The sediment budget and paleogeography was reconstructed for the Maastrichtian fluvial to coastal plain Lance Formation (>200m thick) that developed coevally with the shoreline/shelf Fox Hills Sandstone (>200m thick) and deep-water Lewis Shale (>750m thick) in a complete source-to-sink system in the Washakie and Great Divide Basins of south central Wyoming. The system initiated during the final Western Interior Seaway (WIS) transgression and the onset of the Laramide Orogeny rapid subsidence (>2km in 1.9 My) that largely outpaced sediment flux into the basin so the system became and remained a deep-water (>500m water depth) basin beyond the Lance-Fox Hills shelf prism. The active tectonic setting and rapid subsidence caused the Lance fluvial and coastal plain deposits to aggrade and accumulate behind the generally rising shoreline trajectory of the Fox Hills Sandstone. The depositional succession is subdivided into 15 clinothem units and the Lance Formation is best exposed in outcrops in clinoforms 10, 11, and 12. Subsurface analysis correlates key stratigraphic surfaces across the basin to define the sediment budget and clinoform architecture. Field analysis along clinoform 12 on the east side of the basin details facies and paleohydraulic dimensions. Sediment partitioning shows the regressive and transgressive systems tracts (RST and TST) form complementary wedges such that the RST thickens basinward and the TST thins basinward, reflecting the preferential storage of sediment. Channels measured in the field and subsurface datasets are similar in thickness (2m-16m) and suggest braided channel morphology with channel belts from 6.2-8.4km. N/NE paleocurrent trends departing from the subsurface dataset and previous studies of the system provide evidence of possible tidal influences in a developed shoreline embayment or an east to west supply from the basement-cored Rawlins and Sierra Madre Uplifts in the east. The fluvial Lance Formation paleogeography associated with the RST and TST is primarily driven both by modest, Late Cretaceous relative sea level changes and sediment supply linked to the tectonic setting and climate. / text

Quantifying how hillslopes respond to river incision and climate change is fundamental to understanding the geomorphic evolution of tectonically uplifting landscapes during glacial-interglacial cycles. Hillslope adjustment in the form of deep-seated bedrock landslides can account for a large proportion of the regional sediment yield and denudation rates for rapidly uplifting landscapes. However, the timing and magnitude of the response of hillslopes to climatic and tectonic forcing in moderate uplift temperate maritime catchments characteristic of many active margins worldwide is not well quantified. This study seeks to investigate how hillslopes respond to climate-modulated river incision and to quantify the magnitude of the sediment flux from this response in a typical active margin setting. The non-glacialWaipaoa Sedimentary System (WSS) on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand consists of river catchments, coastal foothills to uplifting mountain ranges, and terrestrial and marine sediment depocentres collectively underlain by relatively young (Cretaceous and younger) sedimentary rocks within a tectonically active setting and temperate maritime climate. These attributes make theWSS similar to many coastal catchments on oceanic-continental convergent margins worldwide. However, because of widespread destruction of primary forests for conversion to pasture lands by the mid 20th Century, theWSS is currently a globally significant source of sediment to the world’s oceans. Because of these factors, theWSS was selected as one of two global study sites for the international, NSF supported, MARGINS Source-to-Sink initiative designed to investigate the transfer of sediment from terrestrial source to marine sink. Previous studies on theWSS have shown a strong link between climate change and geomorphic response in the system. River incision since the last glacial coldest period has generated a significant amount of topography, leaving small remnants of the ca.18,000 cal. yr BP last glacial aggradation terrace scattered up to 120 m above modern rivers. In this study, the hillslope response to river incision is quantitatively examined using new high resolution topographic data sets (lidar and photogrammetry) in combination with 3 field mapping and tephrochronology. Hillslopes are found to be coupled to river incision and adjusted to rapid incision through the initiation and reactivation of deep-seated landslides. In the erodible marine sedimentary rocks of the terrestrialWSS, post-incision deep-seated landslides can occupy over 30% of the surface area. Many of these slides show evidence of multiple “nested” failures and landslide reactivation. The ages of tephra cover beds identified by electron microprobe analysis show that following an initial 4,000 to 5,000 year time lag after the initiation of river incision, widespread hillslope adjustment started between the deposition of the ca. 13,600 cal. yr BPWaiohau tephra and the ca. 9,500 cal. yr BP Rotoma tephra. Tephrochronology and geomorphic mapping analysis indicates that river incision and deep-seated landslide slope adjustment is synchronous between mainstem rivers and headwater tributaries. Tephrochronology further shows that many slopes have continued to adjust to channel incision into the late Holocene. Hillslope response in the catchment can involve the entire hillslope from river to ridgeline, with some interfluves between incising sub-catchments being dramatically modified through ridgeline retreat and/or lowering. Using the results of the landform tephrochronology and geomorphic mapping, a conceptual time series of hillslope response to uplift and climate change-induced river incision is derived for a timeframe encompassing the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Using the same high resolution topography datasets, in-depth field analysis, and tephrochronology, the 18,000 year sediment yield from terrestrial deep-seated landslides in theWSS is estimated in order to investigate the magnitude of hillslope response to climate-modulated, uplift driven river incision. This completes one of the first processbased millennial time-scale sediment budgets for this class of temperate maritime, active margin catchments. Fluvial and geomorphic modelling is applied to reconstruct pre 18,000 cal. yr BP topography in 141 km2 of detailed study area and the resulting volumetric estimates from 207 landslides are used to estimate deep-seated landslide sediment flux for the broader system. An estimated 10.2 km3 of deep-seated landslidederived sediment with a multiplicative uncertainty of 1.9 km3 (+9.2 km3, -4.8 km3) was delivered to terrestrial and marine sinks. This accounts for between 10 and 74% of the total mass of the terrestrialWSS budget of ca. 91,000 Mt (+37,000 Mt, -26,000 Mt). Combining the deep-seated landslide results with other studies of terrestrial sediment sources and terrestrial and shelf sinks, the estimated terrestrial source load ranges from 4 Abstract 1.2 to 3.7 times larger than the mass of sediment sequestered in terrestrial and shelf depocentres. This implies that off-shelf transport of sediment is important in this system over the last 18,000 cal. yr BP, as it is today for anthropogenic reasons. Based on the derived sediment budget, the denudation rate for the terrestrialWSS of 0.8 mm yr-1 (+0.3 mm yr-1, -0.2 mm yr-1) is indistinguishable from the average terrestrialWaipaoa late Quaternary uplift rate, indicating an approximate steady-state balance between denudation and uplift. This thesis provides a quantitative analysis of the role of deepseated landslides in an active margin catchment that is used to improve the understanding of landscape and terrestrial source-to-marine-sink sediment transfer dynamics.

Dans cette étude menée sur la côte méditerranéenne du Maroc, de l’Algérie, et de la Tunisie à une échelle spatiale et temporelle étendue (2200 km de côte et sur 100 ans environ), nous déterminons, par une approche « Source-to-sink », les relations existantes entre l’érosion produite dans les bassins versants et les sédiments transportés en suspension par les oueds, avec la redistribution de ces sédiments le long du rivage. Nous proposons un nouveau modèle empirique de transport sédimentaire en suspension le long des bassins versants de notre site d’étude. Nous déterminons alors l’impact des barrages sur les sédiments, puis nous estimons quantitativement quels sont les apports sédimentaires s’effectuant jusqu’à la mer. Nous analysons les caractéristiques morphologiques du littoral selon sa géométrie et les indices morphodynamiques issus de la littérature. Après avoir cartographié la position du trait de côte à différentes périodes, la cinématique du rivage est déterminée, ainsi que la dérive littorale. Ces analyses se basent sur le concept de cellule littorale. Nous terminons par une synthèse globale avant de tirer les conclusions principales sur les relations entre les bassins versants et les cellules littorales, telles que (1) le rôle de précurseur et de tampon sédimentaire joué par les deltas pour limiter l’érosion des plages en secteur aval de la cellule littorale, (2) les liens entre les apports sédimentaires des oueds avant-barrage avec le type de barre littorale, et (3) les liens entre les apports sédimentaires des oueds avant-barrage, minorés du volume de sédiment déplacé par la dérive littorale, avec la taille des deltas et le nombre de barres littorales. / In this study conducted on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia at an extended spatial and temporal scale (2200 km of coastline and about 100 years), we determine, using a "source-to- sink ", the existing relationships between erosion produced in watersheds and sediment transported in suspension by wadis, with the redistribution of these sediments along the shoreline. We propose a new empirical model of suspended sediment transport along the watersheds of our study site. We then determine the impact of dams on the sediments, and then quantitatively estimate the sedimentary contributions to the sea. We analyze the morphological characteristics of the littoral according to its geometry and the morphodynamic indices from the literature . After mapping the position of the coastline at different periods, the kinematics of the shoreline is determined, as well as the shoreline drift. These analyzes are based on the concept of a littoral cell. We conclude with a general synthesis before drawing the main conclusions on the relations between watersheds and coastal cells, such as (1) the role of precursor and sediment buffer played by deltas to limit the erosion of beaches in the sector (3) the links between sediment inputs from pre-barrage wadis, minus the volume of sediment moved by the coastal drift, with the size of the deltas and the number of coastal bars.

Cette thèse présente la première étude Source-to-Sink de la marge Atlantique Equatoriale africaine au Méso-Cénozoïque. Nous avons dans un premier temps produit, à partir d'une nouvelle méthode intégrant les limites d'érosion des dépôts préservés dans les bassins et leur extension initiale minimum, une nouvelle reconstruction paléogéographique et structurale couplant pour la première fois le continent ouest africain et l'Atlantique Equatoriale au cours du Méso-Cénozoïque. Ceci nous permet de suivre l'évolution depuis 200 Ma des domaines en érosion (sources) et en sédimentation (puits) à l'échelle continentale. Nous montrons en particulier qu'au Crétacé supérieur la zone correspondait à un grand bassin intracratonique Saharien qui exportaient ses sédiments à la fois vers la Téthys et vers l'Atlantique Equatoriale. La fragmentation de ce bassin a eu lieu à l'Oligocène par le soulèvement du bouclier du Hoggar qui a isolé les petits dépôt-centres résiduels actuels. Le développement de cette topographie particulière est issu de la superposition de différentes longueurs d'onde de déformation à l'échelle continentale combinant les bourrelets marginaux longeant la marge équatoriale et un bombement de type " point chaud ".Nous avons ensuite caractérisé, à partir de l'interprétation des données sismiques et des puits, la segmentation de la marge continentale équatoriale en segments transformants et divergents et l'architecture stratigraphique post-rift du prisme stratigraphique associée au Crétacé Supérieur. Nous montrons que les parties proximales (dépôts de plateforme et pente continentale) des prismes stratigraphiques du Crétacé Supérieur ne sont préservés que le long des segments divergents de la marge, et pas le long des segments transformants. Nous interprétons cette différence de préservation comme résultant de mouvements verticaux post-rift plus importants dans les domaines proximaux des segments transformants empêchant la préservation des termes proximaux des systèmes sédimentaires. La caractérisation des architectures stratigraphiques post-rifts a ensuite permis la quantification des volumes sédimentaires préservés dans ces bassins de marges passives. En parallèle, de nouvelles données de thermochronologie basse-température (AFTA et (U-Th-Sm/He sur apatite) acquises à l'Université de Glasgow sur les échantillons de trois profils perpendiculaires à la marge équatoriale ont permis de quantifier l'histoire de l'érosion et les volumes dénudés sur le domaine continental au cours du Méso-Cénozoïque. Ces données montrent que le seul événement thermique majeur enregistré correspond au refroidissement lié à la dénudation d'une topographie syn-rift le long de la marge. Le bilan d'érosion et d'accumulation montre que les ordres de grandeur des volumes dénudés et accumulés sont comparables à l'échelle de la marge équatoriale au cours du Méso-Cénozoïque. Certaines périodes (Crétacé Supérieur et depuis le Miocène Supérieur), montrent cependant un excès d'accumulation qui pourrait être associé à la remobilisation de sédiments précédemment stockés dans des bassins intracontinentaux ou sur la plateforme de la marge. / This PhD thesis presents the first source-to-sink study of the African Atlantic Equatorial margin. We established new Meso-Cenozoic paleogeographic and structural reconstructions, integrating the West African sub-continent and the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean, based on a new mapping method defining both erosion limits of preserved deposits and their minimum original extension. We show the evolution over 200 Myrs of the eroding (sources) and accumulating domains (sinks) at continental scale. We demonstrate in particular that during the Cretaceous, a large Saharan intracratonic basin was exporting sediments toward both the Tethys and the future Atlantic Equatorial Ocean. The fragmentation of this basin occurred in the Oligocene, by the growth of the Hoggar swell that isolated the present-day small residual depot-centers. The development of this specific "basin and swell" topography results from the superimposition of various deformation wavelength at continental scale combining a marginal upwarp along the equatorial margin and a hot spot swell. We then characterized, from the interpretation of seismic data and well logs, the segmentation of the Equatorial Atlantic passive margin and the stratigraphic architecture of the post-rift Upper Cretaceous sedimentary wedge. We show that the proximal parts of the Late Cretaceous sedimentary wedge are only preserved along divergent segments of the margin and not along transform segments. We interpret this differential preservation as the result of a greater uplift, during the early post-rift, in the proximal parts of the transform segments preventing the preservation of the proximal terms of the sedimentary systems. The transform segments are associated with narrow necking zone, resulting in greater flexural uplift than divergent segments showing wider necking zones, in particular during the early post-rift. The characterization of the stratigraphic architecture of the post-rift sedimentary wedge then allowed for the quantification of accumulation history in the passive margin basins. New low-temperature thermochronological data (AFTA and Apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He) acquired at the University of Glasgow on the samples of three regional transects perpendicular to the margin allowed for the quantification of the denudation history and eroded volume on the continental domain. These data shows that the major thermal event recorded by those samples is the cooling phase related to the erosion of a rift-related topography along the margin. Erosion and accumulation budgets fall within the same order of magnitude. During some given periods (Late Cretaceous and since the Late Miocene), excess in accumulation may be associated with the reworking of sediments previously stored within intracontinental basins or on the shelf of the margin.

Madagascar est un lambeau de croûte continentale archéenne à néoproterozoïque entouré de marges transformantes, obliques et divergentes : la marge oblique du bassin de Morondava à l’Ouest, bornée par la ride de Davie, et au Nord, la marge divergente du bassin de Majunga connectée au bassin de Somalie. Cette île de 1600 kilomètres de long est composée d’un plateau axial archéen-protérozoïque entre 1200 et 1800m d’altitude, bordé de tous côtés par des bassins sédimentaires. Le sommet du plateau correspond à des surfaces d’aplanissement altérées, délimitées par des escarpements plus ou moins marqués. L'altitude des hauts plateaux traduit l'existence de processus mantelliques, mais la cinétique et l'origine du relief malgache est mal comprise. Peu d'études ont étudié les domaines non orogéniques dans leur intégralité terre-mer, depuis le bassin versant en érosion jusqu'aux marges en sédimentation, et aucune d'entre elles ne porte sur Madagascar. Ce travail de thèse repose donc sur une double approche: une analyse géomorphologique des formes du relief (surfaces d'aplanissement) à terre, basée sur leur (i) cartographie, (ii) chronologie relative, (iii) relation avec les profils d'altération et (iv) datation au moyen des placages sédimentaires et du volcanisme daté qui les scellent; une analyse stratigraphique de l'intervalle post-rift des marges, basée sur l'interprétation de données de sub-surface (puits et lignes sismiques), lesquelles ont été réévaluées en âge (biostratigraphie), pour (i) identifier, dater et mesurer les déformations des marges et de leur relief en amont, (ii) mesurer les flux silicoclastiques, produits de l'érosion continentale. Un calendrier et une cartographie des déformations ont été obtenus sur les marges et mis en relation avec les différentes générations de surfaces d'aplanissement étagées caractérisant le relief malgache. Au Crétacé supérieur, une flexuration de l'île est initiée au sud, à grande longueur d'onde, autour de ~94 Ma. Cette déformation est scellée par la mise en place d'une surface d'aplanissement non déformée mise en place entre 80 et 66 Ma. Durant le Paléocène jusqu’à l'Eocène supérieur (66 à 20 Ma), Madagascar est une île relativement plate, de faible altitude, entourée de larges plateformes carbonatées. Ce relief est largement altéré avec la croissance de nombreux profils latéritiques et les influx silico-clastique dans les bassins sont alors relativement faibles. Le Miocène moyen à supérieur correspond au paroxysme de la surrection et de la déformation avec (1), le basculement de la marge ouest (Morondava), (2) une augmentation du flux de sédimentation silicoclastique depuis le Miocène moyen et (3) la mise en place d’une succession de quatre surfaces d’aplanissement correspondant à des pics d'intensité de la déformation. Le résultat de cette surrection est la morphologie en dôme de l’île de Madagascar (avec un plateau central) marquée par la forme concave de la surface crétacé supérieure altérée à l’Eocène. Le mécanisme de la surrection doit prendre en compte une déformation de très grande longueur d’onde (x 1000 km), forcément liée à la dynamique mantellique. Les relations avec les dômes d’Afrique de l’Est (Ethiopie, Afrique du Sud) sont discutées. / Madagascar is an Archean to Neoproterozoic continental crust surrounded by transform, oblique and divergent margins: the transform Morondava basin to the west, pounded by the Davie Fracture Zone, and to the north, the divergent Mahajanga Basin connected to the Somali Oceanic Basin. This 1600 km long island is a high axial plateau with elevations from 1200 to 1800m. The top of the plateau corresponds to weathered planation surfaces (etchplains), bounded by more or less high scarps. Such elevation of the high axial plateau imply mantle processes, but the age and cinetic of the uplift is still poorly known. Few studies dealt with anorogenic domains in their entirety from the catchment area, the source, to the downstream depositional system, the sink, none of which is about Madagascar. This work lies on a double approach : it is onshore based on the analysis of the macroforms (planation surfaces, etchplains, pediments) throughout their (i) mapping, (ii) relative dating, (iii) relationships with weathering profiles and (iv) dating by their intersection with preserved sediments and volcanism (lava flow and intrusions). offshore, it is based on the interpretation of a dataset of seismic lines and industrial wells, coupled with refreshed biostratigraphy, in order to (i) identify, date and measure vertical movements of the margins and upstream reliefs. Chronology and mapping of vertical movements were defined on the Morondava margin and compared with the onset of the stepped planation surfaces typical of Madagascar topography. During Upper Cretaceous, the southern part of the island is uplifted, at ~94 Ma. This deformation is sealed by the onset of an undeformed planation surface between 80 and 66 ma. From Paleocene to Upper Eocene (66 to 20 Ma), Madagascar is a flat, low elevated island, surrounded by wide carbonate platforms. The relief is highly weathered with growth of lateritic profiles and silico-clastic influx within the basin is low. During Middle to Upper Miocene is the uplift and doming paroxysm with (1), tilt of the western margin (Morondava), (2) increase of silico-clastic influx from Middle Miocene and (3 the onset of four planation surfaces associated to deformation paroxysms. The end result of this uplift is a convex up shape pattern for the end Cretaceous surface weathered during Eocene times, creating the present-day dome morphology (with a central plateau) of Madagascar. The mechanism of this uplift has to explain a very long wavelength deformation (x1000 km) necessary due to mantle dynamics. The relationships with the other East African domes (Ethiopia, East Africa, South Africa) are discussed.

Le système Zambèze localisé sur le versant est de l'Afrique est caractérisé par un système turbiditique de très grande dimension (x 100 km) et est associé à terre au troisième plus grand bassin versant d'Afrique (1 320 000 km2) après ceux du Nil et du Congo. A ce jour, peu d'études ont porté sur l'évolution du système terre - mer depuis le bassin versant en érosion jusqu'au bassin en sédimentation. Ce travail s'attachera à : [1] caractériser et à discuter l'origine des déformations enregistrées dans le système sédimentaire Zambèze depuis 155 Ma, [2] quantifier les bilans érosion - sédimentation du système du Zambèze, pour une meilleure compréhension du routage sédimentaire. / The Zambezi system located on the eastern slope of Africa is characterized by a turbiditic system of very large size (x 100 km) and is associated onshore to the third largest watershed in Africa (1,320,000 km2) after those of the Nile and Congo. Few studies have examined the evolution of the land - sea system from the eroding catchment to the sedimentation basin. This work will focus on: [1] characterize and discuss the origin of the deformations recorded in the Zambezi sedimentary system since 155 Ma, [2] quantify the erosion-sedimentation balances of the Zambezi system, for a better understanding of the sedimentary routing

Stratigraphic successions of sedimentary rocks represent an important repository for signals pertaining to the history and evolution of Earth. Whereas the specific processes reflected by the stratigraphic record differ with respect to a given depositional environment, deposits in deep-marine settings, particularly passive margins, provide a unique, long-term record of paleoclimate, paleoceanography, and tectonics affecting the basin in question. Whereas deep-marine strata may be used to answer myriad of questions regarding the evolution and development of Earth systems, this dissertation narrowly targets two distinct aspects of sedimentation in deep-sea settings. The first two chapters focus on the utility of sortable silt in reconstructing bottom-current intensity linked to major shifts in climate. First, the relationship of sortable silt to flow velocity was tested under controlled conditions in a flow-through flume. This chapter investigates the correlation of sortable silt metrics across several experimental parameters, which is found here to dispute longstanding assumptions that multiple metrics must correlate to infer sediment sorting by deep currents. Additionally, the results are compared to calibrations from natural settings, where the correlation between the two datasets is remarkably similar, validating the relationship of sortable silt with current velocity in the deep ocean. Chapter two leverages sortable silt to investigate the long-term evolution of the Deep Western Boundary Current in the North Atlantic, targeting contourite drifts offshore Newfoundland to investigate the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT), the most recent global greenhouse-to-icehouse transition. Results suggest that the Deep Western Boundary Current intensified gradually from 35-26 Ma, not abruptly at the EOT, and change consistent with deepening of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge and enhanced overflow of deep water into the North Atlantic. Chapter three utilizes detrital zircon U-Pb dating to characterize source-to-sink pathways and linkages during the rift-to-drift transition, in the Early Cretaceous, along the U.S. mid-Atlantic passive margin. This work shows that onshore and offshore system segments were initially disconnected, and progressively integrated over the course of ~45 Myr. Taken together, this work demonstrates a focused yet powerful example of how deep-marine sedimentary systems can be leveraged to robustly model major changes throughout Earth history. / Doctor of Philosophy / Sediments and sedimentary rocks deposited in the deep ocean house long-term signals pertaining to important Earth processes and properties. The nature of a given deposit, for example, can be the direct result of climatic conditions or tectonic development in adjacent mountainous and coastal environments. While the range of questions that can be answered using the sedimentary record is vast, this dissertation narrowly focuses on 1) how deep-ocean currents change over long periods of time, and 2) how onshore and offshore depositional environments correlate during the early phases of supercontinent break-up. To address the reconstruction of deep-ocean currents, laboratory experiments were performed to test how the sortable silt proxy – the 10-63 um fraction of a deposit – correlates with current velocity, the first controlled test of the proxy since its inception by paleoceanographers nearly three decades ago. Sortable silt is then applied to sediments of Eocene-Oligocene age, recovered from contourites offshore Newfoundland, Canada, to assess the long-term behavior of the Deep Western Boundary Current in the North Atlantic across the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT). While the EOT, a major global cooling that occurred ~33.7 Ma, is well-studied with respect to Antarctica and its surrounding ocean basins, little is known about the paleoceanographic response of the North Atlantic. Grain-size records show a gradual increase in sortable silt before, during, and after the EOT, through entirety of the 9 Myr record. This trend is interpreted to reflect a long-term invigoration of the Deep Western Boundary Current in North Atlantic, likely due to progressive deepening of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. The final chapter leverages detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology to compare sediment provenance of Early Cretaceous fluvial sandstones with coeval, distal turbidite sands. Results suggest that coastal rivers were fed by a single source terrane during the earliest Cretaceous, disconnected from the regional catchment feeding the submarine fan. By the Aptian-Albian, coastal rivers share a detrital zircon signature with turbidite strata, suggesting that rivers were progressively integrated into the sediment-routing system feeding the offshore margin.

This research investigates the character and significance of shelf-edge deltas within the sedimentary source-to-sink system, and how variability at the shelf edge leads to different styles of deep-water deposition. Because the shelf-edge represents one of the key entry points for terrigenous sediment to be delivered into the deep water, understanding of the sedimentary processes in operation at these locations, and the character of sediment transported through these deltas is critical to understanding of deep-water sedimentary systems. The research was carried out using three datasets: an outcrop dataset of 6000 m of measured sections from the Permian-Triassic Karoo Basin, South Africa, a 3D seismic data volume from the Eocene Northern Santos Basin, offshore Brazil and a dataset of 29 previously published descriptions of shelf-edge deltas from a variety of locations and data types. The data presented highlight the importance of sediment instability in the progradation of basin margins, and deep-water transport of sediment. The strata of the Karoo Basin shelf margin represent river-dominated delta deposits that become more deformed as the shelf-edge position is approached. At the shelf edge, basinward dipping, offlapping packages of soft-sediment-deformed and undeformed strata record repetitive collapse and re-establishment of shelf-edge mouth bar packages. The offlapping strata of the Karoo outcrops record progradation of the shelf margin through accretion of the shelf-edge delta, for over 1 km before subsequent transgression. The Eocene Northern Santos Basin shelf margin, in contrast, exhibits instability features which remove kilometers-wide wedges of the outer shelf that are transported to the basin floor to be deposited as mass-transport packages. In this example, shelf-edge progradation is achieved through „stable. accretion of mixed turbidites and contourites. The data also emphasize the importance of the role of shelf-edge delta processes in the delivery of sediment to the basin floor. A global dataset of 29 examples of shelf-edge systems strongly indicates that river domination of the shelf-edge system (as read from cores, well logs or isopach maps) serves as a more reliable predictor of deep-water sediment delivery and deposition than relative sea level fall as traditionally read in shelf-edge trajectories or sequence boundaries. / text

Reservoir quality of subsurface sandstones depends on the composition, texture and grain size of the initial sediments. These factors are a function of hinterland processes: tectonic setting, provenance, climate and depositional environment, and sediment transportation processes. This study focuses on a modern, dryland, fluvial deposition system from source-to-sink that aims to provide a quantitative dataset analogue to facilitate forward modelling for prediction of subsurface compositions, grain size and textures of reservoir sandstones. Umbum Creek, in the western Lake Eyre Basin of Central Australia, was selected as a small river network (~ 100km²) in order to study source-to-sink sedimentation. The provenance area was analysed using isopach maps derived from a 783 drill-hole dataset, which included stratigraphy and lithology information. Subsequently forty-three samples of different provenance lithotypes from the Umbum Creek catchment were collected for petrographic thin-section analysis. Recent sediments were then sampled from 90 strategically located stream confluences along Umbum Creek and tributaries (proximal, medial and distal subsets). A quantitative textural and compositional dataset was subsequently generated from 34 selected samples. With half-phi sieve analysis (4mm to 32 microns), and an associated petrographic description recognising 72 categories of grain composition was undertaken for each sample. The provenance analysis using isopach maps demonstrated that Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary basin evolution in the study area was controlled by northeast and northwest-trending structural elements. The regional uplift of the Peake and Denison Inliers that occurred during the Cenozoic had a significant impact on the evolution of the Lake Eyre Basin, causing changes in the provenance of Late Neogene sedimentation and on through to the present. The sink area represents a shallow intracratonic basin whereby a thin veneer of fluvial/lacustrine sediments is accumulating adjacent to a basement uplift. This study has highlighted the importance of multiple sediment provenances. Five different provenance lithotype grains were identified in the Umbum Creek modern sediments: the Gawler Craton plutonic / basement provenance (recycled) the Peake and Denison Inliers Proterozoic volcanic provenance (recycled), the Davenport Ranges metamorphic provenance, the Mesozoic sedimentary provenance and the Cenozoic sedimentary provenance. Whereas a downstream fining of grain size was expected, a general trend of downstream coarsening of grain size was noted being the result of aeolian deflation of fines and intra-basinal coarse-grained sediment contributions. In the sink area, modern sediments from the terminal splay complex comprise 70-80% quartz, 10-20% lithic fragments (of which ~ 7% are ductile lithic grains), < 3% feldspar, and clay (<2%). Grains are sub-angular to well-rounded and moderately well sorted. The compositional and textural maturity of the terminal splay sediments is attributed to reworked plutonic quartz grains, the dissolution and disintegration of feldspar and carbonate grains during transportation, along with the breakdown of lithic fragments due to fluvio-aeolian interactions and subsequent mechanical/ chemical weathering processes. These data were used to build a predictive forward model for modal sandstone analysis that achieved a fair to good correlation between predicted and observed grain lithotypes and provenance categories. These results illustrate that the character of sands in the Umbum Creek catchment are governed by a multiplicity of controls such as tectonic setting, provenance lithotype analysis, climate, regional topographic gradient, hinterland transport distance, basin subsidence rate and depositional environment. The fluvio-aeolian depositional environment along with the current arid to semi-arid playa climatic conditions of Umbum Creek catchment facilitate the growth of clay coatings, however accounts for a low clay matrix within the deposits. In addition, the playa environment also facilitates the alteration of infiltrated detrital clay to kaolinite, the formation of evaporites (gypsum, halite and anhydrite) and the formation of authigenic clays. These factors are all significant in determining the ultimate reservoir quality of reservoir sandstones, emphasising the importance of this study as an analogue for modelling ‘buried’ dryland depositional systems. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1337211 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Australian School of Petroleum, 2008

Reservoir quality of subsurface sandstones depends on the composition, texture and grain size of the initial sediments. These factors are a function of hinterland processes: tectonic setting, provenance, climate and depositional environment, and sediment transportation processes. This study focuses on a modern, dryland, fluvial deposition system from source-to-sink that aims to provide a quantitative dataset analogue to facilitate forward modelling for prediction of subsurface compositions, grain size and textures of reservoir sandstones. Umbum Creek, in the western Lake Eyre Basin of Central Australia, was selected as a small river network (~ 100km²) in order to study source-to-sink sedimentation. The provenance area was analysed using isopach maps derived from a 783 drill-hole dataset, which included stratigraphy and lithology information. Subsequently forty-three samples of different provenance lithotypes from the Umbum Creek catchment were collected for petrographic thin-section analysis. Recent sediments were then sampled from 90 strategically located stream confluences along Umbum Creek and tributaries (proximal, medial and distal subsets). A quantitative textural and compositional dataset was subsequently generated from 34 selected samples. With half-phi sieve analysis (4mm to 32 microns), and an associated petrographic description recognising 72 categories of grain composition was undertaken for each sample. The provenance analysis using isopach maps demonstrated that Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary basin evolution in the study area was controlled by northeast and northwest-trending structural elements. The regional uplift of the Peake and Denison Inliers that occurred during the Cenozoic had a significant impact on the evolution of the Lake Eyre Basin, causing changes in the provenance of Late Neogene sedimentation and on through to the present. The sink area represents a shallow intracratonic basin whereby a thin veneer of fluvial/lacustrine sediments is accumulating adjacent to a basement uplift. This study has highlighted the importance of multiple sediment provenances. Five different provenance lithotype grains were identified in the Umbum Creek modern sediments: the Gawler Craton plutonic / basement provenance (recycled) the Peake and Denison Inliers Proterozoic volcanic provenance (recycled), the Davenport Ranges metamorphic provenance, the Mesozoic sedimentary provenance and the Cenozoic sedimentary provenance. Whereas a downstream fining of grain size was expected, a general trend of downstream coarsening of grain size was noted being the result of aeolian deflation of fines and intra-basinal coarse-grained sediment contributions. In the sink area, modern sediments from the terminal splay complex comprise 70-80% quartz, 10-20% lithic fragments (of which ~ 7% are ductile lithic grains), < 3% feldspar, and clay (<2%). Grains are sub-angular to well-rounded and moderately well sorted. The compositional and textural maturity of the terminal splay sediments is attributed to reworked plutonic quartz grains, the dissolution and disintegration of feldspar and carbonate grains during transportation, along with the breakdown of lithic fragments due to fluvio-aeolian interactions and subsequent mechanical/ chemical weathering processes. These data were used to build a predictive forward model for modal sandstone analysis that achieved a fair to good correlation between predicted and observed grain lithotypes and provenance categories. These results illustrate that the character of sands in the Umbum Creek catchment are governed by a multiplicity of controls such as tectonic setting, provenance lithotype analysis, climate, regional topographic gradient, hinterland transport distance, basin subsidence rate and depositional environment. The fluvio-aeolian depositional environment along with the current arid to semi-arid playa climatic conditions of Umbum Creek catchment facilitate the growth of clay coatings, however accounts for a low clay matrix within the deposits. In addition, the playa environment also facilitates the alteration of infiltrated detrital clay to kaolinite, the formation of evaporites (gypsum, halite and anhydrite) and the formation of authigenic clays. These factors are all significant in determining the ultimate reservoir quality of reservoir sandstones, emphasising the importance of this study as an analogue for modelling ‘buried’ dryland depositional systems. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1337211 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Australian School of Petroleum, 2008