Unravelling the conundrum of river response to rising sea‐level from laboratory to field. Part II. The Fly–Strickland River system,Papua New Guinea

The most recent deglaciation resulted in a global sea‐level rise of some 120 m over ca 12 000 years. A moving boundary numerical model is developed to predict the response of rivers to this rise. The model was motivated by experiments at small scale, which have identified two modes describing the transgression of a river mouth: (i) autoretreat without abandonment of the river delta (no sediment starvation at the topset–foreset break); and (ii) sediment‐starved autoretreat with abandonment of the delta. In the latter case, transgression is far more rapid, and its effects are felt much further upstream of the river mouth. A moving boundary numerical model that captures these features in experimental deltas is adapted to describe the response of the Fly–Strickland River system, Papua New Guinea. In the absence of better information, the model is applied to the case of sea‐level rise without local climate change in New Guinea. The model suggests that: (i) sea‐level rise has forced the river mouth to transgress over 700 km since the last glacial maximum; (ii) sediment‐starved autoretreat has forced enough bed aggradation to block a tributary with a low sediment load and create the present‐day Lake Murray; (iii) the resulting aggradation was sufficient to move the gravel–sand transition on the Strickland River upstream; (iv) the present‐day Fly Estuary may be, in part, a relict river valley drowned by sea‐level rise and partially filled by tidal effects; and (v) the Fly River is presently reforming its bankfull geometry and prograding into the Fly Estuary. A parametric study with the model indicates that sediment concentration during floods plays a key role in determining whether or not, and to what extent, transgression is expressed in terms of sediment‐starved autoretreat. A sufficiently high sediment concentration can prevent sediment‐starved autoretreat during the entire sea‐level cycle. This observation may explain why some present‐day river mouths are expressed in terms of deltas protruding into the sea, and others are wholly contained within embayments or estuaries in which water has invaded landward.     

Unravelling the conundrum of river response to rising sea‐level from laboratory to field. Part I: Laboratory experiments

The most recent deglaciation resulted in a global sea‐level rise of some 120 m over approximately 12 000 years. In this Part I of two parts, a moving boundary numerical model is developed to predict the response of rivers to this rise. The model was motivated by experiments at small scale, which have identified two modes describing the transgression of a river mouth: autoretreat without abandonment of the river delta (no sediment starvation at the topset–foreset break) and sediment‐starved autoretreat with abandonment of the delta. In the latter case, transgression is far more rapid and its effects are felt much further upstream of the river mouth. The moving boundary numerical model is checked against experiments. The generally favourable results of the check motivate adaptation of the model to describe the response of the much larger Fly‐Strickland River system, Papua New Guinea to Holocene sea‐level rise; this is done in the companion paper, Part II.     

Response of coastal plain rivers to falling relative sea-level: allogenic controls on the aggradational phase

This study combines mathematical modelling and supporting flume experiments to address the problem of how coastal plain rivers respond to a steady fall in relative sea-level. The theoretical component of the study focuses on the development of a moving boundary model of fluviodeltaic progradation that treats rigorously the dynamics of the shoreline and alluvial–basement transition (the upstream limit of the alluvial river system). Dimensional analysis and numerical solutions to the model governing equations together suggest that, at first order, coastal plain rivers will remain aggradational on a timescale that varies with allogenic sediment and water supply and the fall rate of relative sea-level. In natural fluviodeltaic systems, this intrinsic timescale is likely to vary by several orders of magnitude, suggesting that the aggradational phase of river response can be geologically long-lived. At second order, the duration of alluvial aggradation is controlled by two dimensionless numbers that embody system geometry and the kinematics of alluvial sediment transport. Model predictions were tested in a series of carefully scaled flume experiments. The level of agreement between predicted and measured trajectories for the shoreline and alluvial–basement transition strongly suggests that the moving boundary theory developed here successfully captures the response of small-scale fluviodeltaic systems to falling sea-level. The results of this study have several sequence-stratigraphic implications: a fall in relative sea-level at the shoreline is not a sufficient condition for river incision; the onset of alluvial degradation and sequence-boundary formation need not coincide with a maximum in the rate of sea-level fall; and the onset of sequence-boundary formation is sensitive to allogenic sediment supply.     

大尺度自成因机制与自成因地层学

在海平面升降、构造活动、沉积物供给等外部驱动作用下,沉积地层的叠置受自成因和他成因两种机制的控制。近年的认识表明,自成因机制可发生在沉积过程的各个时空尺度。不同于小尺度自成因机制仅发生在沉积系统的局部,大尺度自成因机制可在盆地范围内系统性地控制地层的发育,能够修饰甚至改变他成因过程。要想准确地探究地层的叠置样式与外部驱动条件之间的关系,必须有效地鉴别大尺度自成因与他成因过程。基于对大尺度自成因过程的认识,逐渐建立与发展了自成因地层学。它提出的自成因与他成因观、平衡响应与非平衡响应观为解析地层叠置样式与外部驱动条件之间的关系提供了新的视角。自成因地层学一方面对外部驱动条件分为稳定的（速率等作用方式保持不变）与不稳定的（速率等作用方式发生改变）,由前者形成的地层叠加样式（或过程）称为自成因的,后者形成的地层叠加样式（或过程）称为他成因的。另一方面也将地层叠置样式分为稳定的（加积速率与进积速率的比值Ragg/Rpro保持不变）与不稳定的（Ragg/R pro发生改变）。若稳定的外部驱动条件形成稳定的地层叠加样式,称为平衡响应,是自成因过程;稳定的外部驱动条件形成不稳定的地层叠加样式称为自成因的非平衡响应。此外,不稳定的外部驱动条件也可能形成稳定的地层叠加样式,称为他成因的非平衡响应。自成因地层学认为,由于自成因非平衡响应机制的普遍存在,地层的叠加过程通常表现得不稳定。相比而言,稳定的地层叠加样式仅在特殊情况下才能发生。传统成因地层学应当重视大尺度的自成因机制。