Sand shoal development on muddy Mississippi river delta shelf
Trinity and Ship Shoals are transgressive sand bodies on the Louisiana inner continental shelf, and they represent the reworked sands of the abandoned Holocene Teche and Maringouin deltas. The development of these shoals is initiated by an episode of delta abandonment followed by subsidence-enhanced sea level rise. Through the process of shoreface retreat, the abandoned delta lobe evolves from an erosional headland with flanking barrier islands to a barrier-island arch and finally into a submerged inner-shelf shoal system. Trinity and Ship Shoals represent the final stage in the Mississippi River delta barrier shoreline cycle and provide a possible modern analogue for some Cretaceous shelf sandstones of the Western Interior. More than 1000 km (620 mi) of high-resolution seismic profiles correlated with cores provide the data base for interpretation of the depositional history of sand-body development on the muddy Louisiana shelf.
- Research Organization:
- Louisiana Geological Survey, Baton Rouge, LA
- OSTI ID:
- 6386579
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8405216-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Vol. 68:4; Conference: AAPG annual convention, San Antonio, TX, USA, 20 May 1984
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
03 NATURAL GAS
LOUISIANA
CONTINENTAL SHELF
RESERVOIR ROCK
DEPOSITION
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
SANDSTONES
TERTIARY PERIOD
CENOZOIC ERA
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
FEDERAL REGION VI
GEOLOGIC AGES
NORTH AMERICA
RIVERS
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
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