Description
Book SynopsisThe author addresses the principles of the subject from the viewpoint of modern processes, emphasising a general science narrative approach in the main text, with quantitative background derived in enabling cookie appendices.
Trade Review“For them, I cannot recommend it too highly, this being a lifetime of scholarly endeavour encapsulated in one volume. It will, I am sure, be a standard reference for years to come.” (Geology Today, 1 May 2011)
"The book is designed to reach an audience of senior undergraduate and graduate students and interested academic and industry professionals." (Solid Waste & Recycling, 8 March 2011)
Table of ContentsPreface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Part 1: Making Sediment
Introduction 1
1 Clastic sediment as a chemical and physical breakdown product 3
1.1 Introduction: clastic sediments—‘accidents’ of weathering 3
1.2 Silicate minerals and chemical weathering 5
1.3 Solute flux: rates and mechanisms of silicate chemical weathering 12
1.4 Physical weathering 17
1.5 Soils as valves and filters for the natural landscape 18
1.6 Links between soil age, chemical weathering and weathered-rock removal 21
1.7 Provenance: siliciclastic sedimentsourcing 22
Further reading 25
2 Carbonate, siliceous, iron-rich and evaporite sediments 27
2.1 Marine vs. freshwater chemical composition and fluxes 27
2.2 The calcium carbonate system in the oceans 28
2.3 Ooid carbonate grains 31
2.4 Carbonate grains from marine plants and animals 35
2.5 Carbonate muds, oozes and chalks 37
2.6 Other carbonate grains of biological origins 37
2.7 Organic productivity, sea-level and atmospheric controls of biogenic CaCO3 deposition rates 38
2.8 CaCO3 dissolution in the deep ocean and the oceanic CaCO3 compensation mechanism 39
2.9 The carbonate system on land 41
2.10 Evaporite salts and their inorganic precipitation as sediment 43
2.11 Silica and pelagic plankton 47
2.12 Iron minerals and biomineralizers 48
2.13 Desert varnish 51
2.14 Phosphates 52
2.15 Primary microbial-induced sediments: algal mats and stromatolites 52
Further reading 54
3 Sediment grain properties 57
3.1 General 57
3.2 Grain size 57
3.3 Grain-size distributions 59
3.4 Grain shape and form 61
3.5 Bulk properties of grain aggregates 61
Further reading 62
Part 2: Moving Fluid
4 Fluid basics 69
4.1 Material properties of fluids 69
4.2 Fluid kinematics 73
4.3 Fluid continuity with constant density 79
4.4 Fluid dynamics 79
4.5 Energy, mechanical work and power 81
Further reading 82
5 Types of fluid motion 84
5.1 Osborne Reynolds and flow types 84
5.2 The distribution of velocity in viscous flows: the boundary layer 87
5.3 Turbulent flows 88
5.4 The structure of turbulent shear flows 90
5.5 Shear flow instabilities, flow separation and secondary currents 96
5.6 Subcritical and supercritical flows: the Froude number and hydraulic jumps 100
5.7 Stratified flow generally 102
5.8 Water waves 103
5.9 Tidal flow—long-period waves 109
Further reading 109
Part 3: Transporting Sediment
Introduction 111
6 Sediment in fluid and fluid flow—general 113
6.1 Fall of grains through stationary fluids 113
6.2 Natural flows carrying particulate material are complex 115
6.3 Fluids as transporting machines 116
6.4 Initiation of grain motion 116
6.5 Paths of grain motion 120
6.6 Categories of transported sediment 121
6.7 Some contrasts between wind and water flows 122
6.8 Cohesive sediment transport and erosion 124
6.9 A warning: nonequilibrium effects dominate natural sediment transport systems 127
6.10 Steady state, deposition or erosion: the sediment continuity equation and competence vs. capacity 129
Further reading 130
7 Bedforms and sedimentary structures in flows and under waves 132
7.1 Trinity of interaction: turbulent flow, sediment transport and bedform development 132
7.2 Water-flow bedforms 132
7.3 Bedform phase diagrams for water flows 147
7.4 Water flow erosional bedforms on cohesive beds 151
7.5 Water wave bedforms 154
7.6 Combined flows: wave–current ripples and hummocky cross-stratification 158
7.7 Bedforms and structures formed by atmospheric flows 159
Further reading 169
8 Sediment gravity flows and their deposits 171
8.1 Introduction 171
8.2 Granular flows 172
8.3 Debris flows 177
8.4 Turbidity flows 184
8.5 Turbidite evidence for downslope transformation from turbidity to debris flows 192
Further reading 193
9 Liquefaction fluidization and sliding sediment deformation 198
9.1 Liquefaction 198
9.2 Sedimentary structures formed by and during liquefaction 200
9.3 Submarine landslides, growth faults and slumps 203
9.4 Desiccation and synaeresis shrinkage structures 205
Further reading 208
Part 4: Major External Controls on Sedimentation and Sedimentary Environments
Introduction 209
10 Major external controls on sedimentation 213
10.1 Climate 213
10.2 Global climates: a summary 214
10.3 Sea-level changes 221
10.4 Tectonics 229
10.5 Sediment yield, denudation rate and the sedimentary record 231
Further reading 239
Part 5: Continental Sedimentary Environments
Introduction 241
11 Rivers 245
11.1 Introduction 245
11.2 River networks, hydrographs, patterns and long profiles 245
11.3 Channel form 247
11.4 Channel sediment transport processes, bedforms and internal structures 252
11.5 The floodplain 265
11.6 Channel belts, alluvial ridges and avulsion 269
11.7 River channel changes, adjustable variables and equilibrium 271
11.8 Alluvial architecture: product of complex responses 274
11.9 Alluvial architecture: scale, controls and time 278
Further reading 280
12 Subaerial Fans: Alluvial and Colluvial 282
12.1 Introduction 282
12.2 Controls on the size (area) and gradient of fans 284
12.3 Physical processes on alluvial fans 285
12.4 Debris-flow-dominated alluvial fans 287
12.5 Stream-flow-dominated alluvial fans 288
12.6 Recognition of ancient alluvial fans and talus cones 289
Further reading 294
13 Aeolian Sediments in Low-Latitude Deserts 295
13.1 Introduction 295
13.2 Aeolian system state 297
13.3 Physical processes and erg formation 297
13.4 Erg margins and interbedform areas 301
13.5 Erg and draa evolution and sedimentary architecture 305
13.6 Erg construction, stasis and destruction: climate and sea-level controls 307
13.7 Ancient desert facies 312
Further reading 316
14 Lakes 319
14.1 Introduction 319
14.2 Lake stratification 320
14.3 Clastic input by rivers and the effect of turbidity currents 321
14.4 Wind-forced physical processes 322
14.5 Temperate lake chemical processes and cycles 323
14.6 Saline lake chemical processes and cycles 324
14.7 Biological processes and cycles 329
14.8 Modern temperate lakes and their sedimentary facies 331
14.9 Lakes in the East African rifts 331
14.10 Lake Baikal 333
14.11 The succession of facies as lakes evolve 335
14.12 Ancient lake facies 337
Further reading 342
15 Ice 344
15.1 Introduction 344
15.2 Physical processes of ice flow 345
15.3 Glacier flow, basal lubrication and surges 347
15.4 Sediment transport, erosion and deposition by flowing ice 350
15.5 Glacigenic sediment: nomenclature and classification 351
15.6 Quaternary and modern glacial environments and facies 354
15.7 Ice-produced glacigenic erosion and depositional facies on land and in the periglacial realm 354
15.8 Glaciofluvial processes on land at and within the ice-front 357
15.9 Glacimarine environments 358
15.10 Glacilacustrine environments 361
15.11 Glacial facies in the pre-Quaternary geological record: case of Cenozoic Antarctica 362
Further reading 365
Part 6: Marine Sedimentary Environments
Introduction 367
16 Estuaries 371
16.1 Introduction 371
16.2 Estuarine dynamics 371
16.3 Modern estuarine morphology and sedimentary environments 376
16.4 Estuaries and sequence stratigraphy 379
Further reading 385
17 River and Fan Deltas 386
17.1 Introduction to river deltas 386
17.2 Basic physical processes and sedimentation at the river delta front 387
17.3 Mass movements and slope failure on the subaqueous delta 390
17.4 Organic deposition in river deltas 392
17.5 River delta case histories 392
17.6 River deltas and sea-level change 405
17.7 Ancient river delta deposits 412
17.8 Fan deltas 412
Further reading 415
18 Linear Siliciclastic Shorelines 417
18.1 Introduction 417
18.2 Beach processes and sedimentation 418
18.3 Barrier–inlet-spit systems and their deposits 426
18.4 Tidal flats, salt marsh and chenier ridges 431
18.5 Ancient clastic shoreline facies 436
Further reading 438
19 Siliciclastic Shelves
19.1 Introduction: shelf sinks and lowstand bypass 440
19.2 Shelf water dynamics 443
19.3 Holocene highstand shelf sediments: general 447
19.4 Tide-dominated, low river input, highstand shelves 447
19.5 Tide-dominated, high river input, highstand shelves 451
19.6 Weather-dominated highstand shelves 453
Further reading 459
20 Calcium-carbonate–evaporite Shorelines, Shelves and Basins 461
20.1 Introduction: calcium carbonate ‘nurseries’ and their consequences 461
20.2 Arid carbonate tidal flats, lagoons and evaporite sabkhas 464
20.3 Humid carbonate tidal flats and marshes 467
20.4 Lagoons and bays 470
20.5 Tidal delta and margin-spillover carbonate tidal sands 472
20.6 Open-shelf carbonate ramps 474
20.7 Platform margin reefs and carbonate build-ups 482
20.8 Platform margin slopes and basins 493
20.9 Carbonate sediments, cycles and sea-level change 499
20.10 Displacement and destruction of carbonate environments: siliciclastic input and eutrophication 502
20.11 Subaqueous saltern evaporites 504
Further reading 509
21 Deep Ocean 514
21.1 Introduction 514
21.2 Sculpturing and resedimentation: gullies, canyons and basin-floor channels 515
21.3 Well caught: intraslope basins 525
21.4 Resedimentation: slides, slumps, linked debris/turbidity flows on the slope and basin plain 526
21.5 Continental margin deposition: fans and aprons 530
21.6 Continental margin deposition: turbidite pathway systems connecting slopes and basin plains 543
21.7 Continental margin deposition: thermohaline currents and contourite drifts 543
21.8 Oceanic biological and chemical processes 547
21.9 Oceanic pelagic sediments 550
21.10 Oceanic anoxic pelagic sediments 551
21.11 Palaeo-oceanography 553
Further reading 557
Part 7: Architecture of Sedimentary Basins
Introduction 561
22 Sediment in Sedimentary Basins: A User’s Guide 563
22.1 Continental rift basins 563
22.2 Proto-oceanic rifts 574
22.3 Coastal plains, shelf terraces and continental rises 574
22.4 Convergent/destructive margin basins: some general comments 576
22.5 Subduction zones: trenches and trench-slope basins 578
22.6 Fore-arc basins 580
22.7 Intra-arc basins 581
22.8 Back-arc basins 583
22.9 Foreland basins 585
22.10 Strike-slip basins 597
22.11 A note on basin inversion 599
Further reading 599
Part 8: Topics: Sediment Solutions to Interdisciplinary Problems
Introduction 601
23 Sediments Solve Wider Interdisciplinary Problems 605
23.1 Sediments, global tectonics and seawater composition 605
23.2 Banded Iron Formations, rise of cyanobacteria and secular change in global tectonics 607
23.3 Tibetan Plateau uplift; palaeoaltimetry and monsoon intensity 609
23.4 Colorado Plateau uplift and Grand Canyon incision dated by speleothem carbonate 614
23.5 River channels and large-scale regional tilting 614
23.6 Regional drainage reversal 617
23.7 Sediment budgeting and modelling of foreland basins 617
23.8 Lengthwise growth and fault amalgamation 618
23.9 Rivers, basement uplifts, tilting and fault growth 622
23.10 Unsteady strain and the sedimentary response 623
23.11 Tectonics and climate as depositional controls 626
23.12 River equilibrium, incision and aggradation—away from the knee-jerk of tectonic explanation 628
23.13 Integrated sedimentary systems: modelling tectonics, sediment yield and sea level change 629
23.14 Extraterrestrial sedimentology—atmospheric and liquid flows on Mars 635
23.15 Suborbital surprises: reefs and speleothem as fine-scale tuners of the Pleistocene sea-level curve 638
23.16 Speleothem: Rosetta stone for past climate 641
Further reading 644
Cookies 646
Maths Appendix 697
References 702
Index 753
Colour plates fall between pp. 402 and 403
