This study focuses on the facies changes from the lower slope to toe-of-slope to basin floor over a 10 km outcrop belt, in down-dip and oblique-strike directions to the basin margin. The Jurassic Los Molles Formation in Neuquen Basin, Argentina represents the slope and basin floor of basin margin clinoforms, coeval with the shallow water and fluvial deposits named Las Lajas and Challaco formations respectively. The shallow and deep water deposits are diachronously linked in an Early-Mid Jurassic source-to-sink system developed in a back-arc basin during the incipient development of the Andes Mountains. Satellite images, high resolution panorama pictures and measured sections were used to correlate and interpret the spatial variability and overall geometry of the base of slope to basin floor units. The observations of this study refine the model for the channel-to-lobe transition zone with increase recognition and quantification of facies and architecture variability. The Los Molles basin margin was coarse grained and was ideal to observe changes in the geometry and depositional facies of channel-to-lobe deposits from updip to downdip continuous over an 8 km outcrop belt. The described channel-to-lobe transition zone clearly shows a downdip change in bed boundaries from dominantly erosive to non-erosional (bypass) to depositional and with a range of distinct facies changes. In the transition zone the sand to shale ratio is high (N:G: 65-70 %), with gutter casts and deep scours, with a high degree of amalgamation, gravel lags, mud rip-up clasts and laterally migrating beds. Within the same depositional unit (deep water lobe), at the base of the slope, the dominant sandstone beds change from amalgamated structureless and normal graded sandstone beds in the channelized lobe axis to parallel laminated and normally graded in the channelized lobe off-axis areas. Similar facies changes have been observed along proximal to distal direction. The lateral change of the dominant structures in the beds indicates changes in the flow regime and depositional style. / text

The well-known clinoformal geometry of a basin-fill, with an alluvial to shelf segment, deep-water slope segment, and a basin floor segment, arises from the development of a wedge-shaped body of sediment at the basin-margin that has been termed a basin-margin wedge or a shelf-slope sedimentary prism. The basin-margin wedge characteristically has atopset-foreset clinoformal geometry, with its topset dominated by alluvial, coastal and shelfal processes, while its foreset is dominated by turbidite sedimentation. Tectonic configuration of the basin, sediment supply, and relative sea level variation are some of the major factors that control the development and growth of the basin-margin wedge. This dissertation documents two distinct stages of development of the basin-margin wedge at an Eocene active margin, and relates the observed variability in the nature of the shelf-margin, deep-water slope, and basin-floor deposits with these stages. The Tyee Basin in western Oregon was a forearc basin that was filled during late early Eocene and Middle Eocene under greenhouse climatic condition. The sedimentary succession of the Tyee Basin include continental, shallow-marine and deep-water sandstones that are well exposed in Coast Range area of Oregon. The variability observed within the thick and laterally extensive turbidite sandstones of the Tyee Basin led to contrasting depositional models for the Tyee basin in the past. Notably, the submarine ramp model, which provides an alternative model for deepwater coarse clastic deposition, was proposed based on the sedimentary succession of the Tyee Basin. Reconstruction of the clinoformal geometry of the Tyee Basin succession from detailed field data (more than 1000 outcrop locations) and subsurface data reveals two distinct stages of development of this active basin-margin. Each stage has a distinct style of clinoform development and a distinct character of associated sandy deepwater deposits. At the initial stage the basin-margin clinoforms appear to be small (< 250m clinoform height) and strongly progradational, with clinoform topset dominated by the feeder fluvial deposits. At this stage, sandy unconfined (not channelized) turbidite deposits accumulated on the Tyee deepwater slope and extended to the Tyee basin-floor. Large scale sediment conduits on the deepwater slope, in the form of slope channels or canyons, are notably absent in this stage. The second stage is characterized by larger clinoform height (> 500m), higher degree of topset aggradation with repeated fluvio-deltaic cycles on the shelf, and spectacular, sand-rich, well-organized turbidite channels and canyons on the slope. The slope channels active at this stage supplied coarse sediments to the basin-floor to form unusually thick basin-floor fans. The first infill stage represents the embryonic development of a basin-margin wedge on the Tyee continental margin, and could have some similarity with the previously mentioned submarine ramp model. But this was followed by a much longer period of basin-filling when repeated fluvial and shallow-marine cycles formed on the shelf and well-organized turbidite channels were active on the slope supplying sands to the Tyee Basin floor fans. It was concluded that the two stages of development of the basin-margin wedge in the Tyee Basin is controlled largely by the configuration of the basin, that is a result of the prominent topographic/bathymetric features in oceanic basement underlying the sedimentary succession of the Tyee Basin. Tectonically active hinterland and greenhouse climate may have contributed to a relatively high sediment supply to the basin. The relatively small-amplitude sea level variations expected under greenhouse climatic condition of the Early to Middle Eocene are likely to have relatively minor effect on the architecture of the basin-fill. The present work on Tyee Basin builds on earlier research on this basin, but now establishes a ground trothed clinoformal growth model, revises the existing interpretation of sediment transport direction during a major part of the basin-filling history, and demonstrates a two-stage evolution of margin accretion. The observations from the active Tyee Basin was compared and contrasted with a latest Pleistocene sediment wedge on the New Jersey outer shelf. This sediment wedge, developed under icehouse climatic condition, and on a passive margin, was studied using high resolution seismic data (CHIRP). In contrast to the sedimentary succession of the Tyee Basin, the depositional architecture of the sediment wedge on outer New Jersey shelf, which was interpreted as a set of falling stage deltaic clinothems, appears to be strongly controlled by eustatic sea level variation of latest Pleistocene. / text

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

Deep-water strata of the Neoproterozoic Kaza Group and Isaac Formation (Cariboo Group) in the southern Canadian Cordillera (B.C.) were deposited in a passive-margin basin during the break-up of supercontinent Rodinia. At the Castle Creek and Mount Quanstrom study areas, a remarkably continuous stratigraphic interval throughout these units preserves a record of basin-floor overlain by strata deposited in the lowermost part of the slope. Although similar stratal intervals have been described from ancient and modern deep-marine settings, they still remain poorly understood. Three main stratal units are recognized within the study areas. The lower unit consists of three channel-lobe systems formed in the basin floor to slope transition. Uniquely, siliciclastic-dominated strata here consist of a variety of small- and few large-scale scour elements, indicating transport bypass along the channel-lobe transition zone, in addition to detached or attached depositional lobes composed mostly of distributary channels, fine-grained deposits, and uncommon splays, and a rare slope leveed channel complex. The middle unit is a siliciclastic-dominated succession of stacked, km-scale mass-transport deposits (i.e. debrites and slides), which indicates the more frequent emplacement of increasingly larger mass failures on a prograding slope, and are overlain by fine-grained, splay deposits that are successively overlain by channel, ponded and fine-grained deposits. In contrast, the upper unit is a mixed siliciclastic-carbonate slope succession of the first Isaac carbonate, a regional marker horizon that comprises mostly carbonate-rich and siliciclastic-rich fine-grained strata intercalated with channel and gully complexes that are mostly filled with coarser-grained strata. Abrupt changes in facies trends, stratal stacking patterns and depositional styles throughout these units are largely linked to long-term changes in relative sea level and its control on sediment supply, namely sediment caliber, volume and mineralogy. Notably, in the upper unit, small-scale changes in sediment source and supply are related to shorter sea-level variations superimposed on the long-term eustatic change.