Classifications, sedimentary features and facies associations of tidal flats

Abstract

Significant progress has been achieved in the research of tide-dominated environments in the past two decades. These studies highlight both the importance and diversity of tidal flats in modern coastal environments. Based on their developing settings, tidal flats are subdivided into nine types, which are in turn grouped into sheltered or exposed spectrums according to the magnitude of exposure to waves. The ternary coastal classification model is revised with an embedded triangle to highlight non-open coast tidal flats as major second-order morphological elements to the first-order coastal environments including deltas, estuaries and lagoons. A new continuous spectrum of open coast depositional settings is proposed from muddy tidal flats of tide dominance with wave influence, through sandy tidal flats of mixed energy (tide-dominated), and tidal beaches of mixed energy (wave-dominated), to beaches of wave-dominance with tide influence. It is worth noting that no open coast setting is absolutely exempt from wave or tide influence. Three diagnostic criteria for the intertidal-flat deposits are proposed. Upon an upward-fining succession, (1) regular changes vertically from flaser bedding, through wavy bedding and to lenticular bedding are diagnostic of most of intertidal flats; (2) cyclical tidal rhythmites point to sheltered intertidal flats typically at the inner part of macrotidal estuaries; (3) rhythmic alternations of storm and tidal deposition are diagnostic of exposed intertidal flats, especially the open coast types. Intertidal-flat deposits are generally topped by saltmarsh deposits, but underlain by different subtidal successions, like thick subtidal channel-fills, sand-bar complexes (sheltered coastal settings), and upwards coarsening successions of subtidal flats or thick subtidal sand ridge/bar complexes (exposed coastal environments).