Overwash, shoreface retreat, and barrier migration are common processes occurring in transgressive barrier island systems, the scale of which is exacerbated by sea level rise, subsidence and the frequency and magnitude of tropical and extratropical storms. Barrier morphology also clearly plays a key role in determining a morphological response to these processes. Using a hydrodynamic and sediment transport model (MIKE21) and selected barrier island and shoreface templates, informed by deltaic and coastal plain systems in the northern Gulf of Mexico, I performed simulations to determine barrier morphology in response to storms. A low dune with a gentle shoreface slope, characteristic of Louisiana deltaic barriers, demonstrates the greatest amount of shoreline erosion, dune overwash and barrier migration in response to a storm. Profile evolutions over time demonstrate the wider dune templates respond mostly via dune aggradation and barrier rollover whereas the narrow or low templates respond via dune overwash and barrier translation. Determining which barrier templates retain the most sediment over time becomes extremely important when planning coastal restoration projects here in Louisiana.

In Louisiana, barrier islands are undergoing morphological change driven by high rates of relative sea-level rise and interior wetland loss. Previous works utilized historical region-scale bathymetry and shoreline change analyses to assess coastal evolution. However, more localized assessments considering the role of sediment transport processes in regional evolution are lacking. This is essential to predicting coastal change trajectories and allocating limited sand resources for nourishment. Using bathymetric and shoreline data, 100-m spaced shore-normal transects were created to track meter-scale elevation change for 1880s, 1930s, 1980s, 2006, and 2015. An automated framework was used to quantify and track parameters such as shoreline change, barrier island area and width, bathymetric isobath migration, and shoreface slope. Our results illustrate that monitoring subaerial island erosion rates are insufficient for evaluating regional sediment dynamics of transgressive coastal systems. Advances in understanding these processes will facilitate more informed planning, management, and mitigation of transgressive barrier islands.

Matagorda Peninsula is located along an interfluvial region of the central Texas coast in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The Pleistocene Beaumont Clay underlies the coastal plain and inner continental shelf and controls the general slope of the coast in this region. This clay surface also creates low accommodation space for the preservation of modern sediments. As a result, only a thin (1 m) layer of transgressive Holocene muddy sand extends throughout the lower shoreface. On 15 July, 2003, Hurricane Claudette (Category 1) made landfall on the peninsula. Following the storm, the shoreface was found to be an extensively eroded surface. Most obvious on this surface was an area containing numerous scour pits on the lower shoreface. These pits extended through the Holocene sediment and into the underlying Beaumont Clay. By the following July, the shoreface exhibited a relatively flat and featureless appearance. Rapid infilling of the pits was attributed to the high sediment supply to the area from converging longshore currents and by the relatively high accommodation space offered by the scoured areas. A large amount of sediment was removed from the lower shoreface where the formation of scour pits occurred. This sediment would have been available for depositionin storm layers both inshore and offshore of the scoured area. Within scour pits, accommodation space was high, resulting in sediment deposition and rapid infilling of the pits. Outside of the scour pits, accommodation space remained low and sediment deposition did not occur. Preservation potential of the sediment record on the shoreface was low and was controlled by cycles of erosion and deposition during storm events. Antecedent geology of the shoreface and the sedimentary processes occurring during and after the storm supported arguments against the assumptions used by the classic "profile of equilibrium" model. Finally, the heavily scoured surface represents a geohazard to development of nearshore regions.

Matagorda Peninsula is located along an interfluvial region of the central Texas coast in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The Pleistocene Beaumont Clay underlies the coastal plain and inner continental shelf and controls the general slope of the coast in this region. This clay surface also creates low accommodation space for the preservation of modern sediments. As a result, only a thin (1 m) layer of transgressive Holocene muddy sand extends throughout the lower shoreface. On 15 July, 2003, Hurricane Claudette (Category 1) made landfall on the peninsula. Following the storm, the shoreface was found to be an extensively eroded surface. Most obvious on this surface was an area containing numerous scour pits on the lower shoreface. These pits extended through the Holocene sediment and into the underlying Beaumont Clay. By the following July, the shoreface exhibited a relatively flat and featureless appearance. Rapid infilling of the pits was attributed to the high sediment supply to the area from converging longshore currents and by the relatively high accommodation space offered by the scoured areas. A large amount of sediment was removed from the lower shoreface where the formation of scour pits occurred. This sediment would have been available for depositionin storm layers both inshore and offshore of the scoured area. Within scour pits, accommodation space was high, resulting in sediment deposition and rapid infilling of the pits. Outside of the scour pits, accommodation space remained low and sediment deposition did not occur. Preservation potential of the sediment record on the shoreface was low and was controlled by cycles of erosion and deposition during storm events. Antecedent geology of the shoreface and the sedimentary processes occurring during and after the storm supported arguments against the assumptions used by the classic "profile of equilibrium" model. Finally, the heavily scoured surface represents a geohazard to development of nearshore regions.

Galveston Island, Texas has been experiencing high rates of erosion in recent years, spawning an interest in developing complex beach management programs. However, before any effective management project can be implemented we must understand all of the processes that control the shoreface. It is only recently that scientists have begun to recognize the importance of the role that the geologic framework plays on the coastal evolution of the shoreline. In this region, it is the antecedent geology as well as the anthropogenic obstructions which are the key factors controlling the formation of the modern shoreface. This study defines the extents to which these antecedent and anthropogenic factors influence the shoreface as well as refines the geologic interpretations offshore of Galveston Island. Using sidescan sonar, CHIRP seismic sonar, multibeam bathymetry data and sediment cores, the shoreface and subsurface geology were modeled. It was determined that the thickness, extent and slope of the modern sediment in the nearshore environment is controlled by the topography of the Beaumont Clay, a consolidated clay deposited during the Pleistocene. Anthropogenic obstructions, including the Galveston Seawall, groin and jetty system, have changed the sediment transport patterns in the region and have created a system of erosion and accretion not only along the shoreline, but for the entire length of the shoreface.

The Albian-Cenomanian Nanushuk Formation located on the North Slope of Alaska is the result of fluvial, deltaic, and shoreface processes and has been the focus of recent petroleum exploration activity in the Colville Basin. The Nanushuk and underlying Torok formations together contain an estimated 8.7 billion barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves within the resource-rich North Slope. The Nanushuk Formation is composed of sediment sourced from the Chukotka Peninsula to the west and deposited axially within the Colville Basin. High sedimentation rates led to rapid progradation of shoreface and deltaic systems, which effectively filled the entire basin during the Cretaceous. Resulting in a thick stratigraphic succession of marginal to deep marine sandstones and mudstones. However, considerable facies variation within the basin has led to a previous lack of understanding of the spatial distribution of depositional elements. Integration of outcrop photogrammetry, detailed measured sections, core interpretations, hand samples, and thin section microscopy from the Colville Basin in this study reveal the distribution of litho- and depo-facies within the Nanushuk Formation. Three key outcrop locales along the northern flank of the Brooks Range expose ~200 to ~1000 feet of mudstone, silty sandstone, and sandstone that record the transition from distal shoreface sedimentation to deltaic and fluvial processes over time. Progradationally-stacked parasequences are clearly identifiable in both outcrop and core, recording rapid axial progradation to the east. While shoreface processes do exist in the Nanushuk, outcrop observations show a dominance of deltaic processes, consistent with the highly progradational nature of the strata. Further, there is a trend towards more fluvially-dominated deltaic processes in the more axial part of the Colville syncline, as shown by core, compared to more wave-dominated deltaic facies associations along the margins of the axial basin where outcrops were described. These trends, both vertically and spatially, have important implications for understanding the geologic evolution of the formation and for targeting areas for further exploration within this evolving hydrocarbon play.

Late Ordovician (Cincinnatian) strata of the central Appalachians provide an opportunity to study the effects of both tectonics and eustasy within a foreland-basin setting. The Juniata Formation consists of red sandstones, siltstones, and shales that were deposited as part of an extensive siliciclastic basin-fill that resulted from the Taconic Orogeny. This study attempts to resolve some of the questions regarding tectonic and eustatic influences on sedimentation by (1) reconstructing the paleogeographic environment of the Juniata Formation and (2) examining the stratigraphic architecture of the Juniata Formation. A combination of both outcrop and subsurface data was analyzed. Seven facies were identified in this study, including: (1) "proto-vertisols", (2) red shale/mudstone, (3) siltstone/silty mudstone with interbedded sandstones, (4) quartz arenite and sublithic arenite, (5) argillaceous sandstone, (6) hummocky-bedded sandstones and siltstones, and (7) lithic sandstones and conglomerates. These facies are grouped into four facies associations (A–D), which are interpreted to be deposited from the inner shelf to the upper shoreface. Isopach and paleocurrent data suggest the shoreline was oriented NE–SW and detrital sediment was dispersed west and southwest across the basin. Tectonics controlled the 2nd-Order basin-fill pattern, and these patterns vary along the strike of the basin. Eustatic changes are expressed in two 3rd-Order sequences that were identified in the formation, and possibly in the 4th-Order (?) cycles of Facies Association A. The Ordovician–Silurian boundary is expressed as an unconformity throughout the study area, and along-strike variations in the structural setting of the basin were important in its development. / Master of Science

<p> Examination of subsurface cores of the Middle-Lower Silurian Thorold Sandstone from Consumers' Gas Silver Creek 004 Grimsby Pool indicate the presence of a single laminated sandstone facies deposited in a lower shoreface environment. Subsurface thin sections show greater development of quartz cement in the form of quartz overgrowths when compared to thin sections from surface outcrop leading to a porosity decrease of 20%. Petrographic and cathodoluminescence studies reveal that concavo-convex and sutured grain contacts, responsible for 80% of the grain contacts within the Thorold Sandstone, are generally between authigenic overgrowths and not detrital grains indicating that pressure solution is not the major source of silica within the Thorold Sandstone. Studies of detrital and authigenic clays utilizing a combination of thin section, scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction techniques show that illite (both detrital and authigenic) is the dominant clay mineral within the Thorold Sandstone in the 004 Pool, followed by approximately one half as much detrital kaolinite and minor authigenic chlorite. Shallow maximum depth of burial ( 786 to 1160m) and low diagenetic temperatures (30°c) suggest that clay minerals are unlikely to have undergone extensive diagenetic transformation. Consequently, detrital minerals represent the clay minerals present at the time of deposition while authigenic clays form by direct precipitation from pore fluids. During eodiagenesis mechanical compaction has reduced sandstone porosity from 40% to 28 to 29% while during mesodiagenesis the progressive paragenetic assemblage of authigenic quartz overgrowths, authigenic chlorite and authigenic illite have reduced porosity to its present value of 4 to 10%.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Science (BSc)

<p> Several sections of the Milk River Formation were measured and studied in detail at Writing on Stone Provincial Park in Southern Alberta. The observed vertical facies succession consists of, from base to top: 1) interbedded, sharp-based sandstones and bioturbated shales; 2) dominantly swaley cross-stratified sandstones; 3) dominantly cross-bedded sandstones; 4) non-marine shales and various thin sandstone and lignite interbeds; 5) local, non-marine cross-bedded sandstones.</p> <p> The sharp-based sandstones have been episodically emplaced on top of offshore muds. The dominantly swaley cross-stratified sandstone is a storm-dominated shoreface deposit in which fairweather deposits (eg. medium scale cross-bedding), are rarely preserved. The cross-bedded sandstones record deposition in tidally-influenced estuaries which cut into beach and shoreface deposits. The section is capped by vertically accreted muds and thin lignite seams which represent floodplain and terrestrial deposition landwards of the strandline. The non-marine cross-bedded sandstones are local representatives of fluvial channel deposits.</p> <p> Paleoflow directions measured in the cross-bedded sandstones indicate that the regional strandline was oriented southwest - northeast at Writing on Stone.</p> <p> Petrographic analysis of the swaley cross-stratified and cross-beddedm sandstones indicate that they are Subarkoses. A definite upward coarsening trend from fine to medium grained quartz is observed in the main sandstone body.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Science (BSc)

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-08-05T19:14:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 39d.pdf: 18221869 bytes, checksum: 927f68bde4d52da7f5c91a586fcb87f2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-08-05T19:14:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 39d.pdf: 18221869 bytes, checksum: 927f68bde4d52da7f5c91a586fcb87f2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-03 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / CNPQ – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A região costeira do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul é constituída por uma extensa faixa de terras baixas e arenosas dominadas pela ação de ondas, deriva litorânea e demais correntes induzidas por ondas, além da forte ação do vento. O presente estudo teve por objetivo relacionar e detalhar a dinâmica de formação de um antigo ambiente praial localizado em áreas de duas jazidas de areia no município de Osório (RS). A região está inserida na parte norte da Planície Costeira do Rio Grande do Sul, no Sistema Barreira III, de idade pleistocênica (120 a 125 ka). Este sistema contém depósitos de foreshore e shoreface recobertos por sedimentos eólicos. Na região, há um registro significativo de estruturas sedimentares biogênicas marinhas e não marinhas que permitiram demarcar com clareza os depósitos praiais. Além da análise de fácies e processos sedimentares, os dados de paleocorrentes permitiram inferir a paleolinha de praia da Barreira III na região de Osório (RS), traçando um comparativo com o atual regime de ondas, correntes e ventos que atuam na região litorânea do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. / The coastal region of Rio Grande do Sul consists of a long track of low and sandy dominated by the action of waves, littoral drift and other currents induced by waves as well as the wind strong action. The present study had the objective of relating and specifying the formation dynamics of an ancient beach environment located in the area of two sand mines in the two of Osório, in Rio Grande do Sul. The region is inside the north part of the Coastal Plain of Rio Grande do Sul (Planície Costeira do RS), in Barrier System III, of pleistocenic age (120 to 125 ky). This system contains foreshore and shoreface deposits covered by eolian sediments. In the region, there is a significant register of marine and non-marine biogenic sedimentar strutures that allowed to mark clearly the marine deposits. Besides the analysis of facies and sedimentary processes, paleocurrent data allow infer the beach paleoline of Barrier III in the region of Osório (RS), making a comparison with the present regime of waves, currents and winds that act in the coastal region of Rio Grande do Sul.