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Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects
Prodeltaic deposits; Rhythmites; Pliocene Colorado River Delta; Hyperpycnites; Hyperpycnal flows;
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Cyclically-Forced Hyperpycnites Of The Ancient Colorado River Proximal Prodelta, Sandra R. Waresak
Cyclically-Forced Hyperpycnites Of The Ancient Colorado River Proximal Prodelta, Sandra R. Waresak
Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects
Prodeltaic deposits record a distal, minimally reworked archive of dominant processes active at the fluvial-marine interface. The Fish Creek-Vallecito Basin (CA, US) preserves an ~3 km-thick, lower Pliocene, progradational deltaic succession formed when the ancestral Colorado River infiltrated the early Gulf of California. The interpreted prodeltaic unit in this succession (Mud Hills Member of the Deguynos Formation) contains an ~40 m-thick interval of rhythmic bedding with consistently alternating silt- to fine sand-dominated and clay-dominated beds forming couplets with an average thickness of 12 cm. Sedimentological analysis of the rhythmites reveals the couplets are laterally persistent with gradational to sharp, flat …