DELTAS

PRESENTED BY: MIGUELITO LABAYOG

 12.1 RIVER MOUTHS, DELTAS AND
ESTUARIES

• The mouth of a river is the point where it reaches a standing body of

water, which may be a lake or the sea. These are the places where a delta
may form or an estuary may occur.
• Delta: Discrete shoreline protuberance formed at a point where a river
enters the ocean or other body of water.
• Estuary: River mouth where there is a mixture of fresh water and
seawater with accumulation of sediment within the confines of the estuary,
but without any build-out into the sea.
 12.2
TYPES
OF
D E LTA
12.2 TYPES
OF DELTA
 FIG. 12.3
C L A S S I F I C AT I O N O F
D E LTA S TA K I N G G R A I N
SIZE, AND HENCE
S E D I M E N T S U P P LY
M E C H A N I S M S , I N TO
A C C O U N T. ( M O D I F I E D
F RO M O RTO N &
READING 1993.)
 12.3 DELTA ENVIRONMENTS AND
SUCCESSIONS

• Marine deltas form at the interface of continental and

marine environments.
• Flora and fauna characteristic of land environments, such as
the growth of plants and the development of soils, are
found within a short distance of animals that are found
exclusively in marine conditions. These spatial associations
of characteristics seen in modern deltas occur as
associations of facies in the stratigraphic record.
FIG. 12.5
D E LTA
TO P
AND
D E LTA
F RO N T
 12.3.1 DELTA-TOP SUBENVIRONMENTS

• Deltas are fed by a river or an alluvial fan and there is a transition between
the area that is considered part of the fluvial/alluvial environment and the
region that is considered to be the delta top or delta plain.
• This area may be vegetated under proper climatic circumstances as well as
swamp land.
• Depositions in this area vary as the channels reach full-bank stages and
overflow, spilling onto the plain.
• Interdistributary bays: Where channels build out elongate lobes of
sediment.
FIG. 12.5
D E LTA
TO P
AND
D E LTA
F RO N T
 12.3.2 DELTA-FRONT
SUBENVIRONMENTS

• At the mouth of the channels, the flow velocity is abruptly reduced as the
water enters the standing water of the lake or sea.
• The channel mouth is the site of deposition of bedload materials as
a subaqueous mouth bar.
• Here the coarsest sediment is deposited in shallow water.
• As the water deepens progressively finer material is being deposited in
the area called the delta slope.
• Prodelta : Furthest away from the delta front. The prodelta is out in
front of the delta and this is where you get most of the deposition of fine
material, like clay.
FIG. 12.5
D E LTA
TO P
AND
D E LTA
F RO N T
 12.3.3 DELTAIC SUCCESSIONS

• Progradation, that is, deposition results in the sediment body building out into the
lake or sea.
• The succession formed by the progradation of a delta has a shallowing-up pattern
• The shallowing-up, coarsening-up pattern is one of the distinctive characteristics
of a deltaic succession, but can be considered to be more diagnostic of a delta
only if the top of the succession shows a transition from deposition in
subaqueous to subaerial environments.
 12.4.5 PROCESS CONTROLS:
RIVER-DOMINATED DELTAS

• A delta is regarded as river-dominated where the effects of tides and waves

are minor.
• Bedload and suspended load carried by the river is deposited on the
subaqueous levees, building up to sea level and extending the front of the
delta basinwards as thin strips of land either side of the main channel to
form the characteristic ‘bird’s foot’ pattern of a river-dominated delta
• The deposits of river-dominated deltas have well developed delta-top facies,
consisting of channel and overbank sediments.
• Low-energy, interdistributary bays are a characteristic of river-dominated
deltas.
12.4.5
 12.4.6 PROCESS CONTROLS:
WAVE-DOMINATED DELTAS

• A wave-dominated delta formed where wave activity reworks the sediment

brought to the delta front to form coastal sand bars and extensive mouth-
bar deposits.
• Conditions that favor wave-dominated deltas include low fluvial discharge
and sediment load, high wave and low tide activity, and a deep basin.
• Waves are effective at sorting bedload grains by size. The mouth-bar
deposits of a wave-influenced delta is expected to be better sorted than
those of river-dominated deltas.
12.4.6
 12.4.7 PROCESS CONTROLS:
TIDE-DOMINATED DELTAS

• Tide-dominated deltas form highly irregular shorelines that extend slightly

to moderately away from the general shoreline into the basin.
• The delta front is dominated by tidal bars oriented perpendicular to
the shoreline.
• Conditions that favor tide-dominated deltas include low fluvial discharge
and sediment load, high tide, low to moderate wave activity, an embayed
coast, and a shallow basin.
12.4.7
 12.7 RECOGNITION OF DELTAIC DEPOSITS

• The delta top contains both relatively coarse sediment of the distributary
channel as well as finer grained material in overbank areas and interdistributary
bays.
• The delta top will show signs of subaerial conditions, including the development
of a soil.
• The shallower water deposits of the delta front may be extensively reworked by
wave and/or tidal action resulting in cross-stratified mouth-bar facies.
• Deltaic deposits are almost exclusively composed of terrigenous clastic material
supplied by rivers.
 • lithologies – conglomerate, sandstone and mudstone .
• mineralogy – variable, delta-front facies may be
compositionally mature .
• texture – moderately mature in delta-top sands and
gravels, mature in wave-reworked delta-front deposits
• bed geometry – lens-shaped delta channels, mouthbar
lenses variably elongate, prodelta deposits thin bedded .
C H A R AC T E R I S T I C S • sedimentary structures – cross-bedding and lamination
O F D E LTA I C
DEPOSITS in delta-top and mouth-bar facies .
• palaeocurrents – topset facies indicate direction of
progradation, wave and tidal reworking variable on delta
front .
• fossils – association of terrestrial plants and animals of
the delta top with marine fauna of the delta front .
• colour – not diagnostic, delta-top deposits may be
oxidised
 SOURCE

• SEDIMENTOLOGY AND
STRATIGRAPHY by Gary
Nichols