Bedform and stratification characteristics of some modern small-scale washover sand bodies

Washover sand bodies commonly develop along microtidal coastlines in beach/barrier island or spit settings. Wave runup, usually in conjunction with an abnormally high water level, may overtop the most landward berm of the beach and the foredune crest, if one exists, to produce overwash and subsequent runoff across the more landward subaerial surface. Two main elements of the resulting deposit are the washover fan and runoff channel. Newly formed, small-scale washover deposits were examined along the Outer Banks, North Carolina, near Pt Mugu, California, and at Presque Isle (Lake Erie), Pennsylvania. The fans were formed in response to unidirectional landward transport, and the runoff channels in response to unidirectional flow usually in a landward direction, but sometimes in shore-parallel then seaward direction. Where overwash carried across the fan surface and entered a pond or lagoon, a small-scale delta (microdelta) developed. In this case, the washover fan consisted of two subfacies, the wetted, but ‘subaerial’ part of the fan and the subaqueous washover delta. Flow associated with the development of the fan and runoff channel produced distinctive sets of bedforms and internal stratification. High velocity discontinuous surges moving across the fan surface resulted in the development of a plane bed and subhorizontal to low-angle (landward dipping) planar stratification which comprised the major part of the fan. Similarly, rhomboid forms were produced by high velocity sheet flow across the fan surface. Where flow carried into a standing body of water, delta-type foreset strata developed. For this case, the lateral structural sequence was subhorizontal, planar stratification merging landward into landward dipping, delta (tabular) foreset strata. In the runoff setting, where flow became channelized and continuous, both upper-flow and lower-flow regime currents were typical. Upper-flow regime bedforms included antidunes, standing waves, and plane beds. The most commonly observed lower-flow regime bedforms included microdelta-like bars, low-amplitude bars, linguoid ripples, and sinuous-crested current ripple trains. The sets of sedimentary structures comprising modern washover sand bodies provide criteria for the identification of similar deposits in ancient sediments and for more specific interpretation of the environment.     

Sedimentology of gravelly Lake Lahontan highstand shoreline deposits,Churchill Butte,Nevada, USA

Gravelly shoreline deposits of the latest Pleistocene highstand of Lake Lahontan occur in pristine depositional morphology, and are exposed in gravel pits along Churchill Butte in west-central Nevada. Four environments differentiated at this site are alluvial fan/colluvium, lakeshore barrier spit, lake lower-shoreface spit platform, and lake bottom. Lakeshore deposits abut, along erosional wave headcuts, either unsorted muddy to bouldery colluvium fringing Churchill Butte bedrock, or matrix-supported, cobbly and pebbly debris-flow deposits of the Silver Springs fan. The lakeshore barrier spit is dominated by granule pebble gravel concentrated by wave erosion of the colluvial and alluvial-fan facies. The lakeward side of the barrier consists of beachface deposits of well-sorted granules or pebbles in broad, planar beds 1–10 cm thick and sloping 10–15°. They interfinger downslope with thicker (10–25 cm) and less steep (5–10°) lakeward-dipping beds of fine to medium pebble gravel of the lake upper shoreface. Interstratified with the latter are 10–40-cm-thick sets of high-angle cross-beds that dip southward, alongshore. Higher-angle (15–20°), landward-dipping foresets of similar texture but poorer sorting comprise the proximal backshore on the landward side of the barrier. They were deposited during storm surges that overtopped the barrier berm. Gastropod-rich sand and mud, also deposited by storm-induced washover, are found landward of the gravel foresets in a 15-m-wide backshore pond. Algal stromatolites, ostracodes, and diatoms accumulated in this pond between storm events. The lake lower shoreface, extending from water depths of 2 to 8 m, consists of a southward-prograding spit platform built by longshore drift. The key component of this platform is large-scale sandy pebble gravel in 16° southward-dipping `Gilbert' foresets that grade at a water depth of about 6–7 m to 4°-dipping sandy toesets. A shift from bioturbated lower-shoreface sand and silt, to flat and laminated lake-bottom silt and mud, occurs between water depths of 10–40 m and over a shore-normal distance of ≥250 m. This lake-bottom mud facies, unlike the others, is areally expansive.     

Physical criteria for distinguishing sandy tsunami and storm deposits using modern examples

Modern subaerial sand beds deposited by major tsunamis and hurricanes were compared at trench, transect, and sub-regional spatial scales to evaluate which attributes are most useful for distinguishing the two types of deposits. Physical criteria that may be diagnostic include: sediment composition, textures and grading, types and organization of stratification, thickness, geometry, and landscape conformity.

Published reports of Pacific Ocean tsunami impacts and our field observations suggest that sandy tsunami deposits are generally < 25 cm thick, extend hundreds of meters inland from the beach, and fill microtopography but generally conform to the antecedent landscape. They commonly are a single homogeneous bed that is normally graded overall, or that consists of only a few thin layers. Mud intraclasts and mud laminae within the deposit are strong evidence of tsunami deposition. Twig orientation or other indicators of return flow during bed aggradation are also diagnostic of tsunami deposits. Sandy storm deposits tend to be > 30 cm thick, generally extend < 300 m from the beach, and will not advance beyond the antecedent macrotopography they are able to fill. They typically are composed of numerous subhorizontal planar laminae organized into multiple laminasets that are normally or inversely graded, they do not contain internal mud laminae and rarely contain mud intraclasts. Application of these distinguishing characteristics depends on their preservation potential and any deposit modifications that accompany burial.

The distinctions between tsunami and storm deposits are related to differences in the hydrodynamics and sediment-sorting processes during transport. Tsunami deposition results from a few high-velocity, long-period waves that entrain sediment from the shoreface, beach, and landward erosion zone. Tsunamis can have flow depths greater than 10 m, transport sediment primarily in suspension, and distribute the load over a broad region where sediment falls out of suspension when flow decelerates. In contrast, storm inundation generally is gradual and prolonged, consisting of many waves that erode beaches and dunes with no significant overland return flow until after the main flooding. Storm flow depths are commonly < 3 m, sediment is transported primarily as bed load by traction, and the load is deposited within a zone relatively close to the beach.     

Tsunami washover deposits, Tawharanui, New Zealand

Barrier dunes on the northern side of the Tawharanui Peninsula, north of Auckland, New Zealand, appear to have been overtopped by extreme waves that have deposited two large sand washover lobes in a back beach wetland. Present-day storm surges and storm waves are incapable of overtopping the barrier dunes. However, historical data and numerical models indicate tsunamis are amplified by resonance within the adjacent bay and Hauraki Gulf. Further, the location of nearshore reefs in close proximity to the washover lobes suggests that the interaction between tsunamis and the reefs further amplified the waves at those locations. The presence of a distinctive pumice (Loisels Pumice) within the washover deposits suggests that the deposits are associated with a 15th Century eruption from the submarine Mt Healy caldera located northeast of New Zealand.     

Investigation of large-scale washover of a small barrier system on the southeast Australian coast using ground penetrating radar

Prehistoric depositional signatures for large-scale washover involving marine inundation events such as storms and tsunami have been the subject of considerable research over the last 15 years. Much of this research has focused on the identification of sandsheets in back-barrier environments as depositional records for extreme washover events. All these deposits must have a sediment source and, by their nature, the most likely source of sediment for washover into back-barrier environments is the barrier itself. This study identifies an erosional signature for large-scale washover from a small coastal barrier on the southeast Australian coast. A distinct lens of marine sand, up to 90 cm thick, confined vertically by peat, is found in the upper fill of a closed freshwater back-barrier lagoon sequence. This sand lens is attributed to a large-scale washover event during the last 800 years, and was possibly deposited by a tsunami. The hypothesis for this study was that any event that breached the dune system must have caused considerable geomorphic change to the dunes and hence may have left an erosional signature. Ground penetrating radar transects of the system show an erosional contact between a series of truncated pre-event dunes and several small overlying post-event dunes. This study outlines a relatively simple non-invasive method for the identification of an erosional signature for prehistoric large-scale washovers caused by storm surge, exceptionally large waves, or tsunami.     

Shell bed tempestites in the Chenier Plain of Louisiana: late Holocene example and modern analogue

Hurricane Ike's storm surge deposited a concentrated shell bed in the form of a series of coalescing washover fans over backshore sand and adjoining marshland in part of southwest Louisiana's Chenier Plain. The shell bed is a tempestite and has distinctive morphological, sedimentological and biogenic characteristics that provide a modern analogue to aid interpretation of older shell bed tempestites in the geological record. The shell bed has a wedge‐shaped profile that thickens landward, is about 40 m wide, up to 27 cm thick and extends several hundred metres parallel to the shore. Shells are predominantly disarticulated valves of the common bivalve Mulinia lateralis, probably reworked and transported landward from skeletal remains offshore. The shell bed has an erosional base, is bioclast supported, normally graded and has common mud rip‐up clasts. Similarities between the modern shell bed and another concentrated shell deposit, forming part of a sandy beach ridge some 1.5 km inland, suggest that the palaeo shell deposit is also a tempestite recording hurricane washover of a former shoreline 600 a ago. These findings demonstrate that the shell bed deposited by Hurricane Ike is a valuable analogue for palaeotempestological investigations and that hurricanes have likely contributed to the construction of both modern berm ridges and palaeo beach ridges on this coastal plain. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

浙江桐庐晚奥陶世晚期沉积层序和沉积环境分析

文昌组上段顶部是一套潮汐层理非常发育的泥质砂岩或砂质泥岩,存在双向交错层理,层面有雨痕,应为潮坪沉积。潮坪沉积由小型层序构成,小型层序又是由砂、泥质单层组成。砂质单层底部通常为岩性突变面或侵蚀面,砂质纹层较厚,其中可见对称波痕或泥砾;向上砂质纹层变薄,过渡到泥质单层。砂质单层形成于暴风浪时期,泥质单层是风浪衰减后恢复正常的潮汐沉积。因此,小型层序从成因上说是一风暴层序。碎屑成份、砾石成份分析表明沉积物均来自华夏古陆的沉积岩和变质岩基底。物源一致,岩层产状变化不大,反映文昌组沉积环境稳定。岩性、粒度分析表明文昌组是一向上变细、由浅海高能环境向近岸低能环境过渡的沉积层序。文昌组下段为浅海砂岩沉积,上段顶部为潮坪沉积。二者之间是一套夹砾岩透镜体的泥质粉细砂岩,其沉积环境应介于浅海和滨岸之间,为水下岸坡沉积。砾岩层只是大的沉积旋回中出现的事件性水下冲积物。     

低能海岸的垂直层序和风暴沉积

我国淤泥质海岸由微型和小型层序构成。微型层序主要是潮汐作用形成的,小型层序由粗、细粒单层构成,其中粗粒单层形成于风暴时期,细粒单层形成于平静天气。小型层序系完整的风暴层序。在游泥质海岸层序中风暴沉积的厚度超过非风暴沉积,且排列有序。低潮坪沉积物粗,向陆向海变细,从而构成中间粗、两端细的淤泥质海岸典型垂直层序。随着条件和因素的变化,典型垂直层序可以产生若干变异,识别出三种变异层序。     

珠江磨刀门河口交杯四沙现代沉积特征及其形成机理

通过对交杯四沙表层现代沉积考察,分析了滩面沉积微地貌类型,并结合粒度分析和成分分析,探讨不同微地貌沉积特征,进而讨论了交杯四沙的形成过程。研究结果表明:交杯四沙表层发育有低潮线以下、低潮位波浪冲洗带、高潮位冲洗带、风暴潮冲洗带、滩顶冲越带、滨后冲越带、冲越扇中部、冲越扇前缘斜坡以及分流间湾区等9个微地貌单元,代表了9个微相分区。交杯四沙滩面主要以粉砂和细砂为主,整体上分选性中到差,矿物成分主要为石英和黏土矿物。交杯四沙东侧是磨刀门主河槽,以径流为主;西侧沿白藤海、灯笼沙至三灶岛水道以潮流为主。交杯三沙以南,四砂以北构成了分流间凹地环境。交杯四沙以南为东南向的波浪作用带。交杯四沙和其他交杯沙系列沙体具有相同的形成过程,首先由河槽底流将拦门沙沉积物向西搬运沉积形成浅滩,浅滩受潮流和波浪的改造其平面形态呈酒杯状,浅滩的东南面受东南向波浪的作用,前坡遭受侵蚀,在后坡产生堆积,由此沙滩逐渐向陆迁移,先后形成交杯一沙、二沙、三沙和四沙,交杯一沙、二沙和三沙已经合并成陆。随时间的推移,交杯四沙也将与交杯三沙相接成陆,新的交杯五沙有望形成,磨刀门西侧浅滩区将演变成由一系列反曲沙脊和潮滩相间而成的三角洲“滩-脊”平原。     

Mud dispersal across a Cretaceous prodelta: Storm‐generated,wave‐enhanced sediment gravity flows inferred from mudstone microtexture and microfacies

Determining sediment transport direction in ancient mudrocks is difficult. In order to determine both process and direction of mud transport, a portion of a well‐mapped Cretaceous delta system was studied. Oriented samples from outcrop represent prodelta environments from ca 10 to 120 km offshore. Oriented thin sections of mudstone, cut in three planes, allowed bed microstructure and palaeoflow directions to be determined. Clay mineral platelets are packaged in equant, face‐face aggregates 2 to 5 μm in diameter that have a random orientation; these aggregates may have formed through flocculation in fluid mud. Cohesive mud was eroded by storms to make intraclastic aggregates 5 to 20 μm in diameter. Mudstone beds are millimetre‐scale, and four microfacies are recognized: Well‐sorted siltstone forms millimetre‐scale combined‐flow ripples overlying scoured surfaces; deposition was from turbulent combined flow. Silt‐streaked claystone comprises parallel, sub‐millimetre laminae of siliceous silt and clay aggregates sorted by shear in the boundary layer beneath a wave‐supported gravity flow of fluid mud. Silty claystone comprises fine siliceous silt grains floating in a matrix of clay and was deposited by vertical settling as fluid mud gelled under minimal current shear. Homogeneous clay‐rich mudstone has little silt and may represent late‐stage settling of fluid mud, or settling from wave‐dissipated fluid mud. It is difficult or impossible to correlate millimetre‐scale beds between thin sections from the same sample, spaced only ca 20 mm apart, due to lateral facies change and localized scour and fill. Combined‐flow ripples in siltstone show strong preferred migration directly down the regional prodelta slope, estimated at ca 1 : 1000. Ripple migration was effected by drag exerted by an overlying layer of downslope‐flowing, wave‐supported fluid mud. In the upper part of the studied section, centimetre‐scale interbeds of very fine to fine‐grained sandstone show wave ripple crests trending shore normal, whereas combined‐flow ripples migrated obliquely alongshore and offshore. Storm winds blowing from the north‐east drove shore‐oblique geostrophic sand transport whereas simultaneously, wave‐supported flows of fluid mud travelled downslope under the influence of gravity. Effective wave base for sand, estimated at ca 40 m, intersected the prodelta surface ca 80 km offshore whereas wave base for mud was at ca 70 m and lay ca 120 km offshore. Small‐scale bioturbation of mud beds co‐occurs with interbedded sandstone but stratigraphically lower, sand‐free mudstone has few or no signs of benthic fauna. It is likely that a combination of soupground substrate, frequent storm emplacement of fluid mud, low nutrient availability and possibly reduced bottom‐water oxygen content collectively inhibited benthic fauna in the distal prodelta.     

Washover fan and brackish bay sedimentation in the Berriasian-Valanginian of Bornholm, Denmark

ABSTRACT
The Robbedale and Jydegård Formations (Berriasian-Valanginian) of the Danish island of Bornholm represent a 100 m thick vertical sequence from shoreface, foreshore and beach sands of a high-energy coast through backbarrier flat, bay margin pond and distal washover fan sand and clay, brackish bay clay, to fluvial sands. The longevity of the backbarrier-bay system (c. 10 Myr), thickness (100 m) of the bay deposits and apparently stacked nature of the facies belts suggest a relatively stationary position of the individual subenvironments, with only minor progradation. This reflects strong tectonic control of the depositional system during an important phase of synsedimentary block faulting and wrenching along the Tornquist Zone. The importance of washover fan sands in the backbarrier deposits, and the lack of tidal indications in the whole sequence, suggest a microtidal regime. A system of migrating mud banks formed in shallow water on the landward side of the barrier. The bay waters varied from almost fresh to brackish, and anoxic conditions commonly occurred at the bottom. Adverse living conditions for most organisms in the bay caused seasonal, possibly toxic, dinoflagellate blooms resulting in mass mortality of infaunal bivalves. Bay-margin ponds underwent periodic desiccation, leading to mass mortality of freshwater gastropods. As a general scenario it is envisaged that longshore currents redistributed bedload from a major delta and formed an extensive NW-SE barrier-spit which partly enclosed a major bay to the NE. The barrier was breached during heavy storms and the sand transported along the resulting washover channels was deposited on the backbarrier flat made up of the subaerial parts of coalescent washover fans. Enormous amounts of suspension load from the delta travelled further along the barrier to be deposited in the lee-side bay.     

斜向波作用下海底管线周围床沙组成变化

海底管线周围的不平衡输沙影响着海底管线的局部冲刷,进而影响海底管线的安全运营。基于波浪港池实验,考虑规则波的作用,采用中值粒径为0.219 mm的原型沙铺设与波浪传播方向成45°夹角的斜坡,斜坡坡度为1∶15,研究管线局部冲刷坑床沙组成变化情况。实验结果表明:与冲刷深度随时间的发展类似,冲刷宽度随时间的发展也分为初级阶段和次级阶段;管线周围床沙粗化程度最高的地方并不在管线的正下方,而在管线的后下方;周期增加,冲刷坑床沙粗化程度增大;与原始床沙相比,周期较小时,冲刷坑下方床沙细化,周期较大时则粗化,而波高对床沙扰动的影响具有不稳定性。     

Sedimentation on a wave-dominated, open-coast tidal flat, south-western Korea: summer tidal flat – winter shoreface

Sedimentation on the open-coast tidal flats of south-western Korea is controlled by seasonal variation in the intensity of onshore-directed winds and waves. As a result, an environmental oscillation takes place between tide-dominated conditions in summer and wave-dominated conditions in winter. In summer, thick muddy deposits, including sporadic storm deposits, accumulate in response to low wave energy, weak currents, and intense solar insolation that promotes consolidation of the mud at low tide. Bioturbation is minimal because of rapid sedimentation and soft substrate. During the autumn, the summer mud deposits experience erosion due to increasingly strong onshore winds and waves, until only small mud patches and mud pebbles remain. The concentration of ebb runoff between the mud patches produces small, ephemeral tidal creeks. In winter, storm waves occur frequently (ca 10 days a month) and dominate sedimentation in the intertidal zone, producing extensive wave-generated parallel lamination and short-wavelength (0·3–2 m) hummocky cross-stratification. The prevalence of strong onshore winds decreases in spring, allowing longer and more frequent intervals of calm weather, during which time muddy sediments are deposited by tidal processes. Over the long term, winter storm waves dominate sedimentation and the preserved deposits consist of amalgamated storm beds that resemble those generally associated with shorefaces. This raises the question of how many ancient ‘shorefaces’ are, in fact, open-coast tidal flats.     

Historical tsunamis and storms recorded in a coastal lowland,Shizuoka Prefecture,along the Pacific Coast of Japan

Four sand units deposited by tsunamis and one sand unit deposited by storm surge(s) were identified in a muddy marsh succession in a narrow coastal lowland along the Pacific coast of central Japan. Tsunamis in ad 1498, 1605, 1707 and 1854 that were related to large subduction‐zone earthquakes along the Nankai Trough, and storm surges in 1680 and/or 1699 were responsible for the deposition of these sand units. These sand units are distinguished by lithofacies, sedimentary structures, grain‐size and mineral composition, and radiocarbon ages; their ages are supported by events in local historical records. The tsunami deposits in the study area are massive or parallel‐laminated sands, with associated intraclasts, gravels, draping mud layers and, rarely, a return‐flow subunit. The storm surge deposits are devoid of these characteristics, and are composed of groups of thin, current ripple‐laminated sand layers. The differences in sedimentary structures between the tsunami and storm surge deposits are attributed to the different characteristics of tsunami and storm waves.     

松辽盆地南部青山口组湖相风暴沉积

用岩心观察、粒度分析、薄片鉴定等方法,研究了松辽盆地南部青山口组湖相风暴沉积。结果表明,本区风暴沉积具有:a.丘状交错层理、冲刷面、渠模、截切构造、泄水构造及生物扰动成因等沉积构造;b.以跳跃总体为主、悬浮总体不发育的粒度特征;c.典型的“似鲍玛序列”。风暴沉积物源来自于西部斜坡区的(扇)三角洲及滨浅湖滩坝沉积,按其沉积特征及与物源的关系,又可进一步分为原地风暴岩和异地风暴岩。      

Re-evaluation of coquinoid sandstone depositional model, Upper Jurassic of central Wyoming and south-central Montana

The most extensive Jurassic marine transgression in North America reached its maximum limits during the Oxfordian Age. At this time, siliciclastic sediments were being brought into the North American seaway from an uplifted zone to the west. Within this setting, complexes of sand ridges and coquinoid sands layers were deposited. Coquinoid sandstones appear to fill erosional scours and were interpreted as channel fills. Re-evaluation of these features in the light of recently discovered attributes of modern shelf sediments and processes has produced a revised model of coquinoid sand deposition in this setting. Coquinoid sandstones which fill ‘channel-like’ scours in the Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) rocks of central Wyoming and south-central Montana, appear to have formed through the migration of sand waves across the crests of inner shelf sand ridges during periods of storm and tidal flow. Erosion in the zone of flow reattachment in the troughs between sand waves resulted in the development of shell lags. Migration of these scour zones as the sand waves advanced resulted in the deposition of sheet-like coquinoid sandstone bodies. Sand waves crossing the ridge crest tended to migrate more slowly and to be overstepped by later sand waves. Sand wave troughs thus buried have channel-like geometries with apparent epsilon bedding.     

深水内波、内潮汐沉积类型及其油气意义

深水内波、内潮汐沉积可归纳为水道型和非水道型两种基本沉积类型。水道型沉积常发育双向递变层序和单向递变层序,单砂层较厚,它不仅是油气的良好储层,而且常与深水重力流沉积和深水背景泥岩沉积一起构成有利的地层或岩性圈闭,应当列为深水沉积区油气勘探的重点目标。非水道型深水内波、内潮汐沉积一般发育由砂泥频繁薄互层所构成的对偶层双向递变层序和对偶层单向递变层序,单砂层很薄,油气勘探意义可能不大。广泛分布的大型沉积物波(分为粗、细粒两种)和水道口附近的内潮汐砂坝,是两种比较特殊的内波、内潮汐沉积建造。根据现有研究实例和沉积成因水流理论分布范围等,建立了深水内波、内潮汐综合沉积模式。     

Sand waves: A model of origin and internal structure

Sand waves are large flow-transverse bedforms coupled to oscillatory boundary-layer currents of tidal origin. Like the much smaller ripple-marks generated by short-period wind waves, sand waves are observed to grow more asymmetrical with increase in the time—velocity asymmetry of the governing currents, that is, with increase in the steady component of flow (mass-transport strictly related to wave-motion) relative to the periodic component. Wind-wave ripple-marks owe their origin directly to a mass-transport component dependent on bed-curvature, which arises naturally wherever a sufficiently powerful oscillatory flow is imposed on a deformable grain boundary. This curvature-related current, flowing from troughts to crests on the bed, drifts grains mobilized by the periodic component into transverse bands. Sand waves may also owe their origin and growth to an unstable interaction within tide-generated oscillatory boundary layers between the mobile bed and a curvature-related mass-transport.Sand-wave internal structure apparently depends on the strength and degree of asymmetry of the governing currents. Relatively symmetrical forms associated with currents of low asymmetry are expected to contain comparatively small, intricately related herring-bone or climbing cross-bedding sets. Relatively asymmetrical currents shape sand waves with one side so steep that large-scale flow separation is inevitable. The predominant structure is then expected to be long avalanche bedding broken into sets by mud drapes and bioturbated zones representing periods of gentle flow, and/or by erosional discontinuities recording tidal reversals. The expected structures have parallels in the stratigraphic record and amongst modern sand waves.     

Quaternary sedimentology of the Rose Creek fan delta, Walker Lake, Nevada, USA, and implications to fan-delta facies models

The 3·2 km long Rose Creek fan delta of west‐central Nevada is prograding from an active rift margin into the 32 m deep Walker Lake. A case study of the forms, processes and facies of this fan delta reveals that the proximal and medial zones mainly are of sub‐aerial origin, and the distal zone is of lacustrine origin. Pebbly to bouldery rock‐avalanche mounds >100 m thick (Facies A) and muddy to bouldery debris flow levées 0·5 to 2·0 m thick (Facies B) dominate the proximal zone, whereas mostly matrix‐supported cobbly pebbly debris flow lobes 0·1 to 1·0 m thick (Facies C) typify the medial zone. Surficial pebble lags and gully fills (Facies D) are widespread in both zones but, in exposures, comprise only partings or lenticles between debris flow units. The distal fan delta mainly consists of lakeshore to lake‐bottom tracts formed by extensive wave reworking of debris flow facies. Nearshore deposits include erosional cobbly boulder lag beaches (Facies E), pebbly constructional beaches attached at headcuts or on barrier spits (Facies F), pebbly upper shoreface (Facies G) and sandy lower shoreface (Facies H) tracts positioned lakeward of the beach, and pebbly landward‐dipping foresets (Facies I) and backshore‐pond sand and mud (Facies J) present landward of the spits. Erosional lag beaches fringe the windward north side of the fan‐delta front, attached constructional beaches characterize the central zone, and southward‐elongating barrier spits typify the leeward south side, extending from the zone of greatest projection of the fan delta into the lake. Shoreline facies asymmetry results from largely unidirectional longshore drift caused by high fetch to the north and minimal fetch to the south, combined with the arcuate shape of the fan‐delta front. The spits overlie a platform deposited below common wave base consisting of south‐east‐trending cones of pebbly Gilbert foresets (Facies K) and sandy toesets (Facies L). Typically slumped silt and mud (Facies M) fringe both this platform and lower shoreface sand in deeper water. This case demonstrates facies types and patterns that are inconsistent with the widely promoted fan‐delta facies model having a front consisting of an apron of radially directed Gilbert foresets deposited where sub‐aerial flows enter the lake. The Rose Creek fan‐delta front instead features a sharp contact between sub‐aerial and lakeshore facies formed where waves erode, sort and redistribute heterogeneous debris flow sediment into the various shallow‐to‐deep lake facies. Gilbert foresets are present only in the lee of the fan delta where sediment moving by longshore drift reaches the brink of the spit front. This facies scenario results from the infrequency of fan‐building events versus nearly constant wind‐induced waves, a scenario that, in contrast to the popular Gilbert model, probably is the norm for fan deltas. The level of Walker Lake, and thus the position of wave reworking on the Rose Creek fan delta, fluctuated over a range of ～157 m during the last 18 kyr, producing complex interfingering between sub‐aerial and lakeshore facies across a 1700 m wide radial belt, typifying a wave‐modified, freestand lacustrine fan delta.