Deltaic Depositional Systems Deltaic Depositional Systems

• Locus of voluminous terrigenous clastic sediment

accumulation where fluvial dispersal systems
encounter standing water
Modern and • Most common in subsiding basin-settings (passive
continental margins) where major river systems
Ancient transport large volumes of sediment.

Modern Gulf of Mexico

And the Mississippi River Delta
(a river dominated delta)

Arno River Delta (Med)

(a wave dominated and engineered delta)
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Deltas
• Rivers
– flow seaward
– change slope and velocity
– carry a sediment load.
• When river empties into coastal body of
water
– velocity slows
– sediments are deposited.
• Herodotus (c. 400 BC) - thought the alluvial
plain at mouth of Nile looked like a ∆

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 What does a typical delta look like?

The Nile- Original D

Modified from Hamblin and Christiansen, 1988 5

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Main Geological Characteristics

Of Deltas
• Isopach thick... major stratigraphic component of
(Terrigenous Clastic) sedimentary basin fill

Mississippi Delta

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Main Geological Characteristics
Of Deltas
• Regressive - Progradational successions
• Abandonment – Transgressive Stage
Main Geological Characteristics
Of Deltas
• Contemporaneous non-marine - marginal marine - to basinal
depositional systems
• Numerous sub-environments (each of a scale similar to that of
most other depositional systems)

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Delta Overview
• Deltas grow steadily from a point source
• Course bedload most proximal
– channel and mouth bar subenvironments
• Fines more distal from point source
• Overall pattern:
coarse
\\\\ medium fine very fine
• Builds out such that fines are offshore
– leads to COARSENING UPWARDS

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• Delta progradation
– cross-section results as clastics are
deposited in the sub environments
– sediments builds out
– PROGRADES INTO BASIN

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Delta Types
Delta Morphology • Constructional Deltas
– Dominated by the fluvial
system
• Function of most dominant process • strongly
• Elongate progradational/regressive
– little reworking of sediments; levies form, builds – Lobate – Elongate
out into basin • Destructional Deltas
• Lobate – Dominated by marine
– better reworking (tidal); more blunt shape processes
• common marine reworking
• Cuspate with transgressive
– water concentrates its energy to oppose wave intervals
action – Cuspate (transitional to
– each ridge is built as it moves out and progrades interdeltaic systems)
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 What are the different types of deltas?

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Main Processes Influencing

Delta Depositional Systems
• Climate
Delta • Relief
Successions • Fluvial Discharge (water volume and
time variation)
• Sediment load and type
“Clastic Hierarchies”
• River mouth processes
Christopher G. St. C. • Tidal Processes
Kendall • Wave energy
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 Delta plain/ top
Subenvironments
• Delta plain/ delta top • Channels and flood
– Delta Channels plain
– Floodplain – part of the fluvial
environment
• Delta front environments
– rivers not quite to sea
– Delta Front
• Delta Channels
– Prodelta
– coarsest sediments in
– Foredelta
channels
• Marginal (distal) – carries sediments
• Offshore across delta top/ delta
plain
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• Floodplain/ over-bank Delta Front Environments

areas
– suspended sediments • Delta front
settle out during floods
• Vegetated
– Include river channel
• possible accumulation of – silts and sands
peat
– Proximal
– crevasse splays
• lead to sand lenses on • Prodelta
surface
– silty and clay
– interdisciplinary bays
• sheltered areas on delta • Foredelta
plain near delta front

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 Delta front environments Delta front environments
• Prodelta
•River channel
•Site of deposition of bedload – finest grained sediments
•Forms sub-aqueous mouth bar • aided by plume of sediment rich water that
extends across delta front
•coarsens up
• blankets area with fine grains
•coarse sediments reworked by tides,
• suspended sediments
wave actions
•water often brackish – some coarser sediments from turbidites

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Delta front environments Galloway

Classification
• Delta slope • Galloway (1975): 3 factors of constraint
– inclined area in front of delta top – fluvial dominated (sediment input)
• Slope delta front is related to grain size – wave dominated (wave Energy)
• Coarse grains make steep slope – tidal dominated (tidal Energy)
– up to 35° angle of repose
• Mississippi (fluvial)
• Fine grains (silty clay) is <1° slope
• Rhone (wave)
• Fines increase away from river
• Ganges (tidal)

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 River Dominated

Wave Dominated Delta

Modified from Hamblin and Christiansen,

1988
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Main Delta Sedimentary Facies

• Generic River-Dominated Delta Model
– large rivers
– broad shelf
– low wave energy
– low tidal range

Ganges- Tide Dominated

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 Main Delta Sedimentary Facies Main Delta Sedimentary Facies
• Generic River-Dominated Delta Model • Generic River-Dominated Delta Model
– Upper Delta Plain – Lower delta plain
• above highest high • between the tides
tide – Distributary channels
– low gradient/ – Inter-distributary
meandering river bay fill
systems
– levees
– fresh water lakes
– swamps

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Main Delta Sedimentary Facies Delta Front Progradation

• Generic River-Dominated Delta Model
– Subaqueous Delta
(Delta Front)
• below lowest low tide
– distributary mouth
bar - bar finger
sands
– bays

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 Main Delta Sedimentary Facies Transgressive Mississippi Delta Model
• Generic River-Dominated Delta Model
– Prodelta
• Offshore transitional
to open marine
– Normal Marine Shelf
• High biological
productivity
– Abundant slumps and
syndepositional
deformation

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Transgressive Mississippi Delta Model

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 Generic Wave Dominated Delta Model
Wave dominated deltas • High wave energy, open coasts, strong longshore
• Wave dominated currents
– wind- driven waves agitate surface
– rework sediments in shallow water
– affects mouth bars in basin and mouth of river
– modifies river –dominated delta
• Morphology limits progradation
– can’t form sub-aqueous levees
• bedload is immediately reworked – Non-marine, swamp to
• if waves hit obliquely (and usually do), get lateral Eolian dune
migration of sediments and development of spits – Arcuate to strand-
– beach and mouth bars form // to coast parallel sand dominated
facies, barrier island
• waves sort grains
sequences
• mouth bar is better sorted sediments Rhone River Delta (Med)
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Wave dominated deltas Tide dominated deltas

• Tide dominated
– onshore/offshore currents move bedload/
• Progradation suspended load back and forth
– waves don’t transport ALL material from – very different features
river mouth – delta plain
– tidal currents are bidirectional
– mouth bars build to form new beaches • Herringbone cross-bedding
– River mouth bars aren’t as continuous and • Mud lenses as suspended sediments settles out in
slack tide
have more overbank deposits – lots of sediment in surface in form of tidal flats
– probably similar delta slope and front – lobate shape to mouth bars; perpendicular to shore
– look for bi-directional flow indicators
– can confuse with estuarine systems
» look at over all sequences
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 Generic Tide Dominated Delta Model
• High Tidal Range Tide dominated deltas
• Coarse grained deltas
– bodies of gravelly detritus that form on
margins of lakes and seas
– needs braided river or alluvial fan

– Extensive lower delta

plain/tidal mudflats
– Shore perpendicular,
elongate sand dominated
facies, tidal channel Ganges - Brahmaputra River Delta
deposits (Indian Ocean)
(a tide dominated delta) 45 46
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Environmental Issues in Modern Deltas Environmental Issues in Modern Deltas

• Damming, Dredging, Diverting • Mississippi Delta Coastal Land loss
– Coastal Land loss (erosion/subsidence) – Louisiana's coastal wetlands, a national resource
– Coastal Pollution supporting 30% of the nation's fisheries and
• Nutrient loading, most of the wintering ducks in the Mississippi
– anoxic events Flyway, are at risk from the annual conversion of
• Petroleum contamination an estimated 35-45 mi2 of wetlands to open
water. Louisiana's wetland loss rate is the
– Habitat Destruction highest of any state in the nation. The processes
• land loss, causing wetland loss in coastal Louisiana are
• contamination, and complex and varied.
• development

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