic style of the basin has been assumed beforehand.Published maps of Archean basins purport to show the above facies associations at the 'margins'. Reexamination of the data shows that outlining the 'basins' is highly subjective, and that even in well mapped areas (Abitibi and Wabigoon basins), interpretation is ambiguous. Instead of an Archean craton in the Superior Province with many small basins, the data also suggest an Archean ocean with many small landmasses. Some of these are sialic and quiescent, some sialic with active volcanism, and some are entirely volcanic.

Deep-water facies and depositional setting of the lower Conception Group (Hadrynian), southern Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1579-1594 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gardiner ◽  
R. N. Hiscott
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
Bottom Current ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Volcanic Arcs ◽  
Submarine Fans ◽  
Basin Floor ◽  
Volcanic Islands ◽  
Depositional Setting ◽  
Avalon Peninsula ◽  
Water Facies

The lower part of the Hadrynian Conception Group is exposed in coastal outcrops near Holyrood Pond, St. Mary's Bay. Deep-water sediments of the Mall Bay Formation (>800 m) are overlain by glaciogenic debris flows of the Gaskiers Formation (250–300 m) and then by renewed turbidite deposition in the lower part of the Drook Formation (1000 m examined; formation thickness 1500 m). The main facies in the Mall Bay and Drook formations are thinly to very thickly bedded sand stone–mudstone couplets (turbidites), amalgamated in the thicker and coarser beds, and graded-stratified siltstones–mudstones. These are interpreted as deposits on an extensive basin floor and on the lower and middle parts of small-scale submarine fans that prograded from fringing volcanic islands. Paleocurrent data indicate a complex paleogeography dominated by active volcanic islands, probably like some modern volcanic arcs. The Gaskiers Formation was generated by glaciation of these islands.The Malll Bay Formation contains lenticular and wavy bedded siltstones–mudstones interpreted as the deposits of bottom currents, perhaps flowing parallel to the contours of the volcanic islands. In Phanerozoic sediments, bottom-current deposits in this setting would probably be thoroughly bioturbated.

Regional implications of structural and eustatic controls in the evolution of submarine fans: an example from the Miocene Adana Basin, southern Turkey

1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEMAL GÜRBÜZ
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Submarine Fans ◽  
The North ◽  
Southern Turkey ◽  
Sea Fan ◽  
Local Tectonics ◽  
Stacking Patterns

Deep-sea fan development is generally thought to be controlled by a combination of changes in sea level, the shape and size of the basin in which the fans are growing, and the nature of the source area. The Early Miocene evolution of the eastern Mediterranean involved significant accumulation of deep-water clastic sediment in which the importance of each of these controlling factors can be evaluated. The deep-water clastic system located in the Adana Basin has been studied in detail. Two contemporaneous, small, radial, sand-rich submarine fans (one in the west and one in the east) exhibiting different scales, fan types and styles of deposition have been recognized within the Cingöz turbidite sequence of the northern Adana Basin in southern Turkey. Sedimentological studies indicate that the fans were controlled externally by tectonics and relative eustatic sea-level fall during late Serravallian time, in combination with the nature of the source area to the north. The internal architectural stacking patterns and external geometry of the two fan systems were strongly affected by the interaction of local tectonics and turbidity current pathways, including a major topographic confinement to the southeast that forced a vertical aggradation of the eastern fan and an east–west elongation of the western fan. This paper describes a classic example of a well-exposed deep-water clastic system where (1) tectonically driven sea-floor topography, (2) syn-sedimentary tectonism and (3) eustatic rise in sea level, are the primary controls on its development.

scholarly journals Sediment routing from shelf to basin floor in the Quaternary Golo System of Eastern Corsica, France, western Mediterranean Sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 132 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1217-1234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Sweet ◽  
Gwladys T. Gaillot ◽  
Gwenael Jouet ◽  
Tammy M. Rittenour ◽  
Samuel Toucanne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Submarine Canyons ◽  
Deposition Rates ◽  
Submarine Fans ◽  
Sediment Routing ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Glacial Periods

Abstract How and when sediment moves from shallow marine to deep-water environments is an important and poorly understood control on basin-scale sediment dispersal patterns, the evolution of continental margins, and hydrocarbon exploration in deep-water basins. The Golo River (Eastern Corsica, France), its delta, canyons, and fans provide a unique opportunity to study sediment routing from source to sink in a relatively compact depositional system. We studied this system using an array of high-frequency seismic data, multi-beam bathymetry, and five cores for lithology and age control. Movement of sediment to deep water was controlled by interactions between the Golo River, the Golo Delta, and shelf-penetrating submarine canyons. Sediment moved to deep water when lobes of the Golo Delta prograded to the heads of these canyons, or when the Golo River itself flowed directly into one of them. Sand accumulated in canyons, deep-water channels, and submarine fans during glacial periods of low sea level, while mud was deposited throughout the slope, in the relatively short reach of leveed-confined channels, and in the mud-rich fringes around the sandy fans. During interglacial periods of high sea level, the basin was blanketed by mud-rich deposits up to 10 m thick interbedded with distinctive carbonate-rich sediments. Deposition rates in the basin ranged from 0.07 m/ka to 0.59 m/ka over the last 450 ka. Mud deposition rates remained relatively constant at ∼0.16 m/ka during all time periods, while sand deposition only happened during glacial periods of low sea level with an average rate of 0.24 m/ka. In addition to sea-level controls on sediment delivery, avulsions of the Golo River and its deltaic lobes preferentially routed sediment down either the North or South Golo canyons. Thus, while the larger, sequence-scale architecture of the basin is controlled by allogenic sea level forcing, millennial-scale autogenic processes operating on the shelf and in deep water shaped the distribution of sand and mud, and the internal geometry of the deltas and submarine fans that they fed. While some aspects of the Golo system are characteristic of steep, tectonically active margins, others such as the nature of connections between rivers and shelf-penetrating submarine canyons are observed in most margins with active submarine fans regardless of their tectonic setting.

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