Sedimentation in the Chile Trench: Depositional morphologies, lithofacies, and stratigraphy

Abstract

The depositional bodies of the Chile Trench (trench fans, the axial channel, sheeted basins, ponded basins, and axial sediment lobes) control the spatial distribution of modem lithofacies in the basin. Sheeted basins (south of 41°S) are presumably fed by closely spaced submarine gullies that approximate a line of source of sediment supply along the base of the slope. Trench fans (41°S−33°S) are built at the mouths of major submarine canyon systems which act as point sources of sediment supply. The axial channel follows the northward gravitational gradient, draining the distributary networks of trench fans into the longitudinal transport system. Down-gradient (northern) fan lobes are severely dissected by erosional processes; evidently, periods of proximal deposition alternate with periods of massive sediment remobilization and progradation of the axial dispersal system into more distal environments. Channelized basins in the canyon-mouth areas yield to sheeted basins (depositional surface maintains an axial gradient) or ponded basins (depositional surface is strictly flat) in inter-canyon areas. Tectonic disruption of the oceanic basement can locally augment the axial gradient and stimulate flow channelization, or reverse the gradient and induce sediment ponding. A large, margin-parallel sediment lobe is built at the base of a high axial escarpment near 33°S, where the axial channel crosses a transverse discontinuity at the convergent plate boundary. Five lithofacies are defined by Q-mode factor analysis of sediment textures and hydro-dynamic structures in 27 cores from the Chile Trench. The Channel facies (thick, amalgamated sand, massive to laminated or cross-bedded) is deposited by high-energy processes within the coarse-grained bedload of turbidity currents; it forms in distributary and axial channels. The Levee facies (rhythmically bedded, internally structureless, graded sand and graded silt) is deposited from concentrated sediment suspensions that quickly lose momentum during channel spillover; it forms on channel flanks, although constructional levees are not always present. The Basin-1 facies (more complete Bouma sequences, both upper and lower flow regime structures) forms in ponded basins where flows are confined by a high-relief, seaward trench wall. The Basin-2 facies (graded and laminated silt, lower flow regime structures) forms in low-energy environments, such as interchannel areas, distal basins, trench walls, and elevated topographic features. The Contourite facies (silt and sand laminations winnowed from hemipelagic muds and distal turbidites) is best developed in sediment-starved basins where geostrophic currents are constricted and accelerated between the steep inner and outer trench walls. The trench wedge records a coarsening-upward sequence as the oceanic plate migrates toward and into the trench during plate convergence, and becomes more proximal to sediment sources along the base of the continental margin. Near canyon mouths, prograding trench fans drive the axial channel seaward into the trench wedge, and the coarsening-upward sequence is truncated by a time-transgressive erosional unconformity. Abandoned axial channel deposits are carried landward beneath prograding fans to record a fining-upward sequence above the basal unconformity. Channel migration and lobe aggradation may produce fining- and coarsening-upward sequences on depositional fan lobes, but sequences on the erosional lobes are fragmented by numerous truncation surfaces.