Endorheic Basins

Abstract

Basins of internal drainage occur in a wide variety of tectonic settings. The characteristics of the continental successions in them are to a large extent controlled by the absence of direct connection to the oceans, as well as by the tectonic setting. Climate plays a major role in determining the general nature of the facies, ranging from aeoliandominated environments in arid settings to lake basins in humid regions. Key features include a tendency to a strongly aggradational stratigraphic architecture with deep fluvial incision only occurring in lake basins that have climatically induced lake-level fluctuations. Fill of the basin can lead to substantial onlap onto the basin margins, including the back-filling of feeder valleys. Fluvial systems in endorheic basins are distributive and may deposit basin-scale fans of channel and overbank facies.

Model for the Formation of Single‐Thread Rivers in Barren Landscapes and Implications for Pre‐Silurian and Martian Fluvial Deposits

“…Few single‐thread river systems have been reported relative to braided systems in the pre‐Silurian sedimentary record based on the presence of heterolithic lateral accretion sets (e.g., Gibling et al, ). Whereas global compilations show that the rise of land plants brought about a sharp increase in mud content within preserved fluvial deposits (McMahon & Davies, ), endorheic basins capable of retaining mud fractions from oceanward transport (e.g., Dott, ) should also have formed before the rise of land plants and provided favorable geodynamic and paleoclimatic settings for the accumulation of mud (Nichols, ). In a compilation of prevegetation fluvial floodplain deposits, Ielpi et al () envisaged a causal link between the rise of supercontinental assemblages, the thorough chemical weathering of large orogenic belts therein, and the deposition of mud‐rich strata in low‐gradient, endorheic‐prone terrestrial basins.…”

Autogenic dynamics of alluvial fans in endorheic basins: Outcrop examples and stratigraphic significance

“…Examples of topographically enclosed basins of internal drainage are described from a variety of extensional and convergent settings (e.g. DiGuiseppi & Bartley, ; Soria et al ., ; Garcia‐Castellanos et al ., ; Nichols, , ; Hilley & Strecker, ; Wise & Noble, ; Carroll et al ., ). The absolute altitude of the internal surface in such basins depends on the balance between aggradation and subsidence, but from any reference point on the surface of the basin the effect is one of gradual increase in the elevation of the internal topography, and consequent rise in geomorphic base level (Fig.…”

“…Although internal drainage conditions can be induced by an extreme disequilibrium between precipitation‐runoff and evapotranspiration, they are effectively stable over long time scales when caused by topographically elevated watersheds delimiting a basin within which runoff is constrained (e.g. Sobel et al ., ; Douglass et al ., ; Carroll et al ., ; Nichols, ). In such cases, sediment transferred from surrounding highlands by alluvial and fluvial processes will be subject to long‐term accumulation and essentially complete preservation.…”

“…The absolute altitude of the internal surface in such basins depends on the balance between aggradation and subsidence, but from any reference point on the surface of the basin the effect is one of gradual increase in the elevation of the internal topography, and consequent rise in geomorphic base level (Fig. ; Nichols, , ).…”

“…In closed basins the distal ‘buttress’ that anchors alluvial profiles is represented by the internal depositional surface, which is stable through time due to the absence of sediment bypass and erosion within the basin. However, this surface is forced to rise gradually with time due to dominant aggradation (Nichols, , ; Casas‐Sainz & de Vicente, ; Fisher & Nichols, ). Vertical buttress shifts will induce similar vertical adjustment in the alluvial profiles which are tied to them (Holbrook et al ., ).…”