The Øyeren Delta is the largest freshwater delta in Northern Europe and has been studied extensively with respect to several aspects including bottom-floor mapping, rates of erosion and river-bed depositional features, flow-rates and sediment influx rates. Meanwhile, a very limited sedimentological study of the sub-aerial deposits has been done. Study of modern settings and modern processes is invaluable to understanding the distribution of sediment and sedimentary structures and impact of depositional processes on ancient settings. Insight can provide an important link to better constrain depositional models from seismic, well and core data.
The aim of the study is to catalogue lithological distribution and sedimentary structures, facies, composition and grain-size distribution, and discuss in relation to the depositional environment, seasonal changes, flow-rates and depositional processes. The study will contribute to our understanding of deltaic sedimentation, lateral variations in governing process regimes, sediment partitioning and seasonal variability on sediment deposition.
The work will be carried in the Øyeren Delta archipelago and involve sedimentary logging, detailed sediment structure measurements, flow measurements, sample collection and analysis. The final result will be a catalogue of facies distribution related to depositional environments, characteristics of sedimentary features in relation to depositional processes, and insight into provenance, compositional and textural attributes of the sediments in the Øyeren Delta.
