Geology and Geomorphology of Alluvial and Fluvial Fans: Terrestrial and Planetary Perspectives
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS
Alluvial and fluvial fans are the most widespread depositional landform bordering the margins of highland regions and actively subsiding continental basins, across a broad spectrum of tectonic and climatic settings. They are significant to the local morphodynamics of mountain regions and also to the evolution of sediment-routing systems, affecting the propagation and preservation of stratigraphic signals of environmental change over vast areas.
The volume presents case studies discussing the geology and geomorphology of alluvial and fluvial fans from both active systems and ancient ones preserved in the stratigraphic record. It brings together case studies from a range of continents, climatic and tectonic settings, some introducing innovative monitoring and analysis techniques, and it provides an overview of current debates in the field.
This volume will be of particular interest to geologists, geomorphologists, sedimentologists and the general reader with an interest in Earth science.
Constraints on synrift intrabasinal horst development from alluvial fan and aeolian deposits (Triassic, Fundy Basin, Nova Scotia)
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Published:January 01, 2018
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CiteCitation
Sophie Leleu, Adrian J. Hartley, 2018. "Constraints on synrift intrabasinal horst development from alluvial fan and aeolian deposits (Triassic, Fundy Basin, Nova Scotia)", Geology and Geomorphology of Alluvial and Fluvial Fans: Terrestrial and Planetary Perspectives, D. Ventra, L. E. Clarke
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Abstract
The Triassic Fundy rift basin in Nova Scotia is a large (>70 km wide) half-graben filled with alluvial, lacustrine and aeolian deposits. A major lithospheric lineament, the Cobequid–Chedabucto Fault Zone (CCFZ), which forms the tip of the Newfoundland–Gibraltar Fault Zone, occurs within the Fundy Basin. The timing of early movement on this important fault zone is poorly constrained. We present data from the alluvial and aeolian units that crop out adjacent to the CCFZ in the Minas sub-basin to determine the initiation of fault movement. We use the onset of alluvial fan deposition to infer when the fault became sufficiently active to create the intrabasinal topography and document the influence of fault activity on the intrabasinal drainage. The occurrence and preservation of aeolian deposits immediately adjacent to the CCFZ and concomitant with alluvial fan development suggests a wind shadow effect associated with the fault-generated topography. The onset of alluvial fan deposition associated directly with the fault occurred during Norian times, following an earlier phase of sedimentation in the Fundy Basin, and records a potentially important phase of plate reorganization during early Atlantic rifting.
- alluvial fans
- bedding
- bedding plane irregularities
- Canada
- Carnian
- Cobequid Fault
- Colchester County Nova Scotia
- correlation
- deposition
- displacements
- drainage basins
- drainage patterns
- dune structures
- Eastern Canada
- eolian features
- fault scarps
- fault zones
- faults
- fluvial features
- fluvial sedimentation
- grain size
- horsts
- landform evolution
- lithofacies
- lithostratigraphy
- Maritime Provinces
- Mesozoic
- Minas Basin
- Norian
- Nova Scotia
- paleocurrents
- planar bedding structures
- playas
- preservation
- provenance
- Rhaetian
- rifting
- sedimentary structures
- sedimentation
- sediments
- shape analysis
- stream transport
- succession
- tectonics
- textures
- topography
- transport
- Triassic
- Upper Triassic
- wind transport
- Blomidon Formation
- Wolfville Formation
- Economy Point
- Red Head
- Soley Cove
- Economy Nova Scotia
- wind shadow effect