Tidal deposits in time and space

月球和太阳对地球海洋的引力产生了潮汐。 即使在潮差较小的地区，与水位涨落有关的水流运动也对泥沙的输移和沉积起着重要作用。 世界上约三分之一的海洋海岸线，在潮差大和（或）波浪能低的地区，发生潮汐主导的沉积作用。 然而，即使在波浪占主导地位的情况下，潮流也主导着屏障岛屿后面的通道网络的沉积，这些岛屿从海岸通过河流-海洋过渡区向内陆延伸很长一段距离。 这里提出的工作是为了提供一个更好的理解两个特定的潮汐亚环境：1）潮汐-河流过渡区，可以是10秒到100公里长;和2）河口坝和三角洲前缘区域的潮汐为主的三角洲。 拟议的研究整合了现代潮汐通道系统的研究与可比古代实例的露头研究。 这些研究的结果也将被用来作为实验工作的基础，探索控制潮汐河曲的平面形状的因素，作为通过河流-海洋过渡的位置的函数。 还在寻求工业支助，以开展补充此处提议的工作的其他几个项目。 研究的目的是提高我们的知识，沉积物动力学在这两个子环境，并制定标准，潮汐沉积物可以更精确地解释比以往的情况。 这项研究将应用于现代海岸系统的管理，但主要应用是在石油工业中，它将提高预测储层单元和泥岩层的三维几何形状的能力，这些泥岩层是石油和天然气流动的挡板和障碍。 将直接应用于开发麦克默里油砂地下部分的石油储量。

The gravitational attraction of the Moon and Sun on the world ocean creates tides. Even in areas with a small tidal range, the water motions associated with the tidal rise and fall of water level play an important role in sediment transportation and deposition. Tide-dominated sedimentation occurs along about one third of the world's marine coastline, in areas with a large tidal range and/or where wave energy is low. Even in wave-dominated situations, however, tidal currents dominate sedimentation in channel networks behind barrier islands, extending long distances inland from the coast through a fluvial-marine transition zone. The work proposed here is directed toward providing an improved understanding of two particular tidal sub-environments: 1) the tidal-fluvial transition zone that can be 10s to 100s of kilometres long; and 2) the mouth-bar and delta-front region of tide-dominated deltas. The proposed research integrates studies in modern tidal-channel systems with outcrop studies of comparable ancient examples. The results of these studies will also be used as a basis for experimental work that explores the factors that control the shape in plan of tidal meanders as a function of location through the fluvial-marine transition. Industrial support is also being sought to undertake several additional projects that would complement the work proposed here. The objectives of the research are to improve our knowledge of sediment dynamics in these two sub-environments, and to develop criteria by which tidal deposits can be interpreted more precisely than has been the case in the past. The research will have application the management of modern coastal systems, but the primary application is in the petroleum industry where it will improve the ability to predict the three-dimensional geometry of reservoir units and the mudstone layers that act as baffles and barriers to the flow of oil and natural gas. There will be direct application to the development of the oil reserves hosted in the subsurface portion of the McMurray Oil Sands.