See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Recent Advances in Deepwater Sedimentology: Science Driven by the Search for Natural Resources
Abstract:
Precursor beds typically form packages 1-5 m thick consisting of massive, laterally continuous, medium-bedded, matrix-rich, medium-grained sandstone. These strata are interpreted to be deposited down flow of a hydraulic jump and represent the early stages of local lobe development and composed of sediment sourced from an adjacent, soon-to-be-deactivated lobe complex.
Precursor beds are abruptly overlain by a 5-55 m thick sandstone unit consisting of stacked, crudely graded sandstone beds up to 3 m thick. Extensive lateral continuity and homogeneity of these beds suggests that they were deposited from unconfined flows in a terminal-splay complex. About half of the sandstone units become finer-grained and more interstratified with thin-bedded turbidites upward, whereas others show little upward change. This dissimilarity probably reflects differences in position (distal versus proximal) on the lobe in relation to the main feeder channel system.
Sandstone units are sharply overlain and completely separated by laterally-continuous, fine-grained units 5-35 m thick. Typically, they consist of thin- to medium-bedded, very-fine sandstone turbidites interbedded with medium- to coarse-grained sandstone beds, and indicate local(?) abandonment of the lobe system due to upstream channel avulsion and lobe shifting.
Architecturally the three stacked units are continuous laterally for over 800 m, and are repeated 14 times in the exposed strata. The repetitive and consistent stacking of the three stratal units illustrates the dynamic, yet systematic nature of basin-floor lobe deposition.
See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Recent Advances in Deepwater Sedimentology: Science Driven by the Search for Natural Resources