Sedimentation in a fluvially infilling, barrier-bound estuary on a wave-dominated, microtidal coast: the Ouémé River estuary, Benin, west Africa

The Ouémé River estuary is located on the seasonally humid tropical coast of Benin, west Africa. A striking feature of this microtidal estuary is the presence of a large sand barrier bounding a 120 km² circular central basin, Lake Nokoué, that is being infilled by heterogeneous fluvial deposits supplied by a relatively large catchment (50 000 km²). Borehole cores from the lower estuary show basal Pleistocene lowstand alluvial sediments overlain by Holocene transgressive–highstand lagoonal mud and by transgressive to probably early highstand tidal inlet and flood‐tidal delta sand deposited in association with non‐preserved transgressive sand barriers. The change in estuary‐mouth sedimentation from a transgressive barrier‐inlet system to a regressive highstand barrier reflects regional modifications in marine sand supply and in the cross‐barrier tidal flux associated with barrier‐inlet systems. As barrier formation west of the Ouémé River led to an increasingly rectilinear shoreline, the longshore drift cell matured, ensuring voluminous eastward transport of sand from the Volta Delta in Ghana, the major purveyor of sand, to the Ouémé embayment, 200 km east. Concomitantly, the number of tidal inlets, and the tidal flux associated with a hitherto interlinked lagoonal system on this coast, diminished. Complete sealing of Lake Nokoué has produced a large, permanently closed estuary, where tidal intrusion is assured through the interconnected coastal lagoon via an inlet located 60 km east. Since 1885, tides have entered the estuary directly through an artificial outlet cut across the sand barrier. Although precluding the seaward loss of fluvial sediments, permanent estuary‐mouth closure has especially deprived the highstand estuary of marine sand, a potentially important component in estuarine infill on wave‐dominated coasts. In spite of a significant fluvial sediment supply, estuarine infill has been moderate, because of the size of the central basin. Estuarine closure has resulted in two co‐existing highstand sediment suites, with limited admixture, the marine‐derived, estuary‐mouth barrier and upland‐derived back‐barrier sediments. This situation differs from that of mature barrier estuaries characterized by active fluvial‐marine sediment mixing and facies interfingering.     

Correlations between Holocene flood tidal delta and barrier island inlet fill sequences: Back Sound-Shackleford Banks, North Carolina

Large, well-developed flood tidal deltas on a barrier island coastline generally indicate a wave-dominated, microtidal sedimentary regime. Vibracores in a lagoon behind the barrier island Shackleford Banks, North Carolina contain an upward fining sequence of coarse-medium, very shelly sand, medium-fine laminated sand, fine-very fine cross-laminated sand and marsh mud. This sequence is interpreted as being a flood tidal delta deposit based on analogy with modern flood tidal delta sediments and represents lagoonal deposition in response to a migrating or closing inlet. The sand facies defined in lagoonal vibracores is found to be continuous beneath a lagoonal marsh and correlative with inlet sections identified in Shackleford Banks drill holes. The correlation of flood tidal delta deposits with inlet sequences in this microtidal environment indicates a close relationship between barrier and backbarrier inlet controlled sedimentation.     

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.     

Stacked fluvial and tide-dominated estuarine deposits in high-frequency (fourth-order) sequences of the Eocene Central Basin, Spitsbergen

Eighteen coastal-plain depositional sequences that can be correlated to shallow- to deep-water clinoforms in the Eocene Central Basin of Spitsbergen were studied in 1 × 15 km scale mountainside exposures. The overall mud-prone (>300 m thick) coastal-plain succession is divided by prominent fluvial erosion surfaces into vertically stacked depositional sequences, 7–44 m thick. The erosion surfaces are overlain by fluvial conglomerates and coarse-grained sandstones. The fluvial deposits show tidal influence at their seaward ends. The fluvial deposits pass upwards into macrotidal tide-dominated estuarine deposits, with coarse-grained river-dominated facies followed further seawards by high- and low-sinuosity tidal channels, upper-flow-regime tidal flats, and tidal sand bar facies associations. Laterally, marginal sandy to muddy tidal flat and marsh deposits occur. The fluvial/estuarine sequences are interpreted as having accumulated as a series of incised valley fills because: (i) the basal fluvial erosion surfaces, with at least 16 m of local erosional relief, are regional incisions; (ii) the basal fluvial deposits exhibit a significant basinward facies shift; (iii) the regional erosion surfaces can be correlated with rooted horizons in the interfluve areas; and (iv) the estuarine deposits onlap the valley walls in a landward direction. The coastal-plain deposits represent the topset to clinoforms that formed during progradational infilling of the Eocene Central Basin. Despite large-scale progradation, the sequences are volumetrically dominated by lowstand fluvial deposits and especially by transgressive estuarine deposits. The transgressive deposits are overlain by highstand units in only about 30% of the sequences. The depositional system remained an estuary even during highstand conditions, as evidenced by the continued bedload convergence in the inner-estuarine tidal channels.     

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.     

Sedimentary environments and facies of the subtropical mgeni estuary,Southeast Africa

The Mgeni Estuary is situated on the subtropical, mainly microtidal Natal coast. Modern sedimentary environments in the estuary comprise two groups. Barrier-associated environments include inlet channel, inlet beachface, tidal delta, washover fans, transverse intertidal bars and aeolian dunes. Estuarine environments include subtidal channels, interidal bars, back-barrier lagoon, tidal creek, tidal creek side-attached bars, creek mouth bar, mangrove fringe and supratidal mudflats. Each sedimentary facies is described in terms of grain-size, sedimentary structures, and sedimentary processes. The distinctive flora and fauna play an important role in facies recognition. Vertical sequences produced by infilling of the estuary and subsequent coastal erosion are discussed. The facies are considered sufficiently distinct to warrant recognition in the geological record.     

钱塘江下切河谷充填物沉积序列和分布模式

以最新钻取的SE2孔沉积物为重点研究对象,对晚第四纪以来钱塘江下切河谷充填物的沉积特征和沉积相进行了精细研究,重建了研究区地层结构和层序地层格架,总结了强潮型钱塘江河口湾和下切河谷的沉积模式。钱塘江下切河谷充填物自下而上依次发育河床、河漫滩、古河口湾、近岸浅海和现代河口湾5种沉积相类型,表现为一个较完整的Ⅰ型层序,其内部层序界面、初始海泛面、最大海泛面、海侵和海退潮流侵蚀面、体系域内海侵面发育。钱塘江下切河谷充填物自海向陆可划分为海向段、近海段、近陆段和陆向段4段,各段沉积序列和海陆相互作用程度不同。在钱塘江下切河谷充填物中海陆过渡部位首次明确划分出了古河口湾相,并对其沉积特征和分布模式进行了初步探讨;其形成时间在9000 a BP左右,具有与现代河口湾不同的沉积特征,表现为中部为潮道砂体沉积,向陆渐变为受潮流影响的河流沉积,两侧被潮坪或盐沼沉积包围,沉积物在平面上自陆向海呈现粗-细-粗的分布模式。现代河口湾平面上自陆向海依次发育受潮流影响的河流沉积、粉砂质砂坎、潮道-潮流砂脊复合体和湾口泥质沉积区,沉积物呈现粗-细-粗-细的分布模式,与大多数河口湾常见的粗-细-粗的分布格局明显不同。     

Evolution and stratigraphy of a regressive barrier/backbarrier complex: Kiawah Island, South Carolina

Analysis of 75 vibracores from the backbarrier region of Kiawah Island, South Carolina reveals a complex association of three distinct stratigraphic sequences. Beach ridge progradation and orientation-controlled backbarrier development during the evolution of Kiawah Island, and resulted in deposition of: (1) a mud-rich central backbarrier sequence consisting of low marsh overlying fine-grained, tidal flat/lagoonal mud; (2) a sandy beach-ridge swale sequence consisting of high and low marsh overlying tidal creek channel and point bar sand, and foreshore/shoreface; and (3) a regressive sequence of sandy, mixed, and muddy tidal flats capped by salt marsh that occurs on the updrift end of the island. Central backbarrier deposits formed as a result of the development of the initial beach ridge on Kiawah Island. Formation of this beach ridge created a backbarrier lagoon in which fine-grained estuarine and tidal flat mud accumulated. Washovers, oyster mounds, and tidal creek deposits form isolated sand and/or shell-rich lenses in the lagoon. Spartina alterniflora low marsh prograded into the lagoon as the tidal flats aggraded. Barrier progradation and sediment bar-bypassing at Stono Inlet created digitate beach ridges on the northeast end of Kiawah Island. Within the beach-ridge swales, tidal flats were disconformably deposited on shoreface and foreshore sand of the older beach ridges. Tidal creek drainage systems evolved to drain the swales. These rapidly migrating creeks reworked the tidal flat, foreshore, and shoreface sediments while redepositing a fining-upward sequence of channel lag and point bar deposits, which served as a substrate for salt marsh colonization. This resultant regressive sedimentary package marks the culmination of barrier island development and estuary infilling. Given enough time and sedimentation, the backbarrier sequence will ultimately prograde over the barrier island, reworking dune, beach, and foreshore sediments to form the upper sand-rich bounding surface of the barrier lithosome. Preservation of the regressive sequence is dependent upon sediment supply and the relative rate of sea-level rise, but the reworking of barrier islands by tidal inlets and migrating tidal creeks greatly alter and complicate the stratigraphic sequence.     

Sea-level fluctuations and the geometric variability of tide-dominated sandbodies

This paper presents examples of various large tidal sandbodies from the Eocene Roda Sandstone in the southern Pyrenees and the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene in the East China Sea. An attempt is made to summarize the geometric variability of these large tidal sandbodies in relation to the sediment supply and tidal discharge of the depositional system. Transverse sand bars were developed in low-sinuosity, high-gradient channels with high influxes of coarse sediments and water from fluvial systems. Tidal point bars were formed in meandering low-gradient estuarine channel where tidal influence was stronger and sediment was finer than those of the transverse sand bar. A tidal delta complex was built up at the estuary mouth with an abundant sediment supply and an increased tidal discharge. Tidal sand ridges were formed when relict fluvial or deltaic sands were eroded and reworked by strong tidal currents during subsequent sea-level rise.

Since the sediment supply and the tidal discharge of the depositional system were closely related to the eustatic sea-level change and basin subsidence, i.e. the relative sea-level change, special attention will be given to the relationship between geometric variability of tidal sandbodies and the sequence stratigraphic framework in which various sandbodies occurred. Three orders of eustatic sea-level fluctuations can be recognized. The third-order eustatic sea-level cycle, together with basin subsidence, controlled the development of systems tracts and the occurrence of different tidal sandbodies, such as estuary and tidal flat facies during the late stage of a LSW systems tract (type 1 sequence) or a SM systems tract (type 2 sequence); tidal point bar facies, tidal delta facies or tidal sand-ridge facies during a TR systems tract; estuary facies during an early HS systems tract; and fluvial sand bar facies in a late HS systems tract and the early stage of a SM or LSW systems tract. There are also the fourth-order and fifth-order eustatic fluctuations, which are superimposed on the third-order eustatic changes and have important control on the build-up, abandonment and preservation of composite and single tidal sandbodies, respectively.

Since the deposition of tidal sandbodies is very sensitive to eustatic sea-level changes, recognition of various tidal sandbodies is important in sequence stratigraphy analyses of sedimentary basins and in the facies prediction of clastic sediments in basin modelling.     

Unincised fluvial and tide-dominated estuarine systems from the Mesoproterozoic Lower Tombador Formation,Chapada Diamantina basin,Brazil

The Mesoproterozoic Lower Tombador Formation is formed of shallow braided fluvial, unconfined to poorly-channelized ephemeral sheetfloods, sand-rich floodplain, tide-dominated estuarine, and shallow marine sediments. Lowstand braided fluvial deposits are characterized by a high degree of channel amalgamation interbedded with ephemeral, intermediate sheetflood sandstones. Sand-rich floodplain sediments consist of intervals formed by distal sheetflood deposits interbedded with thin layers of eolian sandstones. Tide-dominated estuarine successions are formed of tide-influenced sand-bed braided fluvial, tidal channel, tidal sand flat and tidal bars. Shallow marine intervals are composed of heterolithic strata and tidal sand bars. Seismic scale cliffs photomosaics calibrated with vertical sections indicate high lateral continuity of sheet-like depositional geometry for fluvial–estuarine successions. These geometric characteristics associated with no evidence of incised-valley features nor significant fluvial scouring suggest that the Lower Tombador Formation registers deposition of unincised fluvial and tide-dominated systems. Such a scenario is a natural response of the interplay between sedimentation and fluctuations of relative sea level on the gentle margins of a sag basin. This case study indicates that fluvial–estuarine successions exhibit the same facies distributions, irrespective of being related to unincised or incised-valley systems. Moreover, this case study can serve as a starting point to better understand the patterns of sedimentation for Precambrian basins formed in similar tectonic settings.     

塔河油田南部石炭系卡拉沙依组沉积相研究

综合应用沉积学、古生物学、地球化学等多学科理论,通过岩心观察描述,结合测井、录井、古生物、地球化学等资料综合分析认为:塔河油田南部石炭系卡拉沙依组上部砂泥岩段砂岩中发育羽状交错层理、波状层理、透镜状层理,砂泥岩薄互层,低砂地比,半咸水生物或广盐度生物大量发育,反映了一种潮坪环境;平面上,研究区北部偏粗、含砾,反映存在河流注入,为具有河口湾性质的潮坪沉积体系,卡拉沙依组砂泥岩段主要处于潮间带,发育潮道、砂坪、砂泥混合坪、泥坪、河口坝等微相。下部的上泥岩段为深灰色、灰褐色、棕褐色泥岩,偶夹薄层泥质粉砂岩、灰质泥岩条带,发育平行层理,为泻湖相沉积。     

四川盆地元坝地区上三叠统须家河组的潮控河口湾与潮控三角洲沉积

通过盆地边缘地表剖面,以及元坝区岩芯的研究,发现须家河组并非长期以来人们普遍认定的陆相沉积,而是海岸系统产物。须二段属潮控河口湾环境,包括冲积河道、潮汐—河流水道、UFR沙坪、潮汐沙坝、泥坪和盐沼等相。须四段属潮控三角洲环境,包括三角洲平原河道、分流河口潮汐沙坝、三角洲前缘与前三角洲、泥坪与盐沼等相。这两种环境（沉积）,都是海侵的产物,都是地史上的暂时现象。当其被充满时（海退）,就变为潮坪—海岸平原环境,分别对应于须三段、须五段的细粒含煤序列。基于储层质量与原始沉积环境密切相关,划分了5类储层相。根据我们研究安岳地区须家河组的成功经验,提出了勘探建议。     

四川西昌盆地三叠系沉积环境分析

在岩石地层划分的基础上,讨论了西昌盆地三叠系沉积相类型及特征。研究区南部及北部缺失T1-2及T3下部地层,仅中部发育较完整的三叠系。南部白果湾组主要发育沼泽、沼泽化湖泊及湖泊相。北部白果湾组包括沼泽相、沼泽化湖相及湖泊相。中部白果湾组沉积相为沼泽、沼泽化湖泊、河流、河湖三角洲及湖泊相,雷口坡组沉积相包含潮坪、湖、生物滩(丘)、广海陆棚相;嘉陵江组及飞仙关组分别以河口和河流相为主。     

High-resolution sequence stratigraphy of a complex, incised valley succession, Cobequid Bay — Salmon River estuary, Bay of Fundy, Canada

The post-glacial succession in the Cobequid Bay — Salmon River incised valley contains two sequences, the upper one incomplete. The lower sequence contains only highstand system tracts (HST) deposits which accumulated under microtidal, glacio-marine deltaic conditions. The upper sequence contains two, retrogradationally stacked parasequences. The lower one accumulated in a wave-dominated estuarine environment under micro-mesotidal conditions. It belongs to the lowstand system tract (LST) or early transgressive system tract (TST) depending on the timing and location of the lowstand shoreline, and contains a gravel barrier that has been overstepped and preserved with little modification. The upper parasequence accumulated in the modern, macrotidal estuary, and is assignable to the late TST. Recent, net progradation of the fringing marshes indicates that a new HST has begun. The sequence boundary separating the two sequences was formed by fluvial incision, and perhaps also by subtidal erosion during the relative sea level fall. Additional local erosion by waves and tidal currents occurred during the transgression. The base of the macrotidal sands is a prominent tidal ravinement surface which forms the flooding surface between the backstepping estuarine parasequences. Because fluvial deposition continued throughout the transgression, the fluvial-estuarine contact is diachronous and cannot be used as the transgressive surface. The maximum flooding surface will be difficult to locate in the macrotidal sands, but is more easily identified in the fringing muddy sediments. These observations indicate that: (1) large incised valleys may contain a compound fill that consists of more than one sequence; (2) relative sea level changes determine the stratal stacking patterns, but local environmental factors control the nature of the facies and surfaces; (3) these surfaces may have complex origins, and commonly become amalgamated; (4) designation of the transgressive surface (and thus the LST) is particularly difficult as many of the prominent surfaces in the valley fill are diachronous facies boundaries; and (5) the transgression of complex topography may cause geologically instantaneous changes in tidal range, due to resonance under particular geographical configurations.     

河口湾相模式研究

河口湾由一套变化亚环境组成,对其相变模式研究表明,河口湾沉积特征及岩相分布受波浪 和河流三种水动力所控制、塔里木盆地塔中４井区上泥舅统工河塘组下部发育潮控口湾沉积,由潮控河道复合体、潮坪和潮汐砂坝组成,代表海进体系域沉积、发育下切谷充填型储层。     

Geomorphic evolution and stratigraphy of Price and Capers Inlets, South Carolina

A three-dimensional model for a tidal inlet-barrier island depositional system was constructed through examination of 37 vibracores and 10 auger drill holes on Capers and Dewees Islands, South Carolina. Two cycles of southerly inlet migration and subsequent abandonment resulted in beach ridge truncation on the northern ends of both barriers. Historical evidence indicates that these tidal inlets migrated 1.5 km to the south owing to a dominant north-south longshore transport direction. The hydraulic inefficiency of these over-extended inlet channels caused shorter, more northerly-oriented channels to breach through the ebbtidal deltas. After inlet reorientation, large wave-formed swash bars migrated landward closing former inlet channels. Weakened tidal currents through the abandoned channels permitted clay plugs to form thick impermeable seals over active channel-fill sand and shell. Price and Capers Inlets formed during the onset of the Holocene transgression following submergence of the ancestral Plio-Pleistocene Santee River drainage system. Coarse, poorly sorted inlet-deposited sand disconformably overlies Pleistocene estuarine clay and is capped by a dense clay plug. Shoreline reorientation and landward retreat of a primary barrier island chain occurred between the first and second cycles of inlet-channel migration and abandonment. Beach ridges prograded seaward over the first inlet sequence. A second cycle of inlet migration truncated the northernmost portion of these beach ridges and scoured into the clay plug of the earlier inlet deposit. Abandonment of this channel resulted in deposition of a second abandoned inlet-channel clay plug. Abandoned tidal inlet channels exhibit U-shaped strike and crescentic- to wedge-shaped dip geometries. Basal, poorly sorted inlet sands are sealed beneath impermeable, abandoned-channel silt and clay, washover deposits, and salt marsh. Multiple episodes of inlet migration and abandonment during a rising sea-level deposited stacked inlet-fill sequences within the barrier islands. The resultant stratigraphy consists of interlayered, fining-upward, active inlet-fill sand overlain by thicker abandoned inlet-fill clay plugs. These clay plugs form impermeable zones between adjacent barrier island sand bodies. Shoreline transgression would remove the uppermost barrier island deposits, sealing the inlet-fill sequences between Pleistocene estuarine clay and shoreface to shelf silt and clay.     

东濮凹陷古近系沙河街组三段河口湾沉积亚相之沉积学与痕迹学识别与油气储层

沉积学结合痕迹学研究,识别出东濮凹陷古近系沙河街组三段,存在五类河口湾沉积亚相。这五类亚相都含有斜向异源碎屑层理及海相或咸水痕迹化石。现代和古代河口湾研究证明,斜向异源碎屑层理（Inclined Heterolithic Stratification）,是潮汐水流进入河流式河口湾引发波动震荡机制形成的。表现为重复出现,厚在数厘米到数分米的泥/砂对偶层。东濮凹陷文留地区沙河街组三段岩芯研究显示,不同类型的泥/砂对偶层及其所含海相和咸水成因痕迹化石,记录下河口湾上游,受潮汐影响产生水下收缩裂隙和滨岸痕迹化石Diplocraterion的河流成因砂（亚相A）;河口湾中部,因与最大紊流带相关,出现变形层理和痕迹化石Palaeophycos、Planolites和Chondrites的泥质沉积（亚相B、C）;河口湾下游,则显示Terebellina、Rhizocrallium、Ophiomorpha、Diplocraterion等高分异度痕迹化石的海相成因砂（亚相D、E）。文留地区古近纪油田与北美白垩纪油田的研究和勘探开发说明,河流式河口湾油气资源丰富,识别这类古环境,对寻找油气储层,意义重大。     

Marine geology of Port Phillip,Victoria

The marine geology of Port Phillip is described in detail, based on data from seismic profiling, vibrocoring and grab sampling. Three major unconsolidated facies can be distinguished: sands and muddy sands peripheral to the present coastline, muds covering the major central region, and channel fills of muds and sands. The first two facies units result from an increase in wave sorting towards the coast, reworking of Tertiary and Quaternary sandstone outcrops around the coast, and a dominant mud supply from river sources into the central area. The distribution and thicknesses of the unconsolidated facies have been augmented by a shallow‐seismic program that reveals the thicknesses of the modern sediments overlying an older surface comprised of consolidated clays and sandy clays of Pleistocene or older age. In central Port Phillip, muds and sands up to 27 m‐thick have infilled Pleistocene channels cut into underlying consolidated units. Sediments immediately above the channel bases show characteristic seismic patterns of fluvial deposition. The presence of peat deposits together with gas phenomena in the water column suggest organic breakdown of channel‐fill deposits is releasing methane into the bay waters. Outside the channel areas, carbon‐14 dating indicates that the unconsolidated sediments largely post‐date the last glaciation sea‐level rise (<6500 a BP), with an early Holocene period of rapid deposition, similar to other Australian estuaries. Stratigraphic and depositional considerations suggest that the undated channel‐fill sequences correlate with the formation of cemented quartz‐carbonate aeolianite and barrier sands on the Nepean Peninsula at the southern end of Port Phillip. Previous thermoluminescence dating of the aeolianites suggests that channel‐fill sequences B, C and D may have been deposited as fluvial and estuarine infills over the period between 57 and 8 ka. The eroded surface on the underlying consolidated sediments is probably the same 118 ka age as a disconformity within the Nepean aeolianites. Further estuarine and aeolianite facies extend below the disconformity to 60 m below sea‐level, and may extend the Quaternary depositional record to ca 810 ka. Pliocene and older Tertiary units progressively subcrop below the Quaternary northwards up the bay.     

Morphologic and stratigraphic evolution of muddy ebb-tidal deltas along a subsiding coast: Barataria Bay, Mississippi River delta

The Barataria barrier coast formed between two major distributaries of the Mississippi River delta: the Plaquemines deltaic headland to the east and the Lafourche deltaic headland to the west. Rapid relative sea‐level rise (1·03 cm year^?1) and other erosional processes within Barataria Bay have led to substantial increases in the area of open water (> 775 km² since 1956) and the attendant bay tidal prism. Historically, the increase in tidal discharge at inlets has produced larger channel cross‐sections and prograding ebb‐tidal deltas. For example, the ebb delta at Barataria Pass has built seaward > 2·2 km since the 1880s. Shoreline erosion and an increasing bay tidal prism also facilitated the formation of new inlets. Four major lithofacies characterize the Barataria coast ebb‐tidal deltas and associated sedimentary environments. These include a proximal delta facies composed of massive to laminated, fine grey‐brown to pale yellow sand and a distal delta facies consisting of thinly laminated, grey to pale yellow sand and silty sand with mud layers. The higher energy proximal delta deposits contain a greater percentage of sand (75–100%) compared with the distal delta sediments (60–80%). Associated sedimentary units include a nearshore facies consisting of horizontally laminated, fine to very fine grey sand with mud layers and an offshore facies that is composed of grey to dark grey, laminated sandy silt to silty clay. All facies coarsen upwards except the offshore facies, which fines upwards. An evolutionary model is presented for the stratigraphic development of the ebb‐tidal deltas in a regime of increasing tidal energy resulting from coastal land loss and tidal prism growth. Ebb‐tidal delta facies prograde over nearshore sediments, which interfinger with offshore facies. The seaward decrease in tidal current velocity of the ebb discharge produces a gradational contact between proximal and distal tidal delta facies. As the tidal discharge increases and the inlet grows in dimensions, the proximal and distal tidal delta facies prograde seawards. Owing to the relatively low gradient of the inner continental shelf, the ebb‐tidal delta lithosome is presently no more than 5 m thick and is generally only 2–3 m in thickness. The ebb delta sediment is sourced from deepening of the inlet and the associated channels and from the longshore sediment transport system. The final stage in the model envisages erosion and segmentation of the barrier chain, leading to a decrease in tidal discharge through the former major inlets. This process ultimately results in fine‐grained sedimentation seaward of the inlets and the encasement of the ebb‐tidal delta lithosome in mud. The ebb‐tidal deltas along the Barataria coast are distinguished from most other ebb deltas along sand‐rich coasts by their muddy content and lack of large‐scale stratification produced by channel cut‐and‐fills and bar migration.     

The upper Hawkesbury River, New South Wales, Australia: a Holocene example of an estuarine bayhead delta

Holocene deposits of the Hawkesbury River estuary, located immediately north of Sydney on the New South Wales coast, record the complex interplay between sediment supply and relative sea-level rise within a deeply incised bedrock-confined valley system. The present day Hawkesbury River is interpreted as a wave-dominated estuarine complex, divisible into two broad facies zones: (i) an outer marine-dominated zone extending 6 km upstream from the estuary mouth that is characterized by a large, subtidal sandy flood-tidal delta. Ocean wave energy is partially dissipated by this flood-tidal delta, so that tidal level fluctuations are the predominant marine mechanism operating further landward; (ii) a river-dominated zone that is 103 km long and characterized by a well developed progradational bayhead delta that includes distributary channels, levees, and overbank deposits. This reach of the Hawkesbury River undergoes minor tidal level fluctuations and low fluvial runoff during baseflow conditions, but experiences strong flood flows during major runoff events. Fluvial deposits of the Hawkesbury River occur upstream of this zone. The focus of this paper is the Hawkesbury River bayhead delta. History of deposition within this delta over the last c. 12 ka is interpreted from six continuous cores located along the upper reaches of the Hawkesbury River. Detailed sedimentological analysis of facies, whole-core X-ray analysis of burrow traces and a chronostratigraphic framework derived from 10 C-14 dates reveal four stages of incised-valley infilling in the study area: (1) before 17 ka BP, a 0–1 m thick deposit of coarse-grained fluvial sand and silt was laid down under falling-to-lowstand sea level conditions; (2) from 17 to 6·5 ka BP, a 5–10 m thick deposit composed of fine-grained fluvial sand and silt, muddy bayhead delta and muddy central-basin deposits developed as the incised valley was flooded during eustatic sea-level rise; (3) during early highstand, between 6·5 and 3 ka BP, a 3–8 m thick bed of interbedded muddy central-basin deposits and sandy river flood deposits, formed in association with maximum flooding and progradation of sandy distributary mouth-bar deposits commenced; (4) since 3 ka BP, fluvial deposits have prograded toward the estuary mouth in distributary mouth-bar, interdistributary-bay and bayhead-delta plain environments to produce a 5–15 m thick progradational to aggradational bayhead-delta deposit. At the mouth of the Hawkesbury estuary subaqueous fluvial sands interfinger with and overlie marine sands. The Hawkesbury River bayhead-delta depositional succession provides an example of the potential for significant variation of facies within the estuarine to fluvial segment of incised-valley systems.