Significant effect of sediment cohesion on delta morphology

Abstract

Delta morphology is thought to be controlled by factors such as river discharge, tides and waves. Numerical modelling shows that sediment cohesion also strongly influences the development of a delta’s characteristics. The morphologies of the world’s deltas are thought to be determined by river discharge, tidal range and wave action 1. More recently, sea-level rise 2,3 and human engineering4 have been shown to shape delta evolution. The effects of factors such as sediment type and the overall amount of sediment carried by rivers are considered secondary4,5,6. In particular, the role of sediment cohesion, which is controlled by sediment size and type of vegetation, is unclear. Here we use a numerical flow and transport model7,8,9,10 to show that sediment cohesiveness also strongly influences the morphology of deltas. We find that, holding all other factors constant, highly cohesive sediments form bird’s-foot deltas with rugose shorelines and highly complex floodplains, whereas less cohesive sediments result in fan-like deltas with smooth shorelines and flat floodplains. In our simulations, sediment cohesiveness also controls the number of channels that form within the deltas, and the average angle of bifurcation of those channels. As vegetation generally acts as a cohesive agent, we suggest that deltas that formed before the expansion of land plants in the Devonian period should show fan-like characteristics, a finding consistent with the limited data from the sedimentological record11.