Depositional architecture of deep-water slope systems : examples from the quaternary Lucia Chica channel system, offshore central California and the upper Miocene Urenui formation, New Zealand
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Deep-water channels are submarine conduits that transport subaerial and shallow marine sediments into the deep-sea. Much of the sediment transport and deposition through deep-water slope channels occurs as turbidity currents that are recorded in deposits, termed turbidites. I utlize outcrop and seafloor turbidite datasets to investigate deep-water channel formation and fill in two different slope depositional systems--the Quaternary Lucia Chica channel system, offshore central California, and the upper Miocene Urenui Formation, New Zealand. Extensive exposures of the Urenui Formation along the northern Taranaki coast are used to investigate channel-fill architecture and influences on slope sedimentation in ancient mid- to uppermost-slope channels. Variations within sandstone and conglomerate lithofacies are interpreted to reflect relative position of channels on the paleo-slope. I generated a composite architecture at lithofacies-scale from the truncated Taranaki outcrops that suggests conduit development, phases of channelization, and channel abandonment within the slope channels. In contrast to the Urenui Formation outcrops, the Lucia Chica includes a mid-slope avulsion belt with four adjacent channels and a complicated pattern of scours imaged with Autonomous Underwater Vehicle high-resolution seafloor and outcrop-scale subsurface data. This extremely high-resolution imaging leads to new interpretations of avulsion sequence, distribution of turbidity currents, and channel development. The interpreted sequence of channel development involves erosional channel inception through scouring and incipient channels (defined by linear trains of scours) prior to development of continuous thalwegs. Channel narrowing, formation and growth of levees, increasing channel relief, and development of sinuosity occurred as channels evolved. These results challenge existing conceptual models of channel continuity, fluvial analogs, and channel inception, migration, and abandonment developed from other deep-water systems with lower-resolution imaging. Implications of this research extend to academic studies of deep-water channel development, reservoir-scale analogs of stacking patterns relevant to petroleum applications, and exploration of the modern seafloor.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Maier, Katherine Leigh |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. |
| Primary advisor | Graham, S. A. (Stephan Alan), 1950- |
| Thesis advisor | Graham, S. A. (Stephan Alan), 1950- |
| Thesis advisor | Fildani, Andrea |
| Thesis advisor | Hilley, George E |
| Thesis advisor | Lowe, Donald R, 1942- |
| Thesis advisor | Paull, Charles K |
| Advisor | Fildani, Andrea |
| Advisor | Hilley, George E |
| Advisor | Lowe, Donald R, 1942- |
| Advisor | Paull, Charles K |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Katherine L. Maier. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2012 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Katherine Leigh Maier
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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