Changes to Subaqueous Delta Bathymetry Following a High River Flow Event, Wax Lake Delta, USA

Abstract

The construction of the subaqueous delta front is foundational to deltaic land building and field data is needed to validate conceptual models of delta front evolution. The bathymetric change that occurred across the entire delta front (~ 75.9 km2) of the Wax Lake Delta (WLD) in coastal Louisiana was measured between February 2015 and July 2016. Sediment removal (− 9.85 × 106 m3) exceeded sediment accumulation (7.64 × 106 m3), making the delta front net-erosional (− 2.21 × 106 m3) despite the occurrence of a flood. These results factor in an estimated 4.28 cm of subsidence during the survey period. Deposition on the delta front was localized around channels and the northern and eastern flanks of the delta whereas erosion was more spatially uniform. This erosion coincides with an anomalously strong winter storm season that may have exported this sediment offshore and is consistent with a growing body of research that identifies winter storms as a significant mechanism for sediment removal from Atchafalaya Bay. Winter storm erosion is crucial to understanding and predicting volumetric growth of the WLD and has important implications to land building from sediment diversions. Future models of deltaic growth need to account for significant volume export and erosive episodes on the delta front.