Preservation of cyclic steps contrasts markedly with that of subcritical‐flow bedforms, because cyclic steps migrate upslope eroding their lee face and preserving their stoss side. Such bedforms have not been described from turbidite outcrops and cores as yet. A conceptual block diagram for recognition of cyclic steps in outcrop has been constructed and is tested by outcrop studies of deep water submarine fan deposits of the Tabernas Basin in south‐eastern Spain. Experimental data indicate that depositional processes on the stoss side of a cyclic step are controlled by a hydraulic jump, which decelerates the flow and by subsequent waxing of the flow up to supercritical conditions once more. The hydraulic jump produces a large scour with soft‐sediment deformation (flames) preserved in coarse‐tail normal‐graded structureless deposits (Bouma Ta), while near‐horizontal, massive to stratified top‐cut‐out turbidite beds are found further down the stoss side of the bedform. The architecture of cyclic steps can best be described as large, up to hundreds of metres, lens‐shaped bodies that are truncated by erosive surfaces representing the set boundaries and that consist of nearly horizontal lying stacks of top‐cut‐out turbidite beds. The facies that characterize these bedforms have traditionally been described as turbidite units in idealized vertical sequences of high‐density turbidity currents, but have not yet been interpreted to represent bedforms produced by supercritical flow. Their large size, which is in the order of 20 m for gravelly and up to hundreds of metres for sandy steps, is likely to have hindered their recognition in outcrop so far.
Excellent exposures and the presence of lithological markers make it possible to reconstruct the fan facies pattern for a narrow (6000–60 000 yr), late Tortonian (7–8 Ma) time slice of a submarine fan complex that developed in the Tabernas basin. Unlike most classical fan models, which seem to refer to a single feeder‐lobe system, the reconstruction from the Tabernas basin reveals at least three distinctive juxtaposed feeder‐lobe systems: (I) a straight feeder valley terminating in a sandstone body consisting of stacked sand‐filled scours (sand‐rich system); (II) a straight feeder channel diverging in a broad front of nested scours in mudstones. These scours terminate in fine grained sheet‐like turbidite deposits (muddy system); (III) a sinuous channel complex extending far into the basin without ‘lobe’ deposits at its mouth (solitary system).
Sedimentary features indicate that in the Tabernas basin, initial basin floor morphology and mass‐flow transport behaviour controlled and eventually stopped formation of the sand‐rich system (I), while depositional topography and slope instability controlled formation of the muddy system (II). The unusual narrowness (10–30 m) and length (8 km) of the solitary system (III) points to its confinement, possibly a result of an intrabasinal fault escarpment trending obliquely to the general direction of slope. Flow stripping (Piper & Normark, 1984) could then explain the absence of a lobe at the channel terminus.
This study aims to resolve process-facies links at both bed and environmental scales for the channel lobe transition zone (CLTZ). Data comes from existing experimental and modern CLTZ studies and from new outcrop studies. The experiments show that the CLTZ architecture of supercritical turbidity currents is complex and different from their counterparts where flows are subcritical throughout. Supercritical CLTZ's are characterised by erosive channels formed by supercritical turbidity currents, by offset stacked lobes deposited from subcritical turbidity currents and by hydraulic jump related mouth bar deposits and upslope onlapping backfill deposits at the down slope end of the transition zone. Erosive channels and backfill features can be resolved by high resolution seismic data, yet evidence for supercritical flow must come from facies analysis of core data. Outcrop examples of the CLTZ from the Tabernas submarine fan (SE Spain) and the Llorenc ¸del Munt deep-water delta slope (N. Spain) are used to establish such links between seismic scale architecture and facies recognised in cores. The outcrops described here were mapped as transition zone, and show 100 m sized, spoon-shaped scours filled with sediment containing sandy to gravelly backsets up to 4 m in height. Their facies and architecture is indicative of deposition by hydraulic jumps, can be recognized from cores, and is a good proxy for further predicting CLTZ architecture constructed by supercritical turbidity currents.
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