Skip to main content
Log in

Influence of relative sea level changes on the construction of the Mississippi Fan

  • Published:
Geo-Marine Letters Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A conceptual sea-level-driven depositional model for individual fanlobes (channel-overbank systems) of the Mississippi Fan does not permit direct application of the sequence stratigraphic principles of Vail and colleagues. Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 96 results suggest that, during initial relative lowering of sea level, the canyon and upper fan channel were formed; excavated fine-grained slope sediments may have formed a debris flow deposit base for the fanlobe. Continued lowering produced constructional channel-levee-overbank deposits. Rising relative sea level inhibited input of coarse clastics, and channel depressions filled with muds. A blanket of (hemi)pelagics represents relative high sea level stand.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bouma AH, Coleman JM, DSDP Leg 96 Shipboard Scientists (1985b) Mississippi Fan: Leg 96 program and principal results. In: Bouma AH, Normark WR, Barnes NE (eds) Submarine Fans and Related Turbidite Systems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 247–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouma AH, Stelting CE, Coleman JM (1983/1984) Mississippi Fan: internal structure and depositional processes. Geo-Marine Letters 3:147–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouma AH, Stelting CE, Coleman JM (1985a) Mississippi Fan, Gulf of Mexico. In: Bouma AH, Normark WR, Barnes NE (eds) Submarine Fans and Related Turbidite Systems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 143–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouma AH, Coleman JM, Meyer AW, and others (1986) Initial Reports, Deep Sea Drilling Project 96. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 824 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman JM, Prior DB (1988) Mass wasting on continental margins. Annual Review Earth Planetary Sciences 16:101–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman JM, Bouma AH, Roberts HH, Thayer P (1986) Stratification in Mississippi Fan cores revealed by x-ray radiography. In: Bouma AH, Coleman JM, Meyer AW, and others: Initial Reports, Deep Sea Drilling Project 96. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp 505–517

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman JM, Prior DB, Lindsay JF (1983) Deltaic influences on shelf edge instabilities. In: Stanley DJ, Moore GT (eds) The Shelf Break: Critical Interface on Continental Margins. Society Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 33, pp 121–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman JM, Roberts HH (1988) Sedimentary development of the Louisiana continental shelf related to sea level cycles: part 1—Sedimentary sequences. Geo-Marine Letters 8:63–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ericson DB, Wollin G (1968) Pleistocene climates and chronology in deep-sea sediments. Science 162:1227–1234

    Google Scholar 

  • Feeley MH, Buffler RT, Bryant WR (1985) Depositional units and growth pattern of the Mississippi Fan. In: Bouma AH, Normark WR, Barnes NE (eds) Submarine Fans and Related Turbidite Systems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 253–257

    Google Scholar 

  • Haq BU, Hardenbol J, Vail PR (1987) The chronology of fluctuating sea level since the Triassic. Science 235:1156–1167

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohl B, DSDP Leg 96 Shipboard Scientists (1985) Biostratigraphy and sedimentation rates of the Mississippi Fan. In: Bouma AH, Normark WR, Barnes NE (eds) Submarine Fans and Related Turbidite Systems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 267–273

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohl B, Williams DF, Ledbetter MT, Constans RE, King JW, Heusser LE, Schroeder C, Morley JJ (1986) Summary of chronostratigraphic studies, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 96. In: Bouma AH, Coleman JM, Meyer AW, and others: Initial Reports, Deep Sea Drilling Project 96. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp 589–593

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchum RM, Vail PR, Thompson S (1977) The depositional sequence as a basic unit for stratigraphic analysis. In: Clayton CE (ed) Seismic Stratigraphy—Applications to Hydrocarbon Exploration. American Association Petroleum Geologists Memoir 26, pp 53–62

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Connell S, Stelting CE, Bouma AH, Coleman JM, Cremer M, Droz L, Meyer-Wright AA, Normark WR, Pickering KT, Stow DAV, DSDP Leg 96 Shipboard Scientists (1985) Drilling results on the lower Mississippi Fan. In: Bouma AH, Normark WR, Barnes NE (eds) Submarine Fans and Related Turbidite Systems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 291–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Posamentier HW, Jervey MT, Vail PR (1989) Eustatic controls on clastic deposition 1—Conceptual framework. In: Wilgus CK et al (eds) Sea-Level Changes—An Integrated Approach. Society Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 42, pp 109–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Posamentier HW, Vail PR (1989) Eustatic controls on clastic deposition 2—Sequence and systems tract models. In: Wilgus CK et al (eds) Sea-Level Changes—An Integrated Approach. Society Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 42, pp 125–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Prior DB, Adams CE Jr, Coleman JM (1983) Characteristics of a deep-sea channel on the middle Mississippi Fan as revealed by a high-resolution survey. Gulf Coast Association Geological Societies Transactions 33:389–394

    Google Scholar 

  • Stow DAV, Cremer M, Droz L, Meyer AW, Normark WR, O'Connell S, Pickering KT, Stelting CE, Angell SA, Chaplin C (1986) Facies, composition, and texture of Mississippi Fan sediments, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 96, Gulf of Mexico. In: Bouma AH, Coleman JM, Meyer AW, and others: Initial Reports, Deep Sea Drilling Project 96. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp 475–487

    Google Scholar 

  • Stelting CE, Bouma AH, Coleman JM (1990) Sea-level influences on seismic and sedimentary facies of a passive margin submarine fan: Mississippi Fan. In: Weimer P, Link MH (eds) Seismic Facies and Sedimentary Processes of Modern and Ancient Submarine Fans. Springer-Verlag, New York, in press

    Google Scholar 

  • Stelting CE, Pickering KT, Bouma AH, Coleman JM, Cremer M, Droz L, Meyer-Wright AA, Normark WR, O'Connell S, Stow DAV, DSDP Leg 96 Shipboard Scientists (1985a) Drilling results on the middle Mississippi Fan. In: Bouma AH, Normark WR, Barnes NE (eds) Submarine Fans and Related Turbidite Systems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 275–282

    Google Scholar 

  • Stelting CE, DSDP Leg 96 Shipboard Scientists (1985b) Migratory characteristics of a mid-fan meander belt, Mississippi Fan. In: Bouma AH, Normark WR, Barnes NE (eds) Submarine Fans and Related Turbidite Systems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 283–290

    Google Scholar 

  • Vail PR (1987) Seismic stratigraphic interpretation using sequence stratigraphy, part 1: seismic stratigraphy interpretation procedure. In: Bally AW (ed) Atlas of Seismic Stratigraphy, V 1. American Association Petroleum Geologists Studies in Geology 27:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Vail PR, Mitchum RM Jr, Todd RG, Widmier JM, Thompson S III, Sangree JB, Bubb JN, Hatlelid WG (1977) Seismic stratigraphy and global changes of sea level. In: Clayton CE (ed) Seismic Stratigraphy Applications to Hydrocarbon Exploration. American Association Petroleum Geologists Memoir 26, pp 49–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker JR, Massingill JL (1970) Slump features on the Mississippi Fan. Geological Society America Bulletin 81:3101–3108

    Google Scholar 

  • Walters RD (1985) Seismic stratigraphy and salt tectonics of Plio-Pleistocene deposits, continental slope and upper Mississippi Fan, northern Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas at Austin, unpublished M.S. thesis, 203 pp.

  • Weimer P (1989) Sequence stratigraphy of the Mississippi Fan (Plio-Pleistocene), Gulf of Mexico. Geo-Marine Letters 9: in press

  • Weimer P, Buffler RT (1988) Distribution and seismic facies of Mississippi Fan channels. Geology 16:900–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams DF (1989) Evidence for and against sea-level changes from the stable isotope record of the Cenozoic. In: Wilgus CK et al (eds) Sea-Level Changes—An Integrated Approach. Society Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 42, pp 31–36

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bouma, A.H., Coleman, J.M., Stelting, C.E. et al. Influence of relative sea level changes on the construction of the Mississippi Fan. Geo-Marine Letters 9, 161–170 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02431043

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02431043

Keywords

Navigation