Sediment Transport History on the Northern California Shelf and Slope: Inferences from Acoustic Signatures

Abstract

Abstract : A unifying concept of the STRATAFORM Project is that sediment accumulates on the shelf and slope in predictable patterns. Further, these patterns are controlled by water depth, sediment sources, and the principal styles of transport and deposition. One of the major goals of the over-all project is to gain a better understanding of how strata form and how they combine to form characteristic stratigraphic sequences, such as drapes, aprons, wedges, sigmoids, and other characteristic geometries. An essential part of this understanding is the analysis and interpretation of surface features and deposits in the upper 50 m of the shelf and slope to provide information on the mechanism of sediment transport and deposition. Interpreting the signatures of various processes in surface and near surface deposits provides a critical link between knowledge gained from measuring physical processes that are dominant over time spans from the duration of a single event to several years, and those inferred from seismic-reflection data that may represent 10(expn 2) to 10(expn 4) years.