Aging and sediment characteristics of northern Gulf of Mexico estuaries

Conference · Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)

OSTI ID:5111973

Isphording, W C ^[1]; Imsand, F D ^[2]; Flowers, G C ^[3]

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1. Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile (USA)
2. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, AL (USA)
3. Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA (USA)

Eight major estuarine systems present along the northern margin of the Gulf of Mexico serve as primary depositional basins for all rivers draining into the gulf from central Louisiana eastward to the Florida peninsula. These estuaries consist of Apalachicola Bay, St. Andrews Bay, Choctawhatchee Bay, Pensacola Bay, Perdido Bay, Mobile Bay, Mississippi sound, and Lake Pontchartrainn. Because each receives sediment from a different river system (or systems), each estuary is characterized by sediments that are both physically and mineralogically distinct. Estuaries in the eastern Gulf, for example, possess a clay mineral suite dominated by kaolinite (derived from deeply weathered piedmont rocks), whereas those from the western Gulf are rich in smectite and mixed layer clays (reflecting a Western Interior or provenance from Paleozoic or older coastal plain sources). Similarly, weathering of rocks in the southern piedmont has provided eastern Gulf estuarine sediments with a suite of largely metamorphic rock-derived heavy minerals, whereas those in the western Gulf contain a mixed suite of both igneous- and metamorphic-derived minerals. Equally distinctive, however, are the textures of the bottom sediments themselves for each estuary when plotted on standard sand-silt-clay ternary diagrams. The relative percentages of these components are uniquely different for most of the estuaries and reflect both natural and anthropogenic conditions that exist in the watershed areas that drain into each estuary.

• OSTI ID: 5111973
• Report Number(s): CONF-8910221-; CODEN: AABUD
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA), Vol. 73:9; Conference: Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies and Gulf Coast Section of SEPM meeting, Corpus Christi, TX (USA), 25-27 Oct 1989; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
GULF OF MEXICO
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
FLORIDA
KAOLINITE
LOUISIANA
SAND
SEDIMENTS
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ALUMINIUM SILICATES
ATLANTIC OCEAN
CARIBBEAN SEA
FEDERAL REGION IV
FEDERAL REGION VI
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
MINERALS
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SEAS
SILICATE MINERALS
SILICATES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SURFACE WATERS
USA
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration