Nile Delta's sinking past: Quantifiable links with Holocene compaction and climate-driven changes in sediment supply?

Abstract

Research Article| December 01, 2012 Nile Delta’s sinking past: Quantifiable links with Holocene compaction and climate-driven changes in sediment supply? Nick Marriner; Nick Marriner * 1CNRS, CEREGE UMR 7330, Europôle de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence cedex 04, France *E-mail: marriner@cerege.fr. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Clément Flaux; Clément Flaux 2Université Aix-Marseille, CEREGE UMR 7330, Europôle de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence cedex 04, France Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Christophe Morhange; Christophe Morhange 2Université Aix-Marseille, CEREGE UMR 7330, Europôle de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence cedex 04, France Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar David Kaniewski David Kaniewski 3Université Paul Sabatier-Toulouse 3, EcoLab (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle), Bât 4R1, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Geology (2012) 40 (12): 1083–1086. https://doi.org/10.1130/G33209.1 Article history received: 17 Jan 2012 rev-recd: 15 May 2012 accepted: 17 May 2012 first online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Nick Marriner, Clément Flaux, Christophe Morhange, David Kaniewski; Nile Delta’s sinking past: Quantifiable links with Holocene compaction and climate-driven changes in sediment supply?. Geology 2012;; 40 (12): 1083–1086. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G33209.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract The Nile Delta is a subsiding sedimentary basin that hosts ∼66% of Egypt’s population and 60% of the country’s food production. Projected sea-level-rise scenarios for the coming decades have sharpened focus on the delta’s potential resilience to rapid changes in accommodation space. We use chronostratigraphic data from 194 organic-rich peat and lagoon points to quantitatively reevaluate the drivers of Nile Delta surface dynamics during the Holocene. Reconstructed subsidence rates range from 0.03 to 4.5 mm/yr, and are highest in the Manzala, Burullus, Idku, and Maryut lagoons, areas that correspond to deep late Pleistocene topography infilled with compressible Holocene strata; 88% of the subsidence values are <2 mm/yr. We suggest that during the Holocene two significant but previously underestimated contributors to changes in Nile Delta mass balance have been sediment compaction and orbitally forced changes in sediment supply. Between 8000 and 4000 calibrated (cal) 14C yr B.P., spatially averaged sedimentation rates were greater than subsidence, meaning that delta aggradation was the dominant geomorphological process at the regional scale. Since ca. 4000 cal yr B.P., a sharp climate-driven fall in Nile sediment supply, coupled with the human-induced drainage of deltaic wetlands, has rendered the depocenter more sensitive to degradation by sea-level rise and extreme flood events. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.