Sedimentary Basins: Tectonic Recorders of Sediment Discharge from Drainage Catchments

✍ Scribed by Leeder, M. R.

• Book ID: 101218692
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 212 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-1269
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9837(199703)22:3<229::aid-esp750>3.0.co;2-f

✦ Synopsis

The sedimentary basin is to geology what the drainage basin is to geomorphology, with sediment flux being a unifying link between the two features and disciplines. The global sediment discharge from continents to oceans contributes to major mass recycling associated with plate subduction. Major plate reorganization is accompanied by small fluctuations in continental volumes due to recycling of sediment stored along the sink-like passive margins. In continental sedimentary basins the SEdiment Preservation RAtio (SEPRA) depends upon the tectonic 'drawdown' of sediment flux preserved in the subsurface until basin inversion. Major unsteadiness in sediment discharge arises from tectonic or climatic causes, the latter prominent in the Quaternary to Holocene record. Contrasting trends in sediment discharge reflect both the nature of climate and vegetation change and source rock lithology.