John Crockett

Terrigenous organic matter in sediments from the Fly River delta‐clinoform system (Papua New Guinea)

loadings (0.5–1.0 mg C m 2 ), although several samples from the outer topset region, an area of sediment bypass, were characterized by lower carbon loadings indicative of enhanced carbon losses. Overall, the organic matter in both surface and subsurface sediments appeared to have predominantly a terrigenous origin, with no evidence for dilution and/or replacement by marine carbon. The measured compositions were consistent with contributions from modern vascular plant detritus, aged soil organic matter, and very old or fossil organic matter devoid of recognizable biochemicals.

Timing and patterns of basin infilling as documented in Lake Powell during a drought

Between 1999 and 2005, drought in the western United States led to a >44 m fall in the level of Lake Powell (Arizona-Utah), the nations second-largest reservoir. River discharges to the reservoir were halved, yet the rivers still incised the tops of deltas left exposed along the rim of the reservoir by the lake-level fall. Erosion of the deltas enriched the rivers in sediment such that upon entering the reservoir they discharged plunging subaqueous gravity fl ows, one of which was imaged acoustically. Repeat bathymetric surveys of the reservoir show that the gravity fl ows overtopped rockfalls and formed small subaqueous fans, locally raising sedi- ment accumulation rates 10-100-fold. The timing of deep-basin deposition differed regionally across the reservoir with respect to lake-level change. Total mass of sediment transferred from the lake perimeter to its bottom equates to ~22 yr of river input.

Where rivers and oceans collide

Fluvial sediment fills the coastal ocean, and sea level rise floods river valleys. This epic battle of terrestrial and marine processes occurs along all shorelines, and the complexities are especially well revealed in the Gulf of Papua, a foreland basin on the southern coast of New Guinea. Two hundred to four hundred million tons of sediment are supplied each year by the Fly and other rivers to a continental shelf that has been dissected by ancestors of these same rivers. The new sediment builds a large depositional feature known as a clinoform, which grows seaward and buries the record of earlier environments.