Environments of Deposition & Alluvial Fan Facies

Environments of Deposition
Continental
Fluvial alluvial fan, braided stream, meandering stream
Desert dunes, playa lakes, salinas
Lacustrine
Glacial
Deltaic delta plain, delta front, prodelta
Marginal- Marine
Beach/ barrier island
Estuary/ lagoon
Tidal Flat
Neritic continental shelf, organic reef
Marine
Pelagic continental slope and rise, deep- ocean floor

Continental (Terrigenous)
Journey from source to sink
Plate tectonics lead to mountain building
Slope! Exposure! Produces rock
Climate causes weathering
Surface processes move sediments, sculpt landscape
Weathering, erosion, transport, deposition
Deposition
Requires place to put sediments
Depression/ basin
Deep Marine is best
Lakes are good for short records
Terrestrial is difficult!
Glacial sediments are misleading
Abundant because they are recent
Deposition
Gravity works to move sediments
Water
Wind
Change in slope or change in climate impacts sediment
transport and abundance
Alluvial Fan
Localized areas of enhanced sedimentation
downstream of points where laterally confined
flows expand
Narrow valley or gorge opens up, onto piedmont or
coastal plain
At basin margin
Often structurally controlled (fault or mountain front)
Contribute greatly to the rock record!
10s of meters - >100 km cone
Fanglomerate
Alluvial Fan Facies Models
3 types
Debris- flow dominated
Braided fluvial fans
Low- sinuosity/meandering fluvial fan

Generally
lacking fossils
Fan shaped
Texturally immature

Death Valley

Martin Miller
http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/galfan.html
Alluvial Fan Facies Models
Morphology
Proximal, mid-fan, distal
Streamflow processes dominate
Stream- channel sediments
Long narrow bodies of coarsest materials
Poorly sorted
Sheetflood deposits
Sediments settle out of suspension
VERY high sediment load
Deposit gravels even!
Sieve deposits
Very coarse grains are deposited (> sand)
Fines (and water) settle through

3 Alluvial Fan Facies Models
Debris- flow dominated
Poorly sorted
Pebbles, gravels, boulders dominate
No sedimentary structures
Possibly reverse graded bedding in base
Flow is initiated when strength is exceeded
Freezes after short distance
Although some travel up to 24 km (Sharp and Nobles, 1953)
Mud- flow dominated
Similar but sand and muds dominate
Braided Fluvial Fan
Meandering Fluvial Fan
Depositional Environments
Continental / Land (terrestrial and aqueous)
- alluvial fan, glacial, aeolian (desert), fluvial (rivers),
lake (lacustrine), paludal (swamp), cave
Marginal / Transitional / Coastal
- delta, beach, shoreline, estuary, barrier island and
lagoon, littoral (intertidal)
Marine
- shallow marine, reef, deep marine, pelagic
- Neritic (low tide 200m), bathyl (200-2000 m),
abyssal (> 2000m)
QAB 2023 Clastic Sedimentology & Petrography

Alluvial Fans
Alluvial fans are sedimentary deposits that
typically form at the margins of a dry basin.
They typically contain coarse boulders and gravels
and are poorly sorted.
Fine-grained sand and silt may be deposited near
the margin of the fan in the valley, commonly in
shallow lakes.
These lakes may periodically dry, and evaporite
deposits may result.

http://www.uoregon.edu/~millerm/fan.html
Objectives of this lecture

An overall view of the different alluvial fan
depositional environments and facies.
Description of diagnostic elements to identify
depositional facies in rock sequences.

Recap
Sedimentology is concerned with the composition and
genesis of sediments and sedimentary rocks, and the
creation of predictive models (Reading, 1996)
Outline of lecture
Modern alluvial fan environments
Alluvial fan formation & processes
Sedimentary structures, features and facies
Facies association (s)
Alluvial fan facies model
Alluvium - Loose material deposited by running water,
typically streams. Usually a mixture of clay, silt, sand,
and gravel
Alluvial Pertaining to or composed of alluvium, or
deposited by a stream or running water
Fluvial Of or pertaining to rivers; produced by the
action of a stream or river
Paludal pertaining to a marsh

Modern alluvial fan environments
Alluvial fans are depositional
landforms whose surface
forms a segment of a cone
radiating downslope from a
point where major drainages
leave mountains.
Fan-shaped deposit formed
where a fast flowing stream
flattens, slows and spread
typically at the exit of a
canyon onto a flatter plain.
Neighboring fans may
converge into a single apron
of deposits against a slope
bajada or compound alluvial
fan

Alluvial fans are fan
shaped deposits of
water-transported
material (alluvium).

They typically form at the
base of topographic
features where there is a
marked break in slope.

Consequently, alluvial fans
tend to be coarse-
grained, especially at
their mouths. At their
edges, however, they
can be relatively fine-
grained.

Alluvial fan in Death Valley
A close-up view of
the sediments
show that alluvial
fan deposits are
generally coarse-
pebbly-gravelly
and poorly sorted
Alluvial fans at Andes Mountain.
Local: Los Penitentes, Mendoza,
Argentina - bajada
Alluvial fans, south of Cape York,
Brodeur Peninsula.
Alluvial fan formation & processes
At the foot of mountains,
valleys debouch their
sediments into the plains.
This mountain foot zone is
characterized by small
alluvial cones which are
fed by gullies and build out
onto valley surfaces cut
sub-horizontally into the
bedrock. Larger alluvial
fans are fed by complex
valley systems and grades
out into the deposits of the
alluvial plain.

ALLUVIAL FANS:
Composed of flood-borne
rock and debris, they are
geologically and
hydrologically active.
Gravity and moving water
sweep debris through
canyons, dropping heavier
matter first and carrying
sand and silt farther, where
it spreads outward in the
shape of a fan. The fans
here are gently sloped and
may resemble hillsides to
the untrained eye. Where
canyons are close together
their fans merge, making
them more difficult to
identify.

Depositional
gradients in the
piedmont zone
(mountain foot)
are steep, up to
30 in marginal
screes, but
diminish radially
down-fan. This
change in
gradient
correlates with
changes in
process and
sediment type.
Alluvial cones and the heads of
alluvial valleys are characterized by
boulder beds and conglomerates
deposited by gravity slides from the
adjacent mountain sides.
These grades down the fan into
conglomerates and massive or
crudely bedded argillaceous
pebbly sandstones and
siltstones some are
diamictites, deposits of mud
flows.

These grade down-fan into
poorly sorted massive or flat-
bedded pebbly sandstones, with
irregular scours and silt laminae.
These are deposits of flash
floods. They pass down slope
into the alluvium of braided
channel system.
Alluvial fan above Lake Louise, Alberta,
Canada.

Alluvial fans in arid climates
Alluvial fans are
common in desert
environment that are
subjected to periodic
flash floods from
neighboring mountain
range.

They are common
around the margins of
sedimentary basins of
the Basin and Range
province in SW North
America.
Alluvial fans in humid climates
Alluvial fans may also
developed in wetter climate.
In Nepal, the Koshi River has
built a mega fan covering some
150,000 km2 below its exit from
Himalayan foothills onto the
nearly level plains the river
traverses into India before
joining the Ganges.
Alluvial fan in the
French Pyrenees




Alluvial fan facies model
Alluvial fan deposits
are characterized by
extreme coarse grain
size and poor sorting,
by massive or sub-
horizontal bedding and
an absence of fossils.

Ancient alluvial fans
are fairly common in
fault-bounded intra-
cratonic rifts.
Some examples are the
Devonian Old Red
Sandstone basins of
Scotland and Norway



Thank you!

Environments of Deposition & Alluvial Fan Facies

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Environments of Deposition

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