Contributions to Modern and Ancient Tidal Sedimentology

Tidal deposits have been a specific research topic for about 40 years, and whilst this has resulted in a proliferation of papers in scientific journals, there have only been a few book-length syntheses. Over the years, tidal sedimentology has been reinforced by fluid mechanics and numerical modelling but has remained rooted in facies and stratigraphic studies. Recent developments in tidal sedimentology lean toward a more quantitative assessment of the imprint of tides in the facies record of intertidal and shallow subtidal areas. They highlight the increasing relevance of tidal deposits studies, from high resolution subsurface reservoir geology to climate change and sea-level rise. This volume gathers 17 contributions to the Tidalites 2012 congress held in Caen, France. It reflects current advances in the sedimentology and stratigraphy of tidal deposits, in both ancient and modern environments. It shows the current diversity of this field of research, through a wide spectrum of methods including remote sensing, in-situ hydrodynamical measurements, and ichnology, in addition to classic field studies and petrography.

List of Contributors vii

Contributions to Modern and Ancient Tidal Sedimentology: an introduction to the volume 1
Bernadette Tessier and Jean-Yves Reynaud

Hydrodynamic modelling of salinity variations in a semi‐engineered mangrove wetland: The microtidal Frog Creek System, Florida 5
Jicai Zhang, Dongdong Chu, Ping Wang, Joseph Hughes and Jun Cheng

Temporal changes in river‐mouth bars from L‐band SAR images : A case study in the Mekong River delta, South Vietnam 21
Akiko Tanaka, Katsuto Uehara, Toru Tamura, Yoshiki Saito, Van Lap Nguyen and Thi Kim Oanh Ta

Does the Ichnogis method work? A test of prediction performance in a microtidal environment: The Mula di Muggia (Northern Adriatic, Italy) 35
Andrea Baucon and Fabrizio Felletti

Suspended sediment dynamics induced by the passage of a tidal bore in an upper estuary 61
Lucille Furgerot, Pierre Weill, Dominique Mouazé and Bernadette Tessier

Morphodynamics and sedimentary facies in a tidal‐fluvial transition with tidal bores (the middle Qiantang Estuary, China) 75
Daidu Fan, Junbiao Tu, Shuai Shang, Lingling Chen and Yue Zhang

Tidal‐bore deposits in incised valleys, Albian, SW Iberian Ranges, Spain 93
Manuela Chamizo‐Borreguero, Nieves Meléndez and Poppe L. de Boer

The Graafwater Formation, Lower Table Mountain Group, Ordovician, South Africa: Re‐interpretation from a tide‐dominated and wave‐dominated depositional system to an alluvial fan/braidplain complex incorporating a number of tidal marine incursions 117
Burghard W. Flemming

Tidal versus continental sandy‐muddy flat deposits: Evidence from the Oncala Group (Early Cretaceous, N Spain) 133
I. Emma Quijada, Pablo Suarez‐Gonzalez, M. Isabel Benito and Ramón Mas

Do stromatolites need tides to trap ooids? Insights from a Cretaceous system of coastal-wetlands 161
Pablo Suarez‐Gonzalez, I. Emma Quijada, M. Isabel Benito and Ramón Mas

Angular and tangential toeset geometry in tidal cross‐strata: An additional feature of current‐modulated deposits 191
Domenico Chiarella

Hierarchy of tidal rhythmites from semidiurnal to solstitial cycles: Origin of inclined heterolithic stratifications (IHS) in tidal channels from the Dur At Talah Formation (upper Eocene, Sirte Basin, Libya) and a facies comparison with modern Mont‐Saint‐Michel Bay deposits (France) 203
Jonathan Pelletier, Ashour Abouessa, Mathieu Schuster, Philippe Duringer and Jean‐Loup Rubino

Cataclysmic burial of Pennsylvanian Period coal swamps in the Illinois Basin: Hypertidal sedimentation during Gondwanan glacial melt‐water pulses 217
Allen W. Archer, Scott Elrick, W. John Nelson and William A. DiMichele

Tidal ravinement surfaces in the Pleistocene macrotidal tide‐dominated Dong Nai estuary, southern Vietnam 233
Toshiyuki Kitazawa and Naomi Murakoshi

Tidally‐modulated infilling of a large coastal plain during the Holocene; the case of the French Flemish Coastal plain 243
José Margotta, Alain Trentesaux and Nicolas Tribovillard

Sedimentology of a transgressive mixedenergy (wave/tide‐dominated) estuary, Upper Devonian Geirud Formation (Alborz Basin, northern Iran) 261
Mahmoud Sharafi, Sergio G. Longhitano, Asadollah Mahboubi, Reza Moussavi‐ Harami and Hosien Mosaddegh

Sedimentary facies and Late Pleistocene‐ Holocene evolution of the northern Jiangsucoast and radial tidal ridge field, South Yellow Sea, China 293
Yong Yin, Peihong Jia and Qing Li

Facies, architecture and stratigraphic occurrence of headland‐attached tidal sand ridges in the Roda Formation, Northern Spain 313
Kain J. Michaud and Robert W. Dalrymple

Index 343

Bernadette Tessier is currently Senior Researcher at the CNRS in Caen, and has worked on tidal environments and deposits for 30 years. Her main interest is the Holocene evolution and sediment infill of tide-dominated estuaries in north-west France. Her most recent work focuses on the control by climate changes on the behaviour of megatidal systems.

Jean-Yves Reynaud has been working on tidal deposits since 1992. He has authored papers on the offshore tidal ridges of the southern Celtic Sea, and on the tide-dominated bioclastic deposits infilling Miocene incised valleys and straits of south-east France and Corsica. He is currently Professor at the University of Lille.

Tidal deposits have been a specific research topic for about 40 years, and whilst this has resulted in a proliferation of papers in scientific journals, there have only been a few book-length syntheses. Over the years, tidal sedimentology has been reinforced by fluid mechanics and numerical modelling but has remained rooted in facies and stratigraphic studies. Recent developments in tidal sedimentology lean toward a more quantitative assessment of the imprint of tides in the facies record of intertidal and shallow subtidal areas. They highlight the increasing relevance of tidal deposits studies, from high resolution subsurface reservoir geology to climate change and sea-level rise. This volume gathers 17 contributions to the Tidalites 2012 congress held in Caen, France. It reflects current advances in the sedimentology and stratigraphy of tidal deposits, in both ancient and modern environments. It shows the current diversity of this field of research, through a wide spectrum of methods including remote sensing, in-situ hydrodynamical measurements, and ichnology, in addition to classic field studies and petrography.