1. Tidal signatures in a shelf-margin delta
- Author
-
Cummings, Don I., Arnott, R. William C., and Hart, Bruce S.
- Subjects
Nova Scotia -- Natural history ,Sedimentation -- Environmental aspects ,Geology, Stratigraphic -- Research ,Tidal currents -- Environmental aspects ,Earth sciences - Abstract
Based on its anomalous thickness (~150 m) and stratigraphic position above continental-slope mudstone, an upward-coarsening succession consisting in part of tidal rhythmites in the Glenelg Field, offshore Nova Scotia, Canada, is interpreted to be a strongly tide-influenced shelf-margin-delta deposit. A large, funnel-shaped erosional shelf-edge invagination is observed where the paleoshelf edge is resolved in three-dimensional seismic data adjacent to Glenelg. We propose that the delta at Glenelg prograded into a similar shelf-edge invagination within which tidal currents were amplified and wave energy was attenuated. Given that funnel-shaped invaginations (e.g., slope canyon heads, slump scars, fluvially incised knickmarks) are relatively common along modern shelf edges, and that fluvio-deltaic systems should be focused into these topographic lows during regression across the shelf, it seems likely that shelf-edge invaginations play an important but underappreciated role in mediating terrigenous clastic sedimentation during sea-level Iowstands. Keywords: deltas, tides, shelf-slope break, sequence stratigraphy, facies.
- Published
- 2006