Alluvial fan facies in Death Valley: Contrasts with fluvial gravels and implications for the interpretation of ancient fan'' gravels
- McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ontario (Canada). Dept. of Geology
Sedimentary environments in Death Valley belong to three major groups: fans, washes, and playas. Fans in Death Valley include both diamicts and bedded gravels. Seven facies may be recognized. The diamicts include: (1) matrix-rich, coarse wackestones; (2) thin, matrix-rich, fine wackestones, that may show grading; (3) matrix-poor, coarse packstones, transitional to wackestones. The bedded facies include: (4) weakly bedded, poorly sorted packstones or grainstones, that show patchy imbrication, and cut-and-fill structures; (5) packed, imbricated cobble lenses, generally interbedded in facies 4; (6) distinctly bedded gravels, that are better bedded, finer and better sorted, and show better imbrication than facies 4, but still do not show clear separation of sand and gravel beds; (7) backfill cross-bedded gravels. Sand beds are not seen in fan deposits. Sand is present in eolian deposits of the playa, as plane-laminated, back-eddy deposits in Death Valley Wash, and as laminated or rippled sand in the Amargosa River, which drains into the south end of Death Valley. The most remarkable features of the fan and wash deposits are the very weak segregation of sand and gravel, and the absence of any lower flow-regime structures produced by ripples or dunes. During floods, the slope of fan and wash surfaces is steep enough to produce upper regime flows. Most fans in Death Valley itself are not strongly dominated by debris flow deposits (diamicts). Within a fan, facies vary little from proximal to distal regions, but may differ strongly from facies seen in adjacent fans.
- OSTI ID:
- 5505582
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303211--
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Vol. 25:2; ISSN GAAPBC; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Depositional processes and facies of Trail Fan sandflat: Death Valley, California
Depositional facies and Hohokam settlement patterns of Holocene alluvial fans, N. Tucson Basin, Arizona