Abstract
Abstract The Huanghe or Yellow River is the second largest river in the world in respect to sediment load, debouching approximately 1.1 × 109 tons annually into the Bohai Sea. Owing to the predominance of silt‐size material, 80–90% of the sediment is deposited within 20 km of the estuary mouth with only about 36% getting out beyond the delta front. Gross annual lateral growth of the delta may be as much as 4.5 km. The delta presents a complex depositional setting with considerable disruption of the deposits taking place because of the dynamics of this environment, where wave action, rapid loading‐induced mass failure, and underflows predominate. The upper 2 m of the delta front deposits are classified as clayey silts whose median diameters commonly range from 5 to 8⊘ (0.031–0.004 mm), with wet bulk densities of 1.52–1.98 Mg/m3, water contents of 26–98% dry weight, shear strengths of 1.6–8 kPa, and sensitivities of 2 to 6. As expected, these properties vary considerably both laterally and with depth. Within the delta front, areas of disturbed and thoroughly homogenized sediment are common. These deposits, relative to those not showing disturbance, frequently are characterized by slightly lower percentages of clay‐size material, lower water contents, higher bulk densities, and slightly higher shear strengths distributed uniformly with depth. Because of the shallow nature of the Bohai Sea and the high winter‐induced waves, the upper intervals of the bottom sediments are annually reworked and considerable erosion of the delta front takes place. This unique dynamic setting tends to result in a greater degree of uniformity in time of the Bohai bottom sediments.
Published Version
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