Quantitative three-dimensional modelling of quaternary passive continental margins : forward modelling of the morphological evolution, sediment characteristics and sequence stratigraphy of river-shelf sedimentary systems

Abstract

The subject of this thesis is a study of the sedimentary development of passive continental margins. The results are based on a newly developed numerical model. It is three-dimensional, dynamic and applies to large time (several 100s kyr) and spatial (~100 x 300 km) scales. The model set-up is deliberately straightforward to promote computation speed. This allows a statistically significant number of model runs to be made in D e==E3lccE3lc::&E3lHt", _ erosional 0 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 10" hiatus Deposition rate [m/kyr 1 fine coarse .._ I,lnn'i~i i:> e : : ~ Grain-size fraction [-1 a reasonable space of time and a short cycle of drafting and testing hypotheses.