delta formation
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Delta Formation
• Areas of sediment deposited at the mouth of river• Fast moving water enters a slowing moving body such as sea or lake• Discharge, and therefore competence, reduces dramatically - resulting in deposition of even very fine material• Flocculation occurs when salt water meets fresh water – clays stick together and sink to floor• Highly changeable landforms as sediment is unconsolidated – erosion and incursion by the sea too• Deposition rate must be greater than erosional rate
So – 2 major conditions:• Form on rivers with high sediment rate (Mississippi – 450m tonnes a year)• Rivers flow into bodies of water with little wave action (Nile into the Mediterranean)
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Arcuate
• Nile Delta, Egypt
• Rounded, convex margin
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Cuspate
• Apalachicola River Delta, Florida, USA
• Tiber, Italy• Material spread
evenly either side of estuary
• ‘Tooth’ shaped
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Bird’s Foot• Mississippi Delta,
Louisiana, USA• Many sediment-
bounded channels extending out in a fan shape.