Continental Systems and Facies

Terrestrial depositional systems may include the

deposits of rivers, deserts, lakes, slope wastage and
ice sheets and glaciers.
We concentrate here on fluvial and desert systems.
Continental basins have a basic two-fold subdivision:
1.
Basins with through drainage are dominated by
well-established river systems and perennial lakes.
2.
Basins with internal drainage are characterized by
ephemeral river systems, generally shallow and
short-lived lakes, continental sabkhas and deserts.

Fluvial Systems

Fluvial style is a complex response to a number of

autocyclic and allocyclic controls.
The primary allocyclic controls include:
1)
climate, which controls run-off (discharge) and
the weathering of parent rocks, and
2)
tectonics, which controls basin slopes and relief
of hinterlands in the drainage basin.
This interplay results in a distinctive set of
characters of the river system, e.g. sediment load,
discharge, slope, vegetation which in turn
determine channel pattern.

Figure5.3: Plant roots or rhizoliths are good indicator of

fluvial environment (Photo by Sadooni from the Upper
Cretaceous Rutbah Formation, Western Desert, Iraq).

Alluvial basin types can be classified according to a

number of simple criteria:
Existence of transverse or longitudinal drainage
systems. Transverse rivers may alternatively join a
major longitudinal trunk river.
Nature of proximal, medial and distal elements.
Tectonically active basin margins commonly have
alluvial fans as proximal elements.

Medial elements include braidplains and high-sinuosity

alluvial systems of transverse or longitudinal type.
Distal elements may be lake margins, terminal fans and
sabkhas, deltas and estuaries.

River channel patterns are a sensitive

response to type of load, discharge, slope
and vegetation. They can be divided into a
number of types based on:
suspended-, mixed- or bed-load transport.
(Schumm 1963)
channel sinuosity (Leopold and Wolman
1957, Rust 1978)
single or multiple thalweg (cf. Rust's (1978)
braiding parameter).

The channel pattern, lateral migration and

vertical accretion of the river and floodplain
all respond to a delicate balance in a wide
range of variables. Three principal river
types exist:
(1) Meandering river facies model
(2) Sandy braided stream model
(3) Anastomosing rivers

(1) Meandering River Facies Model

The morphological elements of a meandering river system, are

shown in Fig. 5.2.
Sand deposition is normally restricted to the main channel with
its point-bars and chute bars.
The floodplain and levees receive finer grades of sediment
during river floods.
The channel floor commonly has a coarse lag of pebbles which
are only moved at maximum flood velocities.
During 'average' discharges, sand is moved through the system
in dunes on the channel floor and in ripples higher on the point
bar.
The migration of the meander bend therefore commonly results
in the upward passage from coarse lag to trough crossstratification to ripple cross-lamination, all preserved by the
process of lateral accretion.

Figure 5.2: Main morphological elements of a

meandering stream system. (Walker, 1984).

The meandering river facies model comprises

therefore, classically at least, a fining-up sequence.
This serves merely as a norm by which the many
possible variations can be compared.
In three dimensions, the sandbodies representing
point-bar sheets should be elongated in the
longitudinal direction.
In the transverse direction, their extent will be
controlled by the rate of lateral migration of the
meander loop and the duration of steady lateral
migration in between abandonment phases.

FACIES MODELS

(2) Sandy Braided Stream Model

The morphological elements of sandy braided streams are

complex and dominated by bars (simple and complex) and
intervening channels ornamented by sinuous crested dunes.
Channels may also contain oblique or transverse bars with
steep foreset slopes.
Extensive sand flats appear to grow from smaller nuclei,
represented by the emergent top of a cross-channel bar
exposed at low flow stages (Fig. 5.4).
Braided river deposits form extensive sheets of sandstone
with poorly developed shales, in marked contrast to the
three-dimensional geometry of meandering stream deposits.

Figure 5.4: Main elements in a sandy braided river

system. (Cant & Walker, 1978).

(3) Anastomosing Rivers

A number of studies suggest that a river type

characterized by multiple but relatively stable
channels exists, although there are at present
relatively few documentations of ancient examples.
There is not an anastomosing river model, but there
are some interesting and useful descriptions of
individual rivers.
Anastomosed rivers appear to be favoured by high
rates of vertical aggradation, causing stabilization of
channels
between
adjacent
wetlands.
Such
conditions might be induced by the local raising of
base levels (Fig. 5.5).

Figure 5.5: Main elements of an anastomosed river.

(Smith and Smith, 1980).

Eolian Systems

Deserts include a variety of environments of

deposition from the giant sand seas or ergs, to stony
wastelands, interdune sabkhas with temporary lakes,
and dried up river courses.
Deserts occur in both Arctic areas, where sediment is
derived from wasting glaciers, and tropical zones
where ergs are concentrated.
Areas of low rainfall occur as two discontinuous belts
around latitudes of 20-30 and are associated with
persistently high atmospheric pressures.
Deserts also occur in the centres of large continental
masses.
The occurrence of aeolian deposits in the
stratigraphic record is therefore to a large extent a
reflection of an ancient climatic zone

http://www.uoregon.edu/~millerm/sanddunes.html

The average thickness of the erg may exceed 100 m

with bedform (draa) heights of several tens of metres
to over 200 m.
Aeolian sequences are characterized by a hierarchy of
bounding surfaces, some of which 'slice' through the
entire aeolian stratigraphy and are clearly allogenic
and of inter-regional importance.
Some bounding surfaces are widespread and related
to deflation down to a water table - these are known as
'Stokes surfaces'.
Others are related to the climb of draas and smaller
superimposed bedforms and are therefore autogenic.
Distinct trends have been identified in transects from
the erg centre to the erg margin.
Such erg fringes may merge with ephemeral fluvial
systems, playa lakes or marine environments.
These erg margin environments are characterized by a
complex interaction of sedimentary processes.

Aeolian sequences are dominated by cross-stratified sandstones and

facies models rely on the recognition of a hierarchy of migrating
aeolian bedforms.
Much recent interest, however, has focused on the finer-grained
intercalations within aeolian sequences that may represent:
interdunal environments
playas and continental sabkhas
products of ephemeral stream activity.
These intercalations are particularly common at the fringes of the
large ancient sand seas or ergs.
As a result, models of aeolian-fluviatile interaction and aeolianlacustrine interaction are being developed.
Interdune areas are an integral part of the aeolian system.
In sand-depleted areas, the inter-dunes consist of deflated surfaces
lined with coarse lags or thin sand sheets and small isolated dunes.
Where the water table is elevated, sabkhas with evaporites may form.
A range of depositional conditions in the interdunal areas from dry to
damp to wet can be recognized in the Arabian Desert.
The interdune sediments are extremely important in contributing to
the heterogeneity of aeolian reservoirs.

Siliciclastic shoreline systems

The geomorphology and oceanography of the Earth's

siliciclostic coastlines reveals an exceedingly complex
interplay between fluvial input on the one hand, and
basinal parameters such as wave energy, tidal range, storm
regime on the other.
The two main types of coastal depositional system are
deltaic and non-deltaic.
Non-deltaic coastal systems may be

(1) wave-dominated, containing beaches, microtidal barrier islands

and cheniers,
(2) mixed wave-tide influenced consisting of me-sotidal barrier
islands with tidal inlets and ebb- and flood-tidal deltas, and
(3) tide-dominated, made up of tidal flats and estuaries.

Deltas develop where river systems debouch into the ocean, inland seas
and lakes.
Their form is controlled by a number of factors, chief of which is the
relative effectiveness of river discharge compared to the tidal and wave
energies of the receiving basin.
Where tidal and wave energies are low, distributary channels are able
to build out into the sea unhindered by coastal erosion (Fig. 5.6).

This produces a typical 'birds-foot' pattern, as shown by the Mississippi

delta, USA.
Sand trends, representing the seaward build-out of channels and mouth
bars, are orientated at a high angle to the coastline.

Where wave energies are strong compared to the river inflows and
tides, the sediment delivered to the sea is moulded into curved ridges
at the delta's front and some is redistributed along the shore as
beaches and spits (Fig. 5.6).

Deltas of this type, such as the Senegal (West Africa) or the Grijalva (Gulf
of Mexico) are roughly arc-shaped and prograde slowly because of the
destructive nature of approaching waves.
Sand trends are generally orientated parallel to shore.

Deltas strongly affected by tides have tidal channels

cutting deep into the coastline with associated tidal sand
ridges or shoals elongated in the same direction as the tidal
current pathways (Fig. 5.6).

The Ganga-Brahmaputra delta in the Bay of Bengal, and the

Mahakam delta, Indonesia, are of this type.
Linear sand trends are generally elongated at a high angle to the
shoreline.

Depositional patterns at river mouths can also be studied

in relation to the dynamics of outflow dispersion.

Figure 5.6: Delta types

according to the
relative importance of
fluvial an basinal
processes. (Allen and
Allen, 1990).

1 River-dominated deltas

River-dominated deltas, exemplified by the present-day

Mississippi, are characterized by distributaries and
interdistributary bays flanked with marshes.
The sequential filling by crevasse splays and abandonment
of an interdistributary bay is well illustrated in West Bay
on the Mississippi delta.
The vertical sequence differs considerably according to
proximity to the crevasse channel.
Progradation of the mouth bar produces large scale (60150m) coarsening-upward sequences representing the
passage from prodelta muds to bar front to bar crest.

2 Wave-dominated deltas

Wave-dominated deltas are characterized by

beach ridge complexes with active shorelines,
shallow lagoons between old beach ridges and
aeolian dunes in areas of ridge reworking.
Progradation should once again lead to a
coarsening-upwards sequence, the uppermost part
of the sequence comprising high-energy beachface
deposits and rarely an aeolian capping.
The Costa de Nayarit delta in Mexico is an
example of a prograding wave dominated delta.

3 Tide-dominated deltas

Tide-dominated deltas are characterized by a complex

mosaic of tidal current ridges, shoals and islands separated
by channels carrying swift tidal flows.
Progradation of the delta front gives rise to bidirectional
cross-bedded sands with clay drapes at the top of
coarsening upward sequences.
Overlying sediments may be tidal flat deposits.
Where the tidal range is lower and the sediment load is
finer, as in the Mahakam delta of Indonesia, the delta plain
is extensive and dominated by tidal flats crossed by tidal
creeks and the delta front is a shallow-dipping platform 8
to 10 km wide of wave reworked silts and sands.

4. Wave-dominated shorelines

Wave-dominated shorelines may occur on delta fronts or

on non-deltaic coasts.
They are dominated by beaches (directly attached to the
land) and barrier islands separated from the land by a
shallow lagoon.
Cheniers are sandy or shelly beach ridges isolated in
coastal mudflats.
The beachface subenvironments are controlled largely by
wave approach (Figure 5.7).

Figure 5.7: Main geomorphological elements and subenvironments in a barrier island

system and its facies models (compiled from Hayes, 1979 and Reinson, 1984).

Carbonate and evaporite shoreline

systems

Arid shorelines with low terrigenous input are characterized by deposition of

carbonates and evaporites.
The Trucial coast, Arabian Gulf is an example of a modern carbonate-rich
marginal marine sabkha (Fig. 5.8).
A wide variety of coastal geomorphological elements are present, including
beaches, barrier islands, tidal channels and associated tidal deltas, intertidal
and supratidal flats and aeolian dunes.
The beaches, tidal deltas and bars are commonly composed of oolitic-skeletal
grainstones, whereas the back-barrier lagoons accumulate pelletal muds and,
where predation is restricted, stromatolites.
The upper intertidal zone is dominated by algal mats, constituting the lowest
part of the sabkha sensu stricto.
The supratidal zone is the main part of the sabkha and is the site of the
precipitation of evaporitic minerals in the sediment column, as surface
encrustations and in small ponds.
Detrital carbonate grains are transported onto the sabkha by marine flooding.

Figure 4.8:
Sedimentary facies
of the arid
shoreline of the
Arabian Gulf
(Butler, 1982).

Arid shorelines may also be dominated by siliciclastic sedimentation,

as in Baja California, the Gulf of Elat and some parts of the Arabian
Gulf (e.g. east Qatar).
Here the sabkhas are composed of siliceous sands and muds with a
possible admixture of carbonate grains.
In many ways siliciclastic sabkhas are similar to their carbonate-rich
counterparts.
During progradation of the sabkha, normal marine sediments are first
overlain by intertidal deposits, then supratidal sabkha evaporites,
giving a vertical sequence indicative of increasing salinity.
The thickness of the vertical sequence should approximate the tidal
range of the adjacent sea, that is, 0.5 to 3 m.
In some sabkhas, however, the deposits are arranged in a 'bulls-eye'
pattern, suggesting the progressive filling of water bodies rather than
shoreline progradation.
The preservation of very thick sabkha deposits (> a few metres )
suggests that either subsidence matched the rate of deposition over a
long period of time or that sea level was rising at the same rate as
deposition.

Carbonate sediments are produced in great

abundance in shallow, warm waters where the
biological and physicochemical conditions are
optimal for carbonate precipitation and fixation.
Because the sedimentation rate commonly
outstrips the rate of subsidence, the sedimentary
surface shallows with time, giving a shallowing
upward sequence.
The sequence typically has four or five parts
comprising a basal high-energy trans-gressive
deposit,
subtidal
carbonates,
intertidal
stromatolitic sediments and finally supratidal to
terrestrial deposits.
Intertidal sediments may be of low-energy tidalflat type or may be high-energy beaches.

1 Sequences containing low-energy

tidal flats
There are a number of well-studied modern examples of
carbonate tidal flats, e.g. southern coast of Arabian Gulf,
Bahama Banks platform and Shark Bay, Australia. The
main morphological elements are:

1 A protective barrier of carbonate sand shoals, islands and reefs,

dissected by tidal channels.
2 A shallow muddy lagoon.
3 Tidal flats occurring along the landward edge of the barrier, and
as a wide belt attached to the mainland.

There are two contrasting sequences that

may result from either progradation of the
wide shore-attached tidal flats or by
shoaling of the offshore barrier, termed a
muddy sequence and a grainy sequence
respectively (Fig. 5.9).

Figure 5.9:
Shallowing-upward
sequences resulting
from the
progradation of a
carbonateproducing
shoreline.

A variation on the muddy and grainy sequences is the development of

abundant stromatolites or reefs.
Shoaling of large bioherms in the back-reef environment of reef
complexes results in a capping of beach carbonate sands or
conglomerate and fenestral and laminated intertidal sediments.
If the groundwaters are continuously within the field of gypsum
precipitation, evaporite minerals grow as a gypsum mush in the
intertidal sediments, as coalescing nodules (chicken-wire texture) or as
folded layers ('enterolithic' texture).
Formation of evaporite minerals is accompanied by widespread
dolomitization of intertidal zone sediments.
Collapse of evaporite-bearing layers takes place if the sequence is
flushed by meteoric 'fresh' waters, producing brecciated horizons.
Anhydrite crystals are commonly leached, forming vugs which may
subsequently be filled with quartz or chalcedony, and the dolomite
may be calcitized (so-called 'dedolomitization').

2. Sequences containing high-energy

intertidal units

These sequences differ from those containing extensive low-energy tidal

flats in having foreshore sediments as an important component.
These sediments are generally cross-stratified carbonate sands.
Calcretes, karsts or soils may cap the shallowing-up sequence (Fig. 5.10).
The mechanism for producing repeated shallowing upward sequences is
not well known.
An allocyclic eustatic mechanism involving repeated rapid sea level rises
has been suggested, as has a purely autocyclic mechanism involving
changes in the rate of carbonate sedimentation controlled by the subtidal source area.
As the tidal flat wedge progrades onto the shallow subtidal shelf, the
area of source area is reduced, so that progra-dation is self-limiting.
Continued relative sea level rise (caused by a eustatic rise or subsidence)
floods the tidal flat wedge and the process of progradation begins again.

Figure 5.10: a typical

sequence with highenergy intertidal
units (James, 1984).

Continental shelf systems and facies

Siliciclastic shelf systems
Continental shelf systems are extremely complex and are highly sensitive
to sea level fluctuations.
Modern siliciclastic shelves contain three main sedimentary facies
associations based on the physical processes operating in the
nearshore-inner shelf zone, the rate of sea level fluctuation and the
nature and rate of sediment supply. These are:
o shelf relict sand blanket composed of pre-Holocene deposits out of
equilibrium with present-day processes.
o nearshore modern sand prism which thins seaward.
o modern shelf mud blanket composed of fine sediment which has
escaped from the nearshore zone into deeper water depths.

Some sediment on the shelf (perhaps 50 per cent of the Earth's shelf
area), is relict, that is, it is remnant from an earlier environment and is
now out of equilibrium with the new environment; other sediments are
termed palimpsest which means that they are reworked and therefore
possess aspects of both their present and former environments; finally,
some sediment is modern and is supplied from outside the shelf area.
Facies sequences should, however, be dominated by the deposits of
flow-transverse tidal sandwaves and/or flow-parallel tidal sand ridges
with a stratification pattern indicative of systematic flow reversals or,
more likely, systematic variations in the sediment transport rate.
Storm-dominated shelves are generally dominated by the
accumulation of mud derived from major river mouths, with sand
being concentrated on the inner shelf, as on the southern Oregon shelf.
Repeated transgressions and regressions may clean up the muds,
concentrating the sand into distinct sediment bodies.

Carbonate shelf systems and reefs

Much of the continental shelf between the latitudes of 30 S and 30 N

is an area of high organic productivity and is covered not by riverderived or relict siliciclastic sediments, but by organic carbonate
material.
There are two major categories of subtropical carbonate shelf
(Ginsburg and James 1974).

(1) Rimmed shelves sheltering protected shelf lagoons. Their margins often
fall precipitously into the abyssal depths. Some rimmed shelves are
attached to continental areas. Others are now isolated platforms.
(2) Open shelves on the other hand, slope gently towards the continental
edge and are termed 'ramps'. Because of the lack of a protective rim, they
are strongly affected by storm waves and tidal currents.

Reefs are biogenic constructions on the seafloor and reef facies models must
successfully integrate sedimentological and palaeontological observations.
Reefs can generally be divided into

(1) reef core comprising skeletons of reef-building organisms and a lime-mud

matrix,
(2) reef flank of bedded reef debris and
(3) inter-reef of subtidal shallow marine carbonates (or siliciclastics).

Where reefs form a natural breakwater on the windward sides of shelves or

islands, however, they protect a back-reef environment from wave attack.
Here the arrangement of reef facies is strongly asymmetrical.
o High-energy reefs are zoned into reef crest, reef front, reef flat, back reef and
fore reef.
o Low-energy reefs are less well zoned and commonly occur as isolated,
circular to elliptical 'patch-reefs'.
o Reef mounds are flat lenses to steep conical piles of poorly sorted bioclastic
lime mud which accumulated in quiet water. Some reef mounds possess no
large skeletons, being dominated by lime mud. These 'Waulsortian mounds', or
mud mounds, occur in deeper water on carbonate slopes.
o Stromatolite reefs are common in the Precam-brian and Palaeozoic, before
the appearance of grazing metazoans. (HofFman 1974, Grotzinger 1989).

A facies model for reefs has been proposed which is based on four
growth stages:

1.
2.

3.

4.

Pioneer stage when loose sediment accumulations are stabilized by

organisms with roots or holdfasts.
Colonization stage during which reef-builders join the stabilized
mound.
Diversification stage, representing most of the reef mass, is
characterized by rapid upward growth towards sea level and a distinct
zonation develops.
Domination stage at which point the reef has built to an elevation that
produces a surf zone and reef flat.

Many reefs show stacked patterns of reef growth separated by

horizons testifying to dissolution, karst and paleosol development
and the formation of hardgrounds.
Reef facies models are complicated by the changing nature of the
biota through geological time.

Deep sea systems and facies

There are three fundamentally different environments of deposition of

clastic sediments in the deep sea:
Slope-aprons, which accumulate between the shelf and basin floor,
vary in width from less than 1 km to over 200 km.
Normal clastic slope aprons have a smooth convex-concave profile
built by slope progradation.
Faulted slope aprons typically have a highly stepped profile with
perched basins alternating with steeply dipping slope segments.
Carbonate slope arpons may form against reef edges or carbonate
shoal margins.
Where such margins are steep, sediment largely bypasses the slope
apron and it is dominated by calcirudite talus wedges.
Where the margins are gentle, the slope apron is more actively
depositional and more like its clastic counterpart.