This page provides a brief outline of, lists the main points of, gives links to figures for, and lists the assigned reading for a lecture in Dr. Bruce Railsback's GEOL 1121 class at the University of Georgia. This page is not intended as a set of lecture notes, and it cannot subsititute for a set of lecture notes. Familiarity with this page alone will not assure satisfactory grades on exams in the course.

Lecture 29 (Friday, April 5, 2002): Rivers and Deltas

Brief outline of this lecture:
Meandering streams
Deltas
     

Main points of this lecture:
Where rivers flow into standing water (lakes or the ocean), the resulting cessation of flow allows depositon of sediment in deltas.
The shape of a delta depends on the extent to which waves or tides rearrange sediment deposited by the river bringing sediment to that delta.
Deltas form coarsening-upwards sequences of sediment.

Figures used in this lecture:
River meanders
River deposits
River terraces
Meander cut-off and formation of an ox-bow lake
Deltas
Progradation of a Delta

Reading assignment: Chapter 6.

Next Lecture
Email to Railsback (rlsbk@gly.uga.edu)
Railsback's main 1121 web page
Railsback's main web page
UGA Geology Department web page