Dec 2, 2018 - Fluvial evolution of the Rhine during the last interglacial-glacial cycle ... The Blake Event recorded near the Eemian type locality: A diachronic onset ..... of data collection and dating techniques, enabling good correlations to independent ..... (Fig. 2.3B; Fig. 2.4D). Deposition of fine-grained lacustrine-deltaic ...
The Last Interglacial Rhine estuary Sedimentary architecture, chronostratigraphy, preservation and analogue potential
Het Rijn estuarium in het Laatste Interglaciaal Sedimentaire architectuur, chronostratigrafie, preservatie en reservoir analogie (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands)
PROEFSCHRIFT
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. H.R.B.M. Kummeling, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 17 december 2018 des middags te 2.30 uur
door Jan Peeters geboren op 14 oktober 1981 te Tilburg
Promotor:
Prof. dr. H. Middelkoop
Copromotoren:
Dr. E. Stouthamer Dr. F.S. Busschers
Utrecht Studies in Earth Sciences 167
The Last Interglacial Rhine estuary Sedimentary architecture, chronostratigraphy, preservation and analogue potential
Jan Peeters
Utrecht 2018
Examination committee:
Prof. dr. A. Amorosi Prof. dr. P.L. Gibbard Prof. dr. A.J. Long Prof. dr. R.T. van Balen Dr. A.J.F. van der Spek
University of Bologna University of Cambridge Durham University VU University Amsterdam Deltares
This study was supported by Equinor ASA, TNO-GSN and Deltares
ISSN 2211-4335 ISBN 978-90-6266-519-8 Cover: Artist impression of fieldwork on the Lake IJssel Copyright © 2018 Jan Peeters Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden vermenigvuldigd en/of openbaar gemaakt door middel van druk, fotokopie of op welke andere wijze dan ook zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgevers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print or photo print, microfilm or any other means, without written permission by the publishers. Printed in the Netherlands by Ipskamp Printing, Enschede
Contents
1 General introduction 1.1 Estuaries 1.2 Geological setting of the study area 1.2.1 Last Interglacial 1.2.2 Holocene 1.3 Objectives 1.4 Research approach and thesis outline
9 10 12 12 13 15 15
2
Fluvial evolution of the Rhine during the last interglacial-glacial cycle in the southern North Sea Basin: A review and look forward 17 2.1 Introduction 17 2.2 Regional geological setting 19 2.3 Evolution of the Rhine during the upper Middle and Late Pleistocene 21 2.3.1 Saalian glaciation (MIS 6) 21 2.3.2 Eemian interglacial (MIS 5e) 26 2.3.3 Weichselian (MIS 2-5d) 29 2.4 Synthesis and look forward 32 3
Sedimentary architecture and chronostratigraphy of a late Quaternary incised-valley fill: A case study of the late Middle and Late Pleistocene Rhine system in the Netherlands 35 3.1 Introduction 35 3.2 Regional geological setting 36 3.3 Material and methods 39 3.3.1 Data collection 39 3.3.2 Sedimentological description and identification of sedimentary units 40 3.3.3 Chronostratigraphy 40 3.4 Sedimentary characteristics and chronostratigraphy 42 3.4.1 Unit S6 43 3.4.2 Unit A1 52 3.4.3 Unit A2 53 3.4.4 Unit M1 55 3.4.5 Unit A3 58 3.4.6 Unit A4 59 3.4.7 Unit A5 60 3.4.8 Local fluvial and aeolian sediments 60 3.5 Palaeogeographical evolution and forcings 61 3.5.1 Late Saalian 61 3.5.2 Eemian interglacial 64 5
3.5.3 Weichselian Early Glacial 3.5.4 Weichselian Early and Middle Pleniglacial 3.6 Timing of the Eemian highstand and implications for the Rhine system 3.7 Conclusions
66 67 68 70
4
The Blake Event recorded near the Eemian type locality: A diachronic onset of the Eemian in Europe 73 4.1 Introduction 73 4.2 Geological and stratigraphic setting 75 4.3 Methods 77 4.3.1 Coring and sampling 77 4.3.2 Pollen analysis and biostratigraphic zonation 77 4.3.3 Luminescence dating 79 4.3.4 Palaeomagnetism and rock magnetism 80 4.4 Results 81 4.4.1 Integrated sedimentary and biostratigraphical description 81 4.4.2 Luminescence dating 84 4.4.3 Palaeomagnetism 85 4.4.4 Rock magnetism 85 4.5 Discussion 88 4.5.1 Palaeomagnetic signal in the Rutten core and Blake Event boundaries 88 4.5.2 Duration of the Blake Event and the Eemian in NW Europe 89 4.5.3 Comparison with other Blake Event records in Europe 90 4.5.4 Correlation of the Rutten Blake Event with the MIS record and Southern Europe 91 4.5.5 Implications for palaeoenvironmental and archaeological research 93 4.6 Conclusions 95 5
Preservation of Last Interglacial and Holocene transgressive systems tracts in the Netherlands and its applicability as a North Sea Basin reservoir analogue 97 5.1 Introduction 97 5.2 Geological setting and sequence stratigraphic framework 99 5.2.1 Netherlands’ Central Depocentre: Last Interglacial Rhine 101 5.2.2 Netherlands’ Southern Depocentre: Holocene Rhine 102 5.2.3 Norwegian Heidrun Field: Late Triassic to Early Jurassic Åre Formation 103 5.3 Materials and methods 105 5.3.1 Data collection 105 5.3.2 Depocentre areal segmentation 105 5.3.3 Preserved and eroded volume quantification 105 5.3.4 Volumetric deposit proportion calculation 106 5.3.5 TST apex and coastline definition 106 5.3.6 Åre Formation quantification 106 5.4 Results 106 5.4.1 Deposit proportions, volumes and trends in the Last Interglacial TST 106 5.4.2 Deposit proportions, volumes and trends in the Holocene TST 108 5.4.3 Comparison of Last Interglacial and Holocene TSTs 109 6
5.4.4 Deposit proportions and trends in the Åre RZs 5-6 111 5.5 Discussion 113 5.5.1 Forcings and boundary conditions: differences between the Rhine TSTs explained 113 5.5.2 Preservation of the Last Interglacial TST and HST 114 5.5.3 Preservation and completeness of the Åre RZs 5-6 115 5.5.4 Applicability potential of the Late Quaternary Rhine-records as analogue 116 5.6 Conclusions 117 6 Synthesis 6.1 General achievements 6.2 Discussion and outlook 6.2.1 Sedimentary record issues 6.2.2 Methodological considerations 6.2.3 Chronology of the Eemian interglacial across Atlantic Europe 6.2.4 Delayed Last Interglacial sea-level highstand implications 6.2.5 Late Quaternary versus Mesozoic records: analogy issues
119 119 123 123 123 124 125 126
References 129 Summary 151 Samenvatting 155 Acknowledgements 159 Appendix A
161
Appendix B
165
Appendix C
201
Appendix D
219
Appendix E
223
About the author
229
7
8
1
General introduction
Estuaries and deltas reflect complex sedimentary environments, where fluvial and marine processes alternate both in space and time. Their records, that make up an important part of the infill of sedimentary basins, are highly heterogeneous, with alternations of sand, silt, clay and organic material, as well as mixtures thereof. Understanding of the heterogenic nature of these deposits is critical in a variety of applied geoscientific fields, such as groundwater extraction (e.g. Bierkens, 1996; Sanchez-Vila et al., 2006), oil and gas exploration and production (e.g. Cattaneo and Steel, 2003; Martinius et al., 2005; Bjørlykke et al., 2010; Messina et al., 2014) and carbon capture and storage (e.g. Haszeldine 2009; Hangx et al., 2015), as it largely determines the physical characteristics of important parameters such as the porosity, permeability and sand-body connectivity in shallow subsurface aquifers and hydrocarbon reservoirs. Obtaining quantitative insights in these complex environments is often difficult due to incomplete stratigraphic preservation caused by erosion, faulting and compaction processes, as well as to the limited number and diameter of cores from petroleum industry wells. In reservoir geological applications one tends to overcome this by implementing general concepts and insights gained from the study of outcrops (e.g. Leren et al., 2010; Martinius and Gowland, 2011; Ahokas et al., 2014; Howell et al., 2014; Aschof et al., 2018), and cores and seismic logs of buried analogous hydrocarbon reservoirs elsewhere (e.g. Kjærefjord, 1999; Martinius et al., 2001; Kombrink et al., 2007; Thrana et al., 2014). Such analogues, however, still suffer from fragmentary and/or incomplete representation of the sequences due to post-depositional processes, restricted accessibility due to their deep burial position, and often limited time-control. These difficulties with ancient records can partly be overcome by using modern analogues, which are generally more extensively studied, such as for example the Holocene Rhine-Meuse delta in the Netherlands (e.g. Berendsen and Stouthamer, 2000; Gouw and Erkens, 2007; Hijma et al., 2009; Martinius and Van den Berg, 2011), the Po Plain in Italy (e.g. Amorosi et al., 2005, 2017; Bruno et al., 2017), the Lower Mississippi Valley in the USA (e.g. Törnqvist et al., 1996; Aslan and Autin, 1999; Gouw and Autin, 2008) and the Lower Tagus Valley in Portugal (e.g. Vis et al., 2008, 2016; Vis and Kasse, 2009). The current research of these systems demonstrates that such records can be studied in great detail, while offering the advantage that deposits are relatively easily accessible, well described in past research, and supported with unparalleled dating control. Yet for modern analogues, it remains challenging to upscale observations of local facies and sediment characteristics from Holocene systems to larger scales and periods of the past. The translation from modern analogues to ancient stratigraphy is complicated, for example, by overpreservation of the top sections of young records; they have not experienced significant erosion due to sea-level fall following deposition. This complicates the analogue usage of Holocene systems in the geological record over longer time-scales (>100 ka). In addition to their over-preservation, these modern systems are commonly also affected by increasing human activities in the past centuries and millennia (e.g. Stouthamer et al., 2011; Vos, 2015; Pierik et al., 2017), blurring natural sedimentation processes.
9
Studying Last Interglacial records that endured one full cycle of interglacial-glacial sea-level fluctuation, climatic change and crustal movements after their formation, overcomes most of these issues (e.g. Blum and Törnqvist, 2000; Blum et al., 2013; Bentley et al., 2016). Last Interglacial records fall within the practical range of high-density data collection and age-control, although admittedly at less detailed resolution than is possible for data from Holocene systems. These Last Interglacial records are nevertheless very suitable for drawing space-time resolved sedimentary analogues, as they are the next youngest after the Holocene in which the effects of long-term depositional processes can be assessed. The subsurface of the Netherlands contains sedimentary records from both the Last Interglacial (e.g. Wiggers, 1955; Busschers et al., 2007) and the Holocene (e.g. Berendsen and Stouthamer, 2000; Hijma et al., 2009). Both records are part of the lower Rhine river system, and each one is positioned in its own palaeovalley originating from the penultimate and the last glacial lowstand respectively. The side-by-side availability of a Last Interglacial and a Holocene record fed by the same river system opens a unique natural laboratory to assess and compare their sedimentary architecture, depositional trends, boundary conditions and preservation potential over longer time scales (>100 ka). With both these systems available, it is also possible to quantify longitudinal facies trends at reservoir scale and to assess their representativeness as hydrocarbon reservoir analogues by comparing these younger systems with an ancient reservoir.
1.1 Estuaries Both deltas and estuaries exist at the interface of fluvial and marine environments. The key difference between the two systems is the effect on shorelines: deltas prograde into bodies of water - thereby extending their shoreline - whereas estuaries usually occupy and fill drowned river valleys - thereby shortening their shoreline. The geological definition of an estuary used in this research, was provided by Dalrymple et al. (1992) who defined an estuary as “the seaward portion of a drowned valley system which receives sediment from both fluvial and marine sources and which contains facies influenced by tide, wave and fluvial processes”. Boyd et al. (2006) later removed the precondition of an estuary being situated in a drowned river valley and added to this that an estuary is part of a transgressive coastal environment. Martinius and Van den Berg (2011) concluded that with these geological definitions, “estuaries can only form in the presence of relative rise in sea level, and that river mouths of deltas are excluded, unless they are retrogradational”. In more common usage, ‘estuary’ principally refers to the water body of a river mouth, whereas ‘delta’ refers to a protruding body of accumulated sediment. To complicate matters, this view of a delta often includes the estuarine river mouth. The geological definitions given above are consciously formulated so that estuaries and deltas become entirely different. Estuaries are typically distinguished by the relative influence of tides and waves: i.e. tidedominated versus wave-dominated estuaries. The presence of a wave-formed barrier at its entrance defines the latter, while it is lacking in a tide-dominated estuary. Estuaries are further differentiated between unfilled and filled (Fig. 1.1). In unfilled estuaries, the supply of sediments is outpaced by the creation of accommodation space. This results in an unfilled, wave-dominated estuary which consists of a low-energy - often muddy - central basin, bounded by a sand-and-mud-alternating bay-head delta at the river end, and a sandy flood-tidal delta at the seaward end (Fig. 1.1A). The tidal wave is often rapidly attenuated by the estuary-mouth sand-body and flow expansion in the central basin, a process which hampers the development of tidal marshes. Filled estuaries, on the other hand, display 10
A
Estuary mouth
Central basin
Upper estuary channels
Alluvial plain
Bay-head delta Flood-tidal delta estuarine mud
B
Estuary mouth
Estuary funnel
tidal flat & marsh mud
tidal estuarine sand & mud
fluvial sand and gravel
estuary mouth sand
tidal point bar sand
Upper estuary channels
Alluvial plain
tidal estuarine sand & mud
fluvial sand and gravel
estuary mouth sand
tidal point bar sand
Figure 1.1 | Schematic morphology of A) a wave-dominated, unfilled estuary and B) a filled estuary. Modified after Dalrymple et al. (1992), Allen and Posamentier (1993), Boyd et al. (2006), Van den Berg et al. (2007) and Martinius and Van den Berg (2011).
a system of dynamic ebb and flood channels (Fig. 1.1B), which reflects higher energy conditions. The funnel-shape of these estuaries promotes the tidal wave to reach far upstream (Martinius and Van den Berg, 2011). Modern mesotidal, wave-dominated estuaries (i.e. 2-4 m tidal range; Davies, 1964) are generally filled, due to sediment input from both marine and fluvial sources. Microtidal estuaries (i.e.
