Revisiting morphological relationships of modern source-to-sink segments as a first-order approach to scale ancient sedimentary systems

Sediment dispersal and redistributive processes in axial and transverse deep‐time source‐to‐sink systems of marine rift basins: Dampier Sub‐basin, Northwest Shelf, Australia

“…These processes result in net sediment loss in some areas closer to the source of the axial flowing turbidites, and net gain farther down the transport pathway where these sediments are re-deposited (Figures 11, 12a-c, and 13). In the Kendrew Trough, nearly all submarine fan complex areas are smaller than predicted by the general catchment area-fan area relationship derived by Nyberg et al (2018), indicating the major re-depositional area may be out of the study area, more south-westward in the Kendrew Trough (Figure 7d). Furthermore, no simple positive or negative bias tendency of catchment-fan area ratios compared with that of Nyberg et al (2018) exists along the flow direction of axial turbidite between these submarine fan complexes, which implicates more controls, such as the geometry of Rankin Fault System and topography of the Kendrew Trough, influence these sediment redistributive processes.…”

“…Recent source‐to‐sink studies of modern systems have suggested that the size of drainage basins and their associated drainage elements can strongly influence the nature and size of associated fan systems (e.g., Nyberg et al., 2018; Sømme et al., 2009; Sømme & Jackson, 2013; Sømme, Jackson, et al., 2013). Such scaling relationships, however, can be difficult to prove and apply in ancient systems since source drainage regions are often eroded during subsequent basin evolution, or if still intact, maybe poorly imaged in the subsurface (e.g., Helland‐Hansen et al., 2016; Matenco & Andriessen, 2013; Sømme et al., 2009; Wu et al, 2015).…”

“…Deep‐time S2S studies generally involve the reconstruction of drainage basins, the sediment‐routing systems and the features of depositional systems in the sink (e.g., Bhattacharya et al., 2016; Helland‐Hansen et al., 2016; Sømme, Jackson, & Vaksdal, 2013). Focusing on modern and sub‐modern S2S systems, some authors have suggested a variety of morphological scaling relationships that may exist between a drainage basin (e.g., width and length) and the basin's submarine fan (e.g., Nyberg et al., 2018; Sømme et al., 2009; Sømme & Jackson, 2013; Sømme, Jackson, et al, 2013). Whereas in ancient S2S systems, drainage basins are often only partly preserved at best, or, if relatively intact, are poorly imaged in the subsurface (e.g., Matenco & Andriessen, 2013; Sømme et al., 2009).…”

“…. S2S rift basin is to be composed of structurally and hydrodynamically complex S2S segments, and these cannot be studied in isolation if we are to fully understand sediment dispersal in these basins (e.g., Helland-Hansen et al, 2016;Nyberg et al, 2018;.…”

gospl: Global Scalable Paleo Landscape Evolution

“…Traditional techniques in characterising S2S have consisted in the development of physical experiments and the use of both modern and outcrop analogues to constrain the size, shape, and complexity of sedimentary bodies. Over the years, growing detailed global datasets have improved our general understanding of sedimentary systems and scaling relationships have been proposed to assess the morphology and connectivities between modern S2S segments (e.g., the catchment, continental shelf, continental slope and submarine fan) and infer their temporal variability (Nyberg et al, 2018).…”