Abstract
A conceptional model has been developed relating the deposition of thick sand sequences in deep water regions of the Gulf of Mexico to episodes of high volume Mississippi River discharge. In accordance with the model, coarse sand units are deposited by turbidity currents as submarine fans on the lower slope and in the deep basin during periods of rapid glacial melting. These sands are predicted to be more extensive and cleaner than those deposited under glacial and interglacial conditions. Evidence supporting this interpretation is provided from projections of the high rates of river discharge and sediment transportation at the end of the Wisconsin glacial epoch.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kennett JP, Shackleton NJ (1975) Laurentide ice sheet melt-water record in the Gulf of Mexico deep sea cores. Science 188:147–150
Emiliani C, Rooth C, Stipp JJ (1978) The Late Wisconsin flood into the Gulf of Mexico. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 41:159–162
Falls WF (1978) Glacial meltwater in-flow into the Gulf of Mexico during the last 150,000 years: implications for isotope stratigraphy and sea level studies. M.S. Thesis, University South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 38 p.
Leventer A, Williams DF, Kennett JP (1982) Dynamics of the Laurentide ice sheet during the last deglaciation: evidence from the Gulf of Mexico. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 59:11–17
Fisk HN (1944) Geological investigation of the alluvial valley of the lower Mississippi River. Mississippi River Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 78 p.
Cline R (ed) (1981) Seasonal Reconstruction of the Earth's Surface at the Last Glacial Maximum. Climap Project, Geological Society of America Maps and Charts MC-36
Flint RF (1971) Glacial and Quaternary Geology. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 892 p.
Friedman GM, Sanders JE (1978) Principles of Sedimentology. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 792 p.
Fisk HN (1961) Bar finger sands of the Mississippi Delta. In: Peterson JA, Osmond JC (eds) Geometry of Sandstone Bodies. American Association Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, OK, pp 29–52
U.S. Waterways Experiment Station (1935) Studies of River Bed Materials and Their Movement with Special Reference to the Lower Mississippi River. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Paper 17, 161 p.
Coleman JM, Prior DB, Lindsay JF (1983) Deltaic influences on shelf edge instability processes. In: Stanley DJ, Moore GT (eds) The Shelfbreak: Critical Interface on Continental Margins. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 33:121–137
Barry RG (1983) Late-Pleistocene climatology. In: Wright HE (ed) Late Quaternary Environments of the United States. Vol. I, The Late Pleistocene. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, pp 390–407
Prior DB, Coleman JM (1980) Active slides and flows in underconsolidated marine sediments on the slopes of the Mississippi Delta. In: Saxon S, Nieuwenhuis JK (eds) Marine Slides and Other Mass Movements. Plenum Press, New York, pp 21–50
Bouma AH (1981) Depositional sequences in clastic continental slope deposits, Gulf of Mexico. Geo-Marine Letters 1:115–121
Moore GT, Starke GW, Bonham LC, Woodbury HO (1978) Mississippi Fan, Gulf of Mexico—physiography, stratigraphy and sedimentation patterns. In: Bouma AH, Moore GT, Coleman JM (eds) Framework, Facies and Oil Trapping Characteristics of the Upper Continental Margin. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Studies in Geology 7:155–191
Budyko MI (1977) Climatic Changes. American Geophysical Union, Washington DC, 261 p.
Friedman I (1983) Paleoclimatic evidence from stable isotopes. In: Wright HE (ed) Late Quaternary Environments of the United States. Vol. I, The Late Pleistocene. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, pp 385–389
Skolnick H (1976) Late Pleistocene impact of unique climatic conditions on sediment accumulations on the slope of the northern Gulf of Mexico. In: Bouma AH, Moore GT, Coleman JM (eds) Beyond The Shelf Break. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Short Course 2, New Orleans, Louisiana May 22, 1976, pp. J-1–J-32
Murphey JB, Grissinger EH, Little WC (1980) Late Quaternary stratigraphy and stability of tributary stream channels in the lower Mississippi Valley. SE Section of the Geological Society of America 29th Annual Meeting 12/4:4203
Mihalyi D, Berryhill HL (1982) Distribution of buried stream channels and shallow deformation. In: Berryhill HL, Tripper AR, Mihalyi D (eds) Geology of the Continental Shelf Edge and Upper Continental Slope Off Southwest Louisiana. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service Open File Report 82-02
Berryhill HL Jr (1981) Ancient buried submarine trough, northwest Gulf of Mexico. Geo-Marine Letters 1: 105–110
Behrens EW (1982) Slope and intraslope basin reflection types sediment and sedimentation; Texas Louisiana continental slope. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 14(7):4
Sutter JR, Berryhill HL (1985) Late Quaternary shelf-margin deltas, northwest Gulf of Mexico. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 69:77–91
U.S. Waterways Experiment Station (1939) Study of Material in Suspension; Mississippi River. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Technical Memorandum 122-1, 121 p.
Holle CG (1951) Sedimentation at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Proceedings Second Annual Conference on Coastal Engineering, pp 111–129
McDonald BC (1971) Late Quaternary stratigraphy and deglaciation in eastern Canada. In: Turekian KK (ed) The Late Cenozoic Glacial Age. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, pp 331–354
Milliman JD, Emery KO (1968) Sea level during the past 35,000 years. Science 162:1121–1123
Humphris CC (1978) Salt movement on the continental slope, northern Gulf of Mexico. In: Bouma AH, Moore GT, Coleman JM, (eds) Framework, Facies and Oil Trappings Characteristics of the Upper Continental Margin. American Association Petroleum Geologists Studies in Geology 7:69–86
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Perlmutter, M.A. Deep water clastic reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico: A depositional model. Geo-Marine Letters 5, 105–112 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02233935
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02233935