Variability of Shelf Delta-Estuary Complexes on
Shelf-Margin and Ramp Platforms
Carlos A. Uroza,
The University of Texas at
In pre-Modern coastline successions
repeated regression and transgression produce clastic
tongues that are deltas/strandplains in their lower
part and estuary/barrier in their upper partregime
,
and more tide influenced in ‘fall’ conditions, (3) In basins differing
subsidence
regime
there is a discernible difference in the facies
and architecture of the deltas and estuaries, (4) Estuary-Barrier systems
developed on the transgressive limbs of clastic tongues are thicker and more complex in shelf-edge
settings than when they arrive farther landward on the inner shelf
This
research involves outcrop analysis from four different locations: 1- Eocene Battfjellet
Formation, West Spitsbergen, Norway, where two clinoforms showing shelf to
slope transition are targeted; 2- Campanian McCourt Tongue, Rock Springs
Formation, Wyoming-Utah (deposited on an inner-shelf ramp setting); 3- Pliocene
Paleo-Orinoco Delta, Trinidad, which represent thick shelf-edge deltas developed
on a growth fault
province (the impact of high subsidence on the architecture
and geometry of the sandbodies will be examined); and 4- Campanian Haystack
Mountains Formation, Wyoming, where the character of lowstand deltas developed
on a ramp setting will be evaluated.