Sedimentation in the Tide-Wave and Tide-River Transition Zones

陆地和海洋的交界面是地球上最复杂的区域之一。这里形成的矿藏极其重要，因为这里蕴藏着加拿大乃至世界上大部分的碳氢化合物储量，包括阿尔伯塔省北部举世闻名的麦克默里油砂。我建议研究这一关键界面的沉积，使用一种打破“末端成员综合症”的方法，这种方法在以前的沿海环境研究中具有很大的特点，研究控制这些环境动力学的三个基本过程之间的复杂相互作用，以及古代沉积序列中相的性质及其建筑组织。不像我过去的工作那样专注于潮汐主导的环境，我建议探索潮汐和波浪之间的相互作用，以及河流的流动。这些过渡带在当今世界广泛分布，它们的沉积物在古代沉积盆地中应该同样丰富，但由于缺乏这些沉积物的模型，它们的记录不完整。所提出的工作包括一组现代和古代矿床，之所以选择这些矿床，是因为它们要么是已知的，要么被认为可以说明本研究的重点过程转变，而且因为它们已经成为解释和/或非常暴露的重要参考点，从而为研究矿床的三维结构提供了无与伦比的机会。将研究河流-潮汐转换的研究区域有：厄瓜多尔瓜亚斯群岛及其支流；拉贾斯Fm。阿根廷neuquacimen盆地；内斯伦Fm。犹他州;还没有被选中，就在西班牙的比利牛斯山。这项工作将由正在进行的麦克默里Fm工作补充。阿尔伯塔省。在Lajas Fm将研究波浪-潮汐转换。、阿根廷;犹他州的Sego砂岩；和干草堆Mtns。调频。怀俄明州。这个研究项目将显著提高创建复杂的古环境和古气候重建的能力，并更有效地提取碳氢化合物。

The interface between the land and the sea is one of the most complex areas on earth. The deposits formed here are extremely important because they host a significant fraction of the hydrocarbon reserves in Canada and the world, including the world-famous McMurray Oil Sands of northern Alberta. I propose to investigate the deposits of this crucial interface, using an approach that breaks out of the "end-member syndrome" that has characterized much of the previous work on coastal environments, to investigate the complex interactions between the three fundamental processes that control the dynamics these environments and the nature of the facies and their architectural organization within ancient sedimentary successions. Rather than focusing on tide-dominated environments as my past work has done, I propose to explore the interactions between tidal currents and waves on the one hand, and river flow on the other. These transitional zones are widespread on the present-day world, and their deposits should be equally abundant in ancient sedimentary basins, and yet they are incompletely documented because of the scarcity of models for what these deposits look like. The proposed work consists of a set of modern and ancient deposits that have been selected because they are either known or believed to illustrate the process transitions that are the focus of this study, and because they have served as important reference point for interpretations and/or are superbly exposed, thereby allowing unparalleled opportunities for the study of the 3-dimensional architecture of the deposits. Study areas where the river-tide transition will be studied are: the Rio Guayas and its tributaries, Ecuador; the Lajas Fm., Neuquén Basin, Argentina; the Neslen Fm., Utah; and as yet to be chosen deposit in the Spanish Pyrenees. This work will be supplemented by ongoing work on the McMurray Fm., Alberta. The wave-tide transition will be investigated in the Lajas Fm., Argentina; the Sego Sandstone, Utah; and the Haystack Mtns. Fm., Wyoming. This research program will significantly improve the ability to create sophisticated paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstructions, and to extract hydrocarbons more efficiently.