Quantifying sediment supply to continental margins: Application to the Paleogene Wilcox Group, Gulf of Mexico

Zhang, Jinyu; Covault, Jacob A.; Pyrcz, Michael J.; Sharman, Glenn R.; Carvajal, Cristian; Milliken, Kristy T.

doi:10.1306/01081817308

Cited by 56 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Magnitude of sediment discharge and water discharge in ancient depositional systems can often be estimated from catchment or trunk channel parameters (e.g. Holbrook & Wanas, ; Eide et al, 2017; Zhang et al, ). However, future work could improve both precision and accuracy of these estimates and improve understanding of how they vary at shorter time scales (<1 My). Future work should also focus on understanding the probability of occurrence of accommodation‐dominated and supply‐dominated sequences (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can sediment supply variations create sequences? Insights from stratigraphic forward modelling

et al. 2018

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Classic sequence stratigraphy suggests depositional sequences can form due to changes in accommodation and due to changes in sediment supply. Accommodation‐dominated sequences are problematic to define rigorously, but are commonly interpreted from outcrop and subsurface data. In contrast, supply‐dominated sequences are much less commonly identified. We employ numerical stratigraphic forward modelling to compare stratal geometries forced by cyclic changes in relative sea level with stratal geometries forced by sediment discharge and water discharge changes. Our quantitative results suggest that both relative sea‐level oscillations and variations in sediment/water discharge ratio are able to form sequence‐bounding unconformities independently, confirming previous qualitative sequences definitions. In some of the experiments, the two types of sequence share several characteristics, such as an absence of coastal‐plain topset deposits and stratal offlap, something typically interpreted as the result of falling relative sea level. However, the stratal geometries differ when variations in amplitude and frequency of relative sea‐level change, sediment/water discharge ratio, transport diffusion coefficient and initial bathymetry are applied. We propose that the supply‐dominated sequences could be recognised in outcrop or in the subsurface if the observations of stratal offlap and the absence of coastal‐plain topset can be made without any strong evidence of relative sea‐level fall (e.g. descending shoreline trajectory). These quantitative results suggest that both supply‐dominated and accommodation‐dominated sequences are likely to occur in the ancient record, as a consequence of multiple, possibly complex, controls.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can sediment supply variations create sequences? Insights from stratigraphic forward modelling

et al. 2018

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“…Other researchers have found that the BQART equation reasonably predicts Holocene sediment flux (Milliken, Anderson, Simms, & Blum, ), and is reliable for long‐term average determinations (Milliken et al, ; Syvitski & Milliman, ) (Figure G(C&D) in Supplementary material). The possible errors of the BQART relationship applied to ancient systems, as has been discussed by Zhang et al (), includes uncertainties in climate input and environmental conditions, and hierarchy of time scales (Zhang et al, ). There is also uncertainty from the original values of the parameter data collected from literature.…”

Section: Sediment Discharge Estimates From Ancient Marginsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The BQART method (temperature condition ≥2°C) allows evaluation of the relationship between the drainage area, sediment load and relief. For the BQART Equations (13 and 14) (Syvitski & Milliman, 2007;Zhang et al, 2018Zhang et al, , 2016, Qs represents for sediment load (Mt/year); A is basin catchment area (km 2 ); R (km) represents maximum relief for drainage basin; T is basin average temperature in °C; constant ω = 0.02 (kg/s) or 0.0006 (Mt/year); Mean water discharge Q is in km 3 /year; parameter B = 1.0 eliminates the influence of glaciers, basin wide lithology, lake and reservoir trapping, and human-influence soil erosion factor (Blum & Hattier-Womack, 2009;Somme, Piper, Deptuck, & Helland-Hansen, 2011;Syvitski & Milliman, 2007).…”

Section: Calculation Of Sediment Discharge Using Bqart Model: Methomentioning

confidence: 99%

Clinoform growth and sediment flux into late Cenozoic Qiongdongnan shelf margin, South China Sea

et al. 2019

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The South China Sea continental margin in the Qiongdongnan Basin (QDNB) area has incrementally prograded since 10.5 Ma generating a margin sediment prism more than 4km‐thick and 150–200 km wide above the well‐dated T40 stratigraphic surface. Core and well log data, as well as clinoform morphology and growth patterns along 28 2D seismic reflection lines, illustrate the evolving architecture and margin morphology; through five main seismic‐stratigraphic surfaces (T40, T30, T27, T20 and T0) frame 15 clinothems in the southwest that reduce over some 200 km to 8 clinoforms in the northeast. The overall margin geometry shows a remarkable change from sigmoidal, strongly progradational and aggradational in the west to weakly progradational in the east. Vertical sediment accumulation rate increased significantly across the entire margin after 2.4 Ma, with a marked increase in mud content in the succession. Furthermore, an estimate of sediment flux across successive clinoforms on each of the three selected seismic cross sections indicate an overall decrease in sediment discharge west to east, away from the Red River depocenter, as well as a decrease in the percentage of total discharge crossing the shelf break in this same direction. The QDNB Late Cenozoic continental margin growth, with its overall increased sediment flux, responded to the climate‐induced, gradual cooling and falling global sea level during this icehouse period.

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“…The vast amount of industry seismic-reflection data and decades of drilling results have created a detailed record of sediment routing and basin stratigraphy (Snedden et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018), postrift subsidence (Roure et al, 2009), heat flow (Christie and Nagihara, 2016), and salt tectonics (Fort and Brun, 2012;Dooley et al, 2013). However, a consequence of the thick overburden in the Gulf of Mexico is that it makes imaging of the underlying crust more challenging than at sediment-starved margins Bayrakci et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure and origin of the rifted margin of the northern Gulf of Mexico

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The wide continental margin of southern Louisiana borders Paleozoic terranes that accreted to Laurentia before Jurassic rifting formed the Gulf of Mexico. It is unclear whether continental rifting here involved widespread or localized crustal extension, or how seafloor spreading in the Gulf of Mexico started. To improve our understanding of this rifting episode, we gathered marine seismic-refraction data along a 396-km-long transect from the continental shelf 50 km off the western Louisiana coast to the central ocean basin as part of the Gulf of Mexico Basin Opening (GUMBO) program. Using travel-time tomography, we imaged the compressional seismic-velocity structure from the shallow sediments to the uppermost mantle. In our geophysical model, the crust tapers in thickness from ~11 km near the Louisiana coast to ~8 km in the deep water of the central Gulf of Mexico. The compressional seismic velocity increases from 5.7 to 5.9 km/s in the shallow basement to 6.8-7.2 km/s above the Moho. The thickness and average wave speed of crust beneath the modern Louisiana coast and continental shelf suggest the presence of uniformly stretched continental crust that was intruded by mantle-derived melts during extension before continental breakup. South of the Sigsbee Escarpment, the crust is thinner with a higher seismic velocity, which is more consistent with thick oceanic crust. A comparison of our seismic-velocity model with coincident seismic-reflection data indicates that the voluminous Louann Salt was likely deposited on rifted continental crust shortly before the onset of seafloor spreading in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Quantifying sediment supply to continental margins: Application to the Paleogene Wilcox Group, Gulf of Mexico

Cited by 56 publications

References 51 publications

Can sediment supply variations create sequences? Insights from stratigraphic forward modelling

Can sediment supply variations create sequences? Insights from stratigraphic forward modelling

Clinoform growth and sediment flux into late Cenozoic Qiongdongnan shelf margin, South China Sea

Structure and origin of the rifted margin of the northern Gulf of Mexico

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