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INTRODUÇÃO
ELEMENTOS ARQUITETÔNICOS
Definições
Lateral-accretion deposits
Point bars (Fig. 7A) are examples of the lateral-accretion architectural
element (LA in Table 3; Figs. 1, 7A, 8), so termed because the direction of
accretion is at a high angle to the main channel trend. The term is now preferred
to "point bar" for descriptive purposes, because lateral-accretion deposits occur
in many fluvial settings that are not point bars, such as in mid-channel settings.
In meandering streams they develop on the insides of meander bends as the
bend widens or migrates downstream. Surface flow impinges against the outer
bank, where it maintains a cutbank by active erosion (Figs. 7A, 9). The flow turns
downward, developing a helical overturn pattern. The return flow, at depth,
passes obliquely over the point-bar surface (Fig. 9). The helical flow pattern
decays as the flow emerges from the bend, and is replaced by a helical overturn
in the opposite direction, as the flow impinges on the cutbank of the next bend
downstream.
Sediment removed from the cutbank is incorporated in the overall
sediment load of the river. Large slump blocks may accumulate in the deepest
part of the channel as a lag deposit. Material broken down into individual grains
is incorporated into the bedload and suspension load, and is swept down-stream.
Much of it becomes deposited in bedforms and bars. Sediment is added to the
point-bar surface at a rate comparable to that at which it is removed by erosion
along the outer bank of the meander. The resulting lateral growth can easily be
detected in many modern bars by the curved ridges and depressions (swales) on
the bar surface. In Figure 7A from the Milk River, the centre of each point bar is
covered by old trees, with the size and density of vegetation decreasing outward
to the vegetation-free bar surface at the edge of the channel. This spectrum of
vegetation illustrates the bar evolution and indicates the time available for growth
on each part of the bar. Variations in depth and velocity over the point-bar surface
result in sediment sorting and variations in the assemblage of sedimentary
structures, with a tendency for finer grain sizes and structures of lower flow
regime to occur in the upper part of the bar. Figure 2 shows the edge of a modern
point bar, with the active depositional surface covered with two-dimensional
dunes.
Continued enlargement of a meander loop results in increased sinuosity.
Eventually a cutbank may incise into an adjacent reach of the channel. This
typically occurs at the neck of a meander (Fig. 1; see also the area of large trees
in the centre of Fig. 7A), and results in a neck cut-off. Flow is diverted through
the break, and the channel reach between the points of cut-off is abandoned.
Fine-grained floodplain sediments or new point-bar deposits then seal off the
ends of the abandoned channel and it becomes a curved pond, colloquially
termed an oxbow lake. Chute channels (Figs. 1, 8) and chute cutoffs occur where
an erosional channel develops across the top of the active point bar during flood
events.
Figure 10 illustrates cross sections through a range of examples of LA
deposits, and Figure 11 is a photograph of a typical outcrop. LA elements range
in thickness from a minimum of about 2 m (Fig. lOD), up to the giant bars of the
Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta. which are at least 25 m thick (Fig. 10F). The most
distinctive features of LA deposits are the lateral-accretion surfaces. These may
be the boundaries of facies sets or cosets (1st- or 2nd-order bounding surfaces
of Fig. 3), or they may be surfaces of minor erosion (3rd-order surfaces),
indicating pauses in the development of the deposit. They dip at about 3-25", with
typical dips in the 5-15" range. The direction of dip of these surfaces indicates the
direction of bar growth, and is approximately perpendicular to the direction of
bedform migration (Fig. 2). The crests of the dunes in this illustration are oriented
parallel to the dip of the accretion surface, which can be seen dipping underwater
to the right. This relative orientation of di~s and migration directions is a useful
clue for the identification of lateral-accretion deposits in the ancient record.
Bars composed of cobble gravel occur in some basin-margin
conglomerates, but most lateral-accretion deposits are sand-dominated. Many,
but by no means all accretion surfaces in LA deposits show fining updip, parallel
to bedding, reflecting the range of ater depths and flow velocities that occurs
across each accretion surface (Figs. 9, 11). As the bar accretes laterally, beds
deposited in successively shallower water are superimposed on each other. Thus
the resulting deposit tends to show a vertical upward fining, that can readily be
recognized in vertical sections, such as drill cores (Fig. 9; see also Chapter 3).
Fluvial models of meandering and braided systems that contain lateral-accretion
deposits are illustrated later.
Downstream-accretion deposits
Many gravel- and sand-bed rivers contain active bars and islands in mid-
channel positions (Fig. 7B). These develop by accretionary processes, in
particular by the apture of trains of bedforms at the upstream edges or on the
flanks of the bar. In this way the bar may accrete upstream, lateral to the channel
trend, or downstream. Lateral accretion (LA) and downstream accretion (DA) are
the most common styles. Some large sand flats may show both styles in different
parts of the bar (Allen, 1983). DA deposits are particularly characteristic of
braided streams. They range in height from 1-15 m, and in length from 10-1000
m.
The essential characteristic of a downstream-accretion element is that it
consists of several (possibly many) cosets deposited by bedform migration that
are dynamically related to each other by a hierarchy of internal bounding surfaces
(Figs. 12, 13). This assemblage of cross-bedded deposits and their enclosing
surfaces reveals the former existence of an active, non-periodic, possibly
irregular-shaped bar form comparable in height and width to the channel in which
it formed. The bounding surfaces are of first-, second-, and third-order type; they
dip gently (clOO) downstream, oblique to low, or gently upstream around and
over a low-relief bar core. Between these surfaces are sets or cosets of St, Sp,
Sh, SI, or Sr (see Figs. 5D-G, for examples of these facies). The Sh and SI
laminae are organized parallel or subparallel to the internal bounding surfaces.
Detailed paleocurrent studies show that the bedforms advance generally down
the slopes defined by the first- to third-order surfaces, or oblique to the surfaces
draping the bar cores. These data reveal a picture of fields of bedforms driving
across, around and down the bar forms.
Cant and Walker (1978) referred to the large, mid-channel bars in the
South Saskatchewan River as sand flats. These evolve from large, simple, cross-
bedded flow-transverse bedforms, termed cross-channel bars by Cant and
Walker (1978). Elevated parts of these bedforms become emergent at low water
and then form the nuclei of new sand flats, which anchor part of the bar in the
middle of the channel. Sediment is added to the cross-channel bedforms by the
migration of fields of dunes and ripples. Those parts of the crestline in deeper
water continue to advance more rapidly than the sand flat nucleus, so that the
entire bedform swings around oblique to the channel direction (Cant and Walker,
1978; Allen, 1983, his Fig. 20). The macroforms accrete sediment partly by the
process of bedform capture on the upstream or flanks, and partly by rapid burial
and preservation of superimposed bedforms on the advancing downstream face
(Fig. 12).
Many of the variations in composition and geometry between described
macroforms probably reflect fluctuations in stage (the depth of water in the river).
The bar surfaces may be cut by numerous erosional channels during falling
stage, and may be abandoned altogether at low stage, or as a result of a shift in
channel position, leading to overall nondeposition or erosion (Fig. 11). The minor
channels, and the cross-cutting erosion surfaces that separate growth
increments, are defined as third-order surfaces.