Relief peels in the study of palaeoflood slack-water sediments

Relief peels in the study of palaeoflood slack-water sediments

The use of slack-water sediments as palaeostage indicators in palaeoflood hydrological analysis requires detailed sedimentological description. Conventional descriptions have relied mainly on field descriptions of slack-water profiles. However, this method often fails to reveal important detail. By...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geomorphology (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Vol. 16; no. 2; pp. 121 - 126
Main Authors: Hattingh, J., Zawada, P.K.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 1996
Elsevier
Subjects:
Bgi / Prodig
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Freshwater
Geomorphology
Marine and continental quaternary
Methods and techniques
Physical geography
Surficial geology
South Africa
Southern Africa
rivers
floods
fluvial sedimentation
interpretation
Quaternary
water recovery
topography
alluvium
recovery
sedimentation rates
laminations
Palaeohydrology
Sedimentology
Flood
Sedimentary structure
Stream
Stratigraphy
Indicator
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Summary:The use of slack-water sediments as palaeostage indicators in palaeoflood hydrological analysis requires detailed sedimentological description. Conventional descriptions have relied mainly on field descriptions of slack-water profiles. However, this method often fails to reveal important detail. By employing the well-established technique of relief peels, modified for use in slack-water sediment studies, the problem of insufficient data recovery from slack-water deposits was successfully overcome during a palaeoflood hydrological investigation of South African rivers. The use of relief peels showed that this technique is a useful, and in some cases, indispensable aid in the description and interpretation of palaeoflood deposits. For example, relief peels have shown that slack-water sediments are for the most part not massive exhibiting mainly flat lamination. This indicates that slack-water sedimentation was characterised by moderate rates of deposition rather than sudden or rapid rates. Relief peels have also shown that the base of tributary back-flooded slack-water sediments often contain intraformational rip-up clasts. This indicates that reworking of the existing slack-water sediments is a common process during tributary back-flooding. The technique was particularly effective in enhancing sedimentary structure and in differentiating between interpalaeoflood, non-palaeoflood and intraflood pulses. Relief peels can also be stored permanently as a surface sample of the slack-water sequence to be retrieved for later study.
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ISSN:0169-555X
1872-695X
DOI:10.1016/0169-555X(95)00137-T