Deep Marine Systems

Kevin T. Pickering is Professor of Sedimentology & Stratigraphy in the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London, U.K. He has published ~140 peer-reviewed papers, co-authored 6 books and edited 3 books on aspects of deep-water sediments and global environmental issues. He managed the industry-sponsored Ainsa Project, an integrated outcrop-subsurface drilling project to understand deep-marine channels in the Spanish Pyrenees, and has sailed on four international scientific drilling expeditions (DSDP, ODP, IODP). In 2010, in recognition of his research, Pickering was elected as a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.Richard N. Hiscott is an Emeritus Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.  His 40 years of process-oriented research covers ancient deep-sea to alluvial facies of Proterozoic to Cretaceous age, four Ocean Drilling Program campaigns including Amazon submarine fan, Quaternary sedimentology of the Labrador Sea, Santa Monica Basin, and the Black Sea region including dynamics of the saline gravity current that enters the low-salinity Black Sea through the Bosphorus Strait.

• Preface xiAbout the companion website xiiiPart 1 Process and product 11 Physical and biological processes 31.1 Introduction 41.2 Shelf-edge processes 51.3 Deep, thermohaline, clear-water currents 121.4 Density currents and sediment gravity flows 161.5 Turbidity currents and turbidites 231.6 Concentrated density flows and their deposits 421.7 Inflated sandflows and their deposits 451.8 Cohesive flows and their deposits 461.9 Accumulation of biogenic skeletons and organic matter 522 Sediments (facies) 592.1 Introduction 602.2 Facies classifications 602.3 Facies Class A: Gravels, muddy gravels, gravelly muds, pebbly sands, ≥5% gravel grade 652.4 Facies Class B: Sands, >80% sand grade, <5% pebble grade 752.5 Facies Class C: Sand–mud couplets and muddy sands, 20–80% sand grade, <80% mud grade (mostly silt) 792.6 Facies Class D: Silts, silty muds, and silt–mud couplets, >80% mud, ≥40% silt, 0–20% sand 852.7 Facies Class E: ≥95% mud grade, <40% silt grade, <5% sand and coarser grade, <25% biogenics 902.8 Facies Class F: Chaotic deposits 982.9 Facies Class G: Biogenic oozes (>75% biogenics), muddy oozes (50–75% biogenics), biogenic muds (25–50% biogenics) and chemogenic sediments, <5% terrigenous sand and gravel 1022.10 Injectites (clastic dykes and sills) (Figs 2.46–2.50) 1052.11 Facies associations 1113 Deep-water ichnology 1123.1 Introduction 1123.2 General principles of ichnology 1133.3 Colonisation of SGF deposits: Opportunistic and equilibrium ecology 1223.4 Ichnofacies 1253.5 Ichnofabrics 1273.6 Trace fossils in core 1283.7 Case study I: Trace fossils as diagnostic indicators of deep-marine environments, Middle Eocene Ainsa–Jaca basins, Spanish Pyrenees 1293.8 Case study II: Subsurface ichnological characterisation of the Middle Eocene Ainsa deep-marine system, Spanish Pyrenees 1303.9 Summary of ichnology studies in deep-water systems 1343.10 Concluding remarks 1344 Time–space integration 1364.1 Introduction 1364.2 Submarine fan growth phases and sequence stratigraphy 1444.3 Tectono-thermal/glacio-eustatic controls at evolving passive continental margins 1534.4 Eustatic sea-level changes at active plate margins 1544.5 Changing relative base level and sediment delivery processes 1604.6 Autocyclic processes 1644.7 Palaeo-seismicity and the stratigraphic record 1714.8 Deconvolving tectonic and climatic controls on depositional sequences in tectonically active basins: Case study from the Eocene, Spanish Pyrenees 1714.9 Problems in determining controls on sediment delivery 1834.10 Carbonate versus siliciclastic systems 1914.11 Computer simulations of deep-water stratigraphy 1934.12 Laboratory simulations of deep-water stratigraphy 1934.13 Supercritical versus subcritical fans 1944.14 Hierarchical classification of depositional units 1954.15 Concluding comments 1965 Statistical properties of sediment gravity flow (SGF) deposits 2005.1 Introduction 2005.2 Cloridorme Formation, Middle Ordovician, Québec 2055.3 Vertical trends 218Part 2 Systems 2376 Sediment drifts and abyssal sediment waves 2396.1 Introduction 2396.2 Distribution and character of contourites and sediment drifts, North Atlantic Ocean 2416.3 Facies of muddy and sandy contourites 2516.4 Seismic facies of contourites 2556.5 The debate concerning bottom-current reworking of sandy fan sediments 2556.6 Ancient contourites 2576.7 Facies model for sediment drifts 2607 Submarine fans and related depositional systems: modern 2627.1 Introduction 2627.2 Major controls on submarine fans 2667.3 Submarine canyons 2747.4 Architectural elements of submarine-fan systems 2777.5 The distribution of architectural elements in modern submarine fans 3037.6 Modern non-fan dispersal systems 3037.7 Concluding remarks 3078 Submarine fans and related depositional systems: ancient 3098.1 Introduction 3098.2 Ancient submarine canyons 3118.3 Ancient submarine channels 3138.4 Comparing modern and ancient channels 3558.5 Ancient lobe, lobe-fringe, fan-fringe and distal basin-floor deposits 3578.6 Seafloor topography and onlaps 3698.7 Scours 3778.8 Basin-floor sheet-like systems 3828.9 Prodeltaic clastic ramps 3878.10 Concluding remarks 393Part 3 Plate tectonics and sedimentation 4039 Evolving and mature extensional systems 4059.1 Introduction 4069.2 Models for lithospheric extension 4089.3 Subsidence and deep-water facies of rifts and young passive margins 4109.4 The post-breakup architecture of passive margins 4139.5 Failed rift systems 4289.6 Fragments of ancient passive margins 4299.7 Concluding remarks 43010 Subduction margins 43310.1 Introduction 43310.2 Modern subduction factories 43510.3 Arc–arc collision zones 47410.4 Forearc summary model 48210.5 Marginal/backarc basins 48310.6 Ancient convergent-margin systems 48810.7 Forearc/backarc cycles 49310.8 Concluding remarks 49311 Foreland basins 49711.1 Introduction 49811.2 Modern foreland basins 49911.3 Ancient deep-marine foreland basins 50611.4 Concluding remarks 52312 Strike-slip continental margin basins 52812.1 Introduction 52812.2 Kinematic models for strike-slip basins 52912.3 Suspect terranes 52912.4 Depositional models for strike-slip basins 53212.5 Modern strike-slip mobile zones 53712.6 Ancient deep-marine oblique-slip mobile zones 55712.7 Concluding remarks 566References 573Index 647