1887
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Basin Research
  4. Volume 22, Issue 3
  5. Article
Volume 22, Issue 3
  • E-ISSN: 1365-2117

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A major issue in tectonics and sedimentation is the role of cross‐stream tectonic tilting in steering channels. The general idea is that channels will be attracted to lateral maxima in subsidence rate. A physical experiment performed in 1999 at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, however, was in conflict with the idea and showed that fluvial channels and resulting stratigraphy can be insensitive to even relatively strong lateral variation in subsidence. Here, we present results from an experiment which uses a simplified relay‐ramp geometry with laterally variable uplift and subsidence to test a hypothesis developed from the earlier experiment: Tectonic tilting steers channels only when the ratio of the time scales describing lateral channel mobility to tectonic deformation is sufficiently large. Occupation time by experimental channels and sand fraction in the deposit (a proxy for channel deposition) both increase with subsidence rate indicating strong steering of channels by tectonic forcing. We also found that, due to local incision, uplift lengthened the time scale for lateral channel migration relative to subsidence. Comparing channel mobility at the beginning of the experiment, with no tectonic forcing, to later tectonic stages of the experiment indicates that active tectonics increased the channel time scale. The interplay of channel steering with uplift and subsidence led to cyclic appearance and disappearance of an autogenic lake in the hanging‐wall basin. This lake was associated with alternation between channels going around vs. across the adjoining upstream uplifted footwall region. This creation and filling of the lake under constant tectonic forcing (constant fault slip rate) in the hanging wall created subaerial fan‐delta parasequences separated by fluvial deposits.

© 2009 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers and International Association of Sedimentologists
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2009.00419.x
2009-06-22
2024-04-23

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2009.00419.x
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Alexander, J. & Leeder, M.R. (1987) Active tectonic control of alluvial architecture. In: Recent Developments in Fluvial Sedimentology (Ed. by F.G.Ethridge , R.M.Flores & M.D.Harvey ), SEPM Spec. Publ. 39, 243–252.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Allen, J.R.L. (1978) Studies in fluviatile sedimentation; an exploratory quantitative model for the architecture of avulsion‐controlled alluvial sites. Sediment. Geol., 21, 129–147.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bridge, J.S. & Leeder, M.R. (1979) A simulation model of alluvial stratigraphy. Sedimentology, 26, 617–644.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bryant, M., Falk, P. & Paola, C. (1995) Experimental study of avulsion frequency and rate of deposition. Geology (Boulder), 23, 365–368.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Cazanacli, D., Paola, C. & Parker, G. (2002) Experimental steep, braided flow: application to flooding risk on fans. J. Hydraul. Eng., 128, 322–330.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Cowie, P.A. & Shipton, Z.K. (1998) Fault tip displacement gradients and process zone dimensions. J. Struct. Geol., 20, 983–997.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Densmore, A.L., Dawers, N.H., Gupta, S., Allen, P.A. & Gilpin, R. (2003) Landscape evolution at extensional relay zones. J. Geophys. Res., B, Solid Earth Planets, 108, 15.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Gran, K. & Paola, C. (2001) Riparian vegetation controls on braided stream dynamics. Water Resources Res., 37, 3275–3283.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Heller, P.L., Paola, C., Hwang, I.‐G., John, B. & Steel, R. (2001) Geomorphology and sequence stratigraphy due to slow and rapid base‐level changes in an experimental subsiding basin (XES 96‐1). AAPG Bull., 85, 817–838.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Hickson, T.A., Sheets, B.A., Paola, C. & Kelberer, M. (2005) Experimental test of tectonic controls on three‐dimensional alluvial facies architecture. J. Sediment. Res., 75, 710–722.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Humphrey, N.F. & Konrad, S.K. (2000) River incision or diversion in response to bedrock uplift. Geology, 28, 43–46.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kim, W. & Muto, T. (2007) Autogenic response of alluvial‐bedrock transition to base‐level variation: experiment and theory. J. Geophys. Res.‐Earth Surf., 112, doi:DOI: 10.1029/2006JF000561.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Kim, W. & Paola, C. (2007) Long‐period cyclic sedimentation with constant tectonic forcing in an experimental relay ramp. Geology, 35, 331–334.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Kim, W., Paola, C., Swenson, J.B. & Voller, V.R. (2006a) Shoreline response to autogenic processes of sediment storage and release in the fluvial system. J. Geophys. Res.-Earth Surface, 111, doi:DOI: 10.1029/2006JF000470.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Kim, W., Paola, C., Voller, V.R. & Swenson, J.B. (2006b) Experimental measurement of the relative importance of controls on shoreline migration. J. Sediment. Res., 76, 270–283.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Leeder, M.R. (1978) A Quantitative Stratigraphic Model for Alluvium, with Special Reference to Channel Deposit Density and Interconnectedness. In: Fluvial Sedimentology (Ed. by A.D.Miall ), Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 5, 587–596.
  17. Leeder, M.R., Mack, G.H., Peakall, J. & Salyards, S.L. (1996) First quantitative test of alluvial stratigraphic models: Southern Rio Grande Rift, New Mexico. Geology, 24, 87–90.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Mack, G.H. & Seager, W.R. (1990) Tectonic control on facies distribution of the camp rice and palomas formations (Pliocene‐Pleistocene) in the Southern Rio Grande Rift. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 102, 45–53.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Marzo, M., Nijman, W. & Puigdefabregas, C. (1988) Architecture of the Castissent Fluvial Sheet Sandstones, Eocene, South Pyrenees, Spain. Sedimentology, 35, 719–738.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Melvin, J. (1993) Evolving fluvial sytle in the kekiktuk formation (Mississippian), Endicott Field Area, Alaska: base level response to contemporaneous tectonism. AAPG Bull. (Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol.), 77, 1723–1744.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Mullin, J. & Ellis, C. (2008) Method to produce grain‐scale digital images of large experimental sedimentary deposits and other imperfectly flat stratigraphy. J. Sediment. Res., 78, 239–244.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Ouchi, S. (1985) Response of alluvial rivers to slow active tectonic movement. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 96, 504–515.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Paola, C. (2000) Quantitative models of sedimentary basin filling; millenium reviews. Sedimentology, 47 (Suppl. 1), 121–178.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Paola, C., Mullin, J., Ellis, C., Mohrig, D.C., Swenson, J.B., Parker, G.S., Hickson, T., Heller, P.L., Pratson, L., Syvitski, J., Sheets, B. & Strong, N. (2001) Experimental stratigraphy. GSA Today, 11, 4–9.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Parker, G. & Muto, T. (2003). 1d Numerical Model of Delta Response to Rising Sea Level. 3rd IAHR Symposium, River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics, Barcelona, Spain.
  26. Parker, G., Paola, C., Whipple, K.X. & Mohrig, D. (1998) Alluvial fans formed by channelized fluvial and sheet flow; i, theory. J. Hydraul. Eng., 124, 985–995.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Peakall, J. (1998) Axial River evolution in response to half‐graben faulting: Carson River, Nevada, U.S.A. J. Sediment. Res., 68, 788–799.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Ryseth, A. & Ramm, M. (1996) Alluvial architecture and differential subsidence in the statfjord formation, North Sea: prediction of reservoir potential. Petrol. Geosci., 2, 271–287.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Schumm, S.A., Mosley, M.P. & Weaver, W.E. (1987) Experimental Fluvial Geomorphology. John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, USA.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Sheets, B.A. (2004) Assembling the Alluvial Stratigraphic Record: Spatial and Temporal Sedimentation Patterns in Experimental Alluvial Systems. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Sheets, B.A., Hickson, T.A. & Paola, C. (2002) Assembling the stratigraphic record: depositional patterns and time-scales in an experimental alluvial basin. Basin Res., 14, 287–301.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Strong, N. & Paola, C. (2008) Valleys that never were: time surfaces versus stratigraphic surfaces. J. Sediment. Res., 78, 579–593.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Strong, N., Sheets, B.A., Hickson, T.A. & Paola, C. (2005) A mass‐balance framework for quantifying downstream changes in fluvial architecture. Fluvial Sedimentol. VII, 35, 243–253.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Whipple, K.X., Parker, G., Paola, C. & Mohrig, D. (1998) Channel dynamics, sediment transport, and the slope of alluvial fans; experimental study. J. Geol., 106, 677–693.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2009.00419.x
Loading
Steering of experimental channels by lateral basin tilting
Basin Research 22, 286 (2010); https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2009.00419.x
/content/journals/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2009.00419.x
/content/journals/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2009.00419.x
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article

Most Cited This Month Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error