Global and Planetary Change 28 2001. 93106 www.elsevier.

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Physical climate signatures in shallow- and deep-water deltas

George Postma)
Sedimentology Group, Earth Science Department, Utrecht Uniersity, P.O. Box 80021, 3508 TA Utrecht, Netherlands Received 27 May 1999; received in revised form 27 August 1999; accepted 21 October 1999

Abstract Physical signatures of climate change in delta successions occur at various scales and frequencies. This paper shows examples of physical products of high frequency river floods. and orbital-forced climate change as recorded in coarse-clastic shallow and deep-water delta systems. Changes in frequency of sea level oscillation occurring on a geological time scale i.e. green-house and ice-house periods. may result in a drastic change in delta architecture from shelf-edge to shelf deltas. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: climate change; river-flood deposits; turbidites; delta; delta architecture; shelf

1. Introduction Climate variations affect a multitude of variables that are all important for the final delta product. Climate can leave its signature on three different scales: 1. Short period catastrophic events that cause important changes in run off with instantaneous increase in both competence and carrying capacity of the streams resulting in river floods with important increases in the total sediment supply and grain size delivered onto the delta system; 2. Milankovitchscale changes in climate run off and changes in sediment yield. that have a noticeable long-term effect on supply which may or may not be enhanced or counteracted by glacio-eustatic sea level changes and resultant shelf exposure. This long-term effect causes progradation or retrogradation of the entire

Tel.: q 31-30-2534155; fax: q 31-30-2535030. E-mail address: gpostma@geo.uu.nl G. Postma..

delta system and may result in large scale coarsening and fining upward sequences in turbiditic prodelta sediments; 3. Geological scale changes governed by the interaction of plate tectonics and Milankovitch controlled variations in insolation as reflected by green-house and ice-house periods Fig. 1.. These climate changes on a geological scale should have, apart from a possible long-term change in sediment yield, an important bearing on delta architecture because of important changes in frequency of sea level oscillation. Small deltas fed by streams issuing from a relatively small drainage basin will be more sensitive to climate variations than very large deltas with a vast drainage basin. Compare for instance the drainage basin of the Mississippi delta with any fjord delta Postma, 1990, his Table 1.. In this perspective, the prodelta environments of the often small, coarsegrained deltas are probably the best recorders of relative sea level and climate change. Paralic systems e.g. delta plain and delta front. are less suitable,

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Fig. 1. Mean global temperature curve. Relatively cool periods and warm periods are indicated. There appear to be two periods where high frequency sea level changes occur shaded.: NamurianWestphalien MississippianPennsylvanian. and the late PlioceneQuaternary period based on Frakes et al., 1992..

because the record of both short and long period climatic andror sea level changes are partially or totally obscured by other factors e.g. Algeo and Wilkinson, 1988.. In addition, the preservation potential of the prodelta succession is generally high being beyond the reach of AnormalB delta reworking processes such as waves, tides and gravity slope instability.. The prodelta realms vary in significance depending on basin relief and sea level. Shallow water deltas are generally characterised by three physiographic zones: 1. the delta plain, where fluvial processes are dominant; 2. the delta front, where fluvial and basinal processes operate; and 3. the prodelta, where basinal processes dominate Postma, 1998, 1990; Reading, 1995.. In deep water deltas the delta front is separated from the prodelta by a distinct delta slope. The slope is beyond the direct influence of waves and variously dominated by basinal processes suspension settling. and gravity-driven mass transport. In this classification view, those parts of the basin influenced directly by delta-controlled sedimentation processes, albeit undoubtedly combined with other processes Coriolis force, tidal currents, contour currents, etc.. belong to the delta system. This means that even some very large, clastic deep-sea systems extending hundreds of kilometres away from the delta front e.g. Bengal fan, Mississippi fan, Indus fan. can be considered a

AprodeltaB, and most certainly so during sea level lowstands Postma, 1990.. The aim of this paper is to review and examine physical features in delta systems and complexes that relate or may relate to climate change on various time scales. The examples given here mainly concern prodelta facies of relative small radius and coarsegrained deltas that are demonstrably related to supply variation inferred to be triggered by climate induced variation in run off.

2. Physical signatures of short-period, catastrophic changes in climate Extreme river or stream floods are generally the result of brief periods hoursdays. of adverse climate conditions, which may characterise all types of climate, from wet to arid. A brief but heavy rainfall over a relatively small area surrounded by steep slopes may cause a flash flood: a sudden flood or torrent overflowing a stream river. channel carrying an immense sediment load e.g. Allen, 1985.. The stream power and the inertia of these floods are often sufficient to erode and largely bypass delta plain and delta front to deposit much of their load in the prodelta environment. Examples of recent flash flood deposits are known from sidescan sonar images of the south coast of the

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Corinthian Gulf Katsonopoulou and Soter, 1991; Soter and Katsonopoulou, 1998.. These images show distinct lobes of coarse debris in a modern, shallow water prodelta environment Fig. 2.. Between the Vouraikos and Selinous rivers of the south coast of the Gulf of Corinth, the lobes are generally elongated, but yet show strong variation in lengthrwidth ratios. Lobe L2 is completely buried by younger sediment and only revealed from seismic profiles. Lobes L1 and L3-5 are about similar in size. Lobe 5 appears to be composite and built by more than one event. The origin of lobes 35 can be related to recent catastrophic river flooding. Although there is

no river outlet at these positions now, a map of the delta from 1862, drawn by Schmidt 1875., cited in Soter and Katsonopoulou 1999. clearly shows river outlet positions close to the upslope end of these lobes. The large size of the L2 deposit may point to an extreme flood or amalgamation of a number of flood deposits possibly during late Pleistocene sea level lowstand judged on basis of the thickness of the sedimentary cover. The contribution of floods to deposition on the delta front of coarse-grained, shallow-water deltas is also suggested by studies on ancient, fossilised examples of similar setting as those of the Corinthian

Fig. 2. Map showing delta front lobes of various size in the near shore zone. Light grey shading represents shelf up to 40 m depth, dark grey is alluvium. L1 s 30 = 400 m 25 000 m2 .; L2 G 165 = 1400 m ) 500 000 m2 .; L3 s 30 = 170 m 4000 m2 .; L4 s 30 = 250 m 5000 m2 .; L5 s 75 = 150 m more than 1 event. 7000 m2 .; data from Dr. Steven Soter, published with permission in Postma, 1998.

96 G. Postmar Global and Planetary Change 28 (2001) 93106 Fig. 3. Two examples of inferred flash-flood debris-flow. deposits in the shallow marine zone of ancient coarse-grained deltas from Postma, 1998.. A. Detail of the basal part of a coarse-grained, clast-supported relatively high compared with the example of B.. discharge flash-flood deposit of the upper Miocene Prina Series Postma and Drinia, 1993, Kalamavka, Crete.. IG s inverse grading at the base. Palaeo-flow direction is to the right. Scale is shown by rubber grip of hammer h., which is about 15 cm. B. Parallel-flow section flow direction is to the right. through delta front of the upper Pliocene Gador Formation Postma, 1984, 1995; Almeria, SE Spain.. Coarse-grained mouthbar systems enveloped by burrowed, wave-worked muds M. show a complex internal structure with large scale cross-bedding CB., parallel layering PL. and truncation surfaces TS. pointing to a multi-storey build up by a number of events. Each event is characterized by strong current and high sediment load inferred to relate to moderate-discharge compare with the example of Fig. 3A. flashfloods. The planed surfaces with pebble lags WW. point to intermittent wave reworking compare with wave-cut platform.. The origin of the structure indicated with A?B in the centre of the photograph is not well understood, but may be related to local liquefaction.

G. Postmar Global and Planetary Change 28 (2001) 93106 Fig. 4. Inferred flash-flood deposit in the distal prodelta segment below SWB. of a shoal water type delta of the Gador Formation in the Rambla de dos Areos near the village Pechina., Almeria, SE Spain. The deposit is heterogeneous showing gravelly, cross-bedded facies at the base 2., a graded sand unit with hummocky-like low-angle truncations in various directions. cross-stratification overlying a conspicuous erosive surface and low-angle truncations of sand drapes 1. and small-scale cross-bedded ripple sets 3.. A much younger channel unit is truncating the deposit 4.. The entire flash-flood unit is enveloped by bioturbated offshore muds, not showing structures indicative for wave reworking. The overall geological setting of late Pliocene Gador Formation is described by Postma 1984.. 97

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Gulf e.g. Larsen and Steel, 1978; Kleinspehn et al., 1984; Orton, 1988.. Examples of the Prina Series on Crete Postma and Drinia, 1993, Fig. 3A. show boulder containing debris-flow like deposits with inverse grading at the base of the deposit overlying shallow marine deposits. Lithophaga borings in some of the transported limestone boulders and cobbles indicate that original beach material has been incorporated in the flow. Examples from southeastern Spain are somewhat different being much finer grained than the Cretan examples Fig. 3B.. The latter show internally heterogeneous, gravelly sand lobes that are enveloped by shallow marine sand and mud mixture of fine sand, silt and clay. that show wave-produced structures characteristic of proximal delta settings above storm wave base SWB.. and bioturbated, offshore muds of more distal settings below SWB. The complex internal structure crossbedding and near-horizontally layered gravel and sand. of the lobes shows evidence for strong currents capable of displacing significant amounts of pebble-, cobble- and boulder-sized sediment. The internal truncation erosion. surfaces indicate that the delta front lobes either may have been built up by several events, or that the flood velocity and related competence. was typically unsteady. In proximal delta settings, planed surfaces with gravel lags that are continuous throughout the outcrop are typical for wave erosion ca. wave-cut platform erosion; see further Postma, 1995.. Offshore i.e. below SWB., the top of the flash flood deposits are not reworked by waves. Fig. 4 shows a common sequence found in offshore flash flood deposits of the Gador Formation SE Spain, see Postma, 1984.. The sequence of the deposit is characterised by a gravelly base with abundant traction cross-bedding. structures, capped by a graded sandy part. The sandy part is characterised by hummocky-type low angle truncations. cross-bedding, cm-thick sand drapes and small scale and climbing ripple sets. Similar sequences in the fan delta conglomerates of the Val Borbera in the Tertiary Piedmont Basin Mutti et al., 1995., and the Tertiary of the Tremp-Graus Basin Mutti et al., 1994. have been attributed to catastrophic river flooding by these authors. River flood deposits in deep water prodelta environments are typical turbiditic in nature and often contain abundant organic material such as plant and

tree remains. Without such independent compositional evidence, these turbiditic deposits cannot easily be identified from turbidites resulting from slope instability. A typical, deep-water prodelta facies shows extreme variation in sand bed thickness, often conspicuous rhythmicity in bed thickness, which has been variously ascribed to seasonality in run off ca. Mastalerz, 1990. or compensation cycles Mutti and Sonnino, 1981; Richards and McCaffrey, 1999.. The absence of channels, the tapering of the turbidite sequence, the thickening and coarsening upward sequences and the lens-shaped geometries of amalgamated beds compensation cycles., all point to deposition in relatively small sand splays or lobes e.g. Prior and Bornhold, 1990; Mutti and Normark, 1987. and are typical for the prodelta of a small-radius, late Miocene, deep-water delta on Gavdos, which is discussed below.

3. Physical signatures of Milankovitch-scale changes in climate Milankovitch cyclicity in prodelta turbidites is known from the Eastern Mediterranean Basin for the early Late Miocene Postma et al., 1993. and early Pliocene Weltje and de Boer, 1993.. The turbidites occur in successions of alternating hemipelagic bioturbated marls. and sapropelic laminitic. sediments, the latter being a mixture of well-layered siliciclastic and organic material. Krijgsman et al. 1995. and Hilgen et al. 1995. attributed the origin of the laminite-marl couplets to astronomical forcing, since the occurrence and thickness of the sapropelic layer are roughly correlatable with the insolation curve of Laskar et al. 1993.. One couplet would represent one cycle of precession, clusters of couplets the 100 and 400 ka cycles of eccentricity. The abundance of preserved organic material in the sapropels can be ascribed to a combination of anoxic conditions at the sea bottom on the one hand and high organic production on the other see Rohling, 1994 for a review on this matter.. Stable isotopes on planktonic foraminifers show that sapropel formation was contemporaneous with periods of increased continental run off Van der Zwaan and Gudjonsson, 1986.. The latter periods have been correlated with an intensified Indian Ocean SW summer monsoonal system

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Fig. 5. Sedimentary logs of Metochia-B section. Note that turbidite sequences substitute laminite sapropel. intervals L7L13.. Compare with Figs. 6 and 7.

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Fig. 6. Deep water prodelta succession of the Metochia-B early Late Miocene, Gavdos, Greece; Postma et al., 1993.. The lowermost laminite sequence that is marked with arrows on the photograph is L5, the highest marked turbidite cycle is L11. The thickness of both turbidite beds and individual turbidite sequences vary strongly laterally. Note the rapid wedging of turbidite sands in the top of turbidite cycle L10. Duration of each turbidite cycle is of the order of 35 ka see text.. Width of the view is approximately 15 m.

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Fig. 7. Rhythmically and very thinly bedded turbidites of cycle L7 see detailed log of Fig. 5.. Note the abundant clay layers dark grey. draping cross-bedded sand layers of various thickness. The whitish mm drapes arrowed. are diatomaceous laminites, each laminite marking seasonal algal blooms.

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influencing the eastern Mediterranean via the Nile river and by increased continental activity of Mediterranean depressions as an element of the westerly Atlantic system Prell and Kutzbach, 1987; Rohling, 1994.. The intensification occurs when perihelion coincides with the Northern Hemisphere summer Rossignol-Strick, 1985, 1987; Hilgen, 1991.. The sapropels provide, therefore, important clues with regards to the origin, the timing and the duration of climate-related turbidite deposition in this basin. The Metochia-B section on Gavdos small island south of Crete. shows rhythmic alternation of sapropelic non-bioturbated laminitic. intervals and bioturbated homogenised marl beds deposited in approximately 850 m water depth Postma et al., 1993.. The sapropelic intervals, with an estimated duration of 25 ka Troelstra et al., 1990. become dominated by sandy turbidites from L7-13 Fig. 5.. The turbidite sequences are characterised by multiple events of thinly bedded, wedging turbidites, each turbidite sequence being covered by a marl layer Fig. 6.. Fig. 7 gives a detail of the L7 turbidite succession, which contains at least 100 separate turbidite events recorded as thinly layered fine sandy to silty Tab.c-e turbidites ranging in thickness from 0.5 to 3 cm. The fine-grained intervals have a typical brown to yellow colour and contain organic plant material, which contrasts markedly with the blue-grey colours of the overlying homogeneous, hemipelagic marl interval. L12 and L13 are very similar to L7 and contain few thin, up to a few centimeters thick sand layers. Turbidite sequences L8L11 display crude thickening and coarsening upward trend. In the centre and upper part of these sequences, the sandrclay ratio increases, with turbidite beds becoming thicker and coarser upwards. The thick sand beds show crude internal stratification delineated by imbricated clay pebbles and grain-size variations, which points to amalgamation of small-volume turbidite events into

thick, composite multi-event. sand beds. The geometry of the thinly bedded turbidites is sheet-like, that of the thicker amalgamated beds clearly lens-shaped. These lenses pinch out over a distance of several tens of meters e.g. cycle L10 on Fig. 6.. On a larger scale, the turbidite sequences L8L11 taper gradually over a distance of a few hundreds of metres. The strong association between turbidites and laminites suggest that growth of the prodelta lobes occurred during precession punctuated periods of increased precipitation and increased run-off. Tectonic tilting, seismic shock and sediment overloading due to sea level lowering are believed to be far less important triggering mechanisms for the L7L13 turbidites. Weltje and De Boer 1993. similarly related their Early Pliocene turbidites exposed on the island Corfu Greece. to precession punctuated paleoclimatic fluctuations. They noticed a precessionpunctuated change in composition, mainly by the sediment maturity reflected by the feldspar content. Where turbidites of the Metochia-B section are found unrelated to laminites or occur in a hemipelagic interval e.g. between L9 and L10., tectonics andror sea level fluctuations probably played a more active role in their triggering. 4. Physical signatures of climate changes on a geological scale Phase relationships between climate and plate. tectonics may have important consequences for the frequency of sea level change. In general, during the warm, ice-free periods, the frequency of eustatic sea level change will be slow, much depending on plate tectonics. During the cool periods, the rate of eustatic sea level change will vary as it now depends on both plate tectonics and the formation of ice caps. For much of the Cenozoic - 55 Ma, see Fig. 1., for instance, we can recognise periods with AmesoB frequency cycles of the order of 1 Ma. sea level

Fig. 8. Radial seismic-section of a stretch of the Ebro delta Tarranco profile. showing a conspicuous change in delta architecture going from the Middle and Late Miocene delta progradation drawn in C. to the late PlioceneQuaternary succession B.. It shows clearly that the post late Pliocene successions are characterised by a shelf continuous reflectors. with a typical shelf-delta system as depicted in Fig. 9. Dots indicate roll-over points slope break., arrows show onlap and downlap. Deposition during highstand is shaded light grey, during transgression dark grey, and is dotted for lowstand. M is the unconformity formed as a result of the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean.

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change related to glaciation on one of the hemispheres. For only two geological periods, we observe

a high-frequency change 20400 ka. in glacioeustacy, probably related to simultaneous glaciations

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on the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere Frakes et al., 1992.. Examination of more than 200 mesoscale sedimentary cycles by Algeo and Wilkinson 1988. showed that Phanerozoic cycle periods are randomly distributed, except for the Late Mississippian to Late Pensylvanian and the late PlioceneQuaternary periods. The Mississippianr Pennsylvanian delta successions show sedimentary cyclicity related to high frequency sea level changes clustering around the 413 Algeo and Wilkinson, 1988. and 21 ka periods Klein, 1991; De Boer, 1991; Maynard and Leeder, 1992.. The late PliocenerQuaternary periods show similar high frequency sea level changes clustering around 40 and 100 ka. Between 0.9 and 0.4 Ma BP, the low amplitude sea level oscillations of a period of 40 ka change into high amplitude glacial cycles of a period of 100 ka e.g. Frakes et al., 1992.. The enormous difference in frequency of sea level oscillation has a significant impact on the architecture and preservation of sedimentary systems, and the sea level sensitive delta and shelf systems in

particular. A conspicuous change in style of delta progradation is observed in the Ebro delta system since the late Miocene Fig. 8; Tarranco section; e.g. Danobeita et al., 1990; Field and Gardner, 1990.. The late Miocene slope break separates a delta plain, identifiable from the numerous discontinuous reflectors and small seismic truncations delta plain channel-levee systems. from a delta slope Fig. 8C.. In the late Pliocene the slope break separates a marine shelf that is identifiable from its strong and continuous reflectors highstand drape deposits. from a lowstand wedge system that is characterised by slope instability and strong lowstand progradation Fig. 8B.. The variable that changed most going from Miocene to Present times in the Ebro delta system is most likely the frequency of sea level oscillation, which increased significantly in the late Pliocene. In the Namurian of mid England an Ebro-delta type situation may have existed. Cores through the Namurian delta complexes show a number of highfrequency fourth or higher order. depositional sequences, which are related to the glacio-eustatic

Fig. 9. Schematic illustration of two different type of delta systems: The model in A. is similar to the Exxon models. In the model of illustration B. the lowstand delta is detached from the highstand delta, a situation that occurs is most representative for high frequency sea level oscillations as occur today modified from Carter et al., 1991..

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cycles e.g. Leeder, 1988; Collier et al., 1990; Collinson et al., 1991; Martinsen, 1993; Church and Gawthorpe, 1994.. The amplitude of these cycles is of the order of 60 m based on uncompacted thickness of sequences and valley incisions. Prograding highstand deposits are minor in volume, since the frequency of sea level oscillations were too high for highstand progradation, resulting in a typical shelfdelta system as portrait in Fig. 9B. During periods of low frequency sea level change, the shelf-edge delta-type Fig. 9A. is expected to dominate, even under conditions of very low sediment supply, as long as the sediment flux is larger than the increase in accommodation space cf. Burgess and Hovius, 1998..

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5. Conclusions The prodelta of shelf-edge deltas that are fed by rivers issuing from relatively small drainage basins are considered potentially good recorders of abrupt changes in climate controlled run-off. Climate changes that leave outcrop detectable physical signatures occur on at least three different time scales: 1. Catastrophic events related to changes in run off are preserved as sedimentary beds; 2. Milankovitch-scale changes in climate run off. are preserved as sedimentary units system-scale.; 3. Geological scale changes governed by the interaction of plate tectonics and Milankovitch controlled variations in insolation e.g. green-house and ice-house periods. may be preserved as a conspicuous change in architectural style of the entire delta system, e.g. a change from shelf-edge delta to shelf delta, as is exemplified by the Ebro delta. It is not easy to identify physical signatures of abrupt climate change without considering other, independent evidence.
v v v

Acknowledgements The manuscript benefited from critical comments of P.L. de Boer, J. Lundqvist and an anonymous reviewer. W. Nemec is thanked for the many fruitful discussions on the origin of conglomerate beds of the Gador Formation.

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