Sediment characterization of the San Luis Pass flood tidal delta

Carolina Ramon-Duenas, Julia S. Wellner

with Will Sager and others

University of Houston

April 24rd, 2018ASBPA Texas Chapter 2018 Symposium

August 22, 2017

August 31, 2017

Galveston Bay Entrance during Harvey

Side-scan, Bolivar Roads

San Luis Pass during Harvey

August 31, 2017

San Luis Pass Gulf of Mexico

Flood tidal deltas

FitzGerald et al. 2012

Flood tidal delta - Accumulation of sand on the shoreward side of an inlet

Maintained by flood currents

Why San Luis Pass?

Modified Texas General Land Office

• One of few natural tidal deltas

in Texas

• Migrating westward flood

delta

• San Luis Pass (SLP) tidal delta

is the primary sink for most of

the sand eroded from updrift

parts of Galveston Island

• 2D High Resolution Seismic (CHIRP)

• Seafloor samplesGrain size (CILAS)Smear slides

• Publicly available cores and databases

Methods

R/V Mishipeshu

200 um

How Chirp is Collected

Convert .JSF to .SEGYExtract Navigation using SeiSeeProcessing (Gain- Smoothing)Load Navigation and SEGY to Kingdom software

How Samples are Collected

• Water depth• Ripples height• Ripples wavelength• Geometry description• Progradation direction

Delta Evolution

Evolution SLP flood tidal delta

Wallace & Anderson 2013

Formation inlet

Migration 3-4 m/yr

Current position ~2100 yr BP

GI – Galveston IslandFI – Follets Island

Lateral and vertical lithofacies

Davis & Dalrymple 2012 after Israel 1987

Brazos river

San Luis Pass

Chirp data

• 65 km Summer 2017

• 22 km Fall 2017

• 87 km in total

Chirp data

• 65 km Summer 2017

• 22 km Fall 2017

• 87 km in total

A`

A

B`

B

A A`

12

met

ers

Chirp data

A A`

12

met

ers

12

met

ers

Pleistocene-Holocene SB

Chirp data

B B`

9 m

eter

s

Chirp data

B B`

9 m

eter

s

Pleistocene-Holocene SB

Chirp data

B B`

7.5

met

ers

Pleistocene- Holocene SB

Chirp data

Pleistocene-Holocene SB

River paths from Dellapenna et. al., 2014.

Paleo-channel locations

Wallace & Anderson 2013

-20 m

-5 m

Seafloor sediments

Seafloor sediment samples

• 68 Samples subaqueous ripples (Lee and stoss)

• 65 Samples Seafloor

• 133 Samples in total

Flow direction

Seafloor sediment samples

Water depth

Water Velocity

Max spring tide flood ADCIRC model Max spring tide ebb

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

Velocity (m/s)

Water Velocity

max spring floodADCIRC model

2D

3D

Bedform stability diagram

Nichols 1999

Grain size

2D

3D

Bedform stability diagram

SLP

Nichols 1999

Water depth – Ripple height relationship

Water depth ripple height

y = 0.0426x + 0.7145R² = 0.5689

0

1

10

1 10 100

Rip

ple

he

igh

t (c

m)

H

Water Depth (cm) h

Allen 1982

Yalin 1964:Water depth= 6* H

Dalrymple et.al 2011:Bay of Fundy, Canada/ MacrotidalWater depth= 5*H

Allen 1970:Water depth= 11.6 H0.84

Tidal

Rivers

Reinson 1979:Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada/ Microtidal

Water depth= 5*H

Water depth – Dune height

Allen 1982

Yalin 1964:Water depth= 6* H

Dalrymple et.al 2011:Bay of Fundy, Canada/ MacrotidalWater depth= 5H

Allen 1970:Water depth= 11.6 H0.84

Tidal

Rivers

Reinson 1979:GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE, CANADA/ Microtidal

Water depth= 5H

Water depth – Dune height

Data:SLP/ MicrotidalWater depth= 23.47H+16.77

Allen 1982

Yalin 1964:Water depth= 6* H

Dalrymple et.al 2011:Bay of Fundy, Canada/ MacrotidalWater depth= 5H

Allen 1970:Water depth= 11.6 H0.84

Tidal

Rivers

Reinson 1979:GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE, CANADA/ Microtidal

Water depth= 5H

Water depth – Dune height

Data:SLP/ MicrotidalWater depth= 23.47H+16.77

Serendipity Chapter:

Pre- and Post- Harvey sediments

Hurricane Harvey

• Formed: August 17, 2017

• Dissipated: September 3, 2017

• Hit Texas August 25-28, 2017

• It was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Wilma in 2005

• Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 40 inches of precipitation in some areas of the southeastern Texas and neighboring states.

Samples

Pre-Harvey

Post-Harvey

Grain sizes pre- and post- Harvey

Water Depth (cm) MSL

Pre-Harvey -9

Post-Harvey 74

Δ 83

% Change 922

Water Depth (cm) MSL

Pre-Harvey -9.5

Post-Harvey 50

Δ 59.5

% Change 626

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750

Perc

ent

(%)

Size (µm)

41.5

23 Lee

23 Stoss

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750

Perc

ent

(%)

Size (µm)

37

33 Lee

33 Stoss

Pre-Harvey

Post-Harvey

Pre-Harvey

Post-Harvey

• Grain Size• Erosion from the storm

moved sands out offshore

• Finer sediments carried by water run off coming from the land

• Water Depth • Harvey erosion • Maybe subsidence

related to Harvey flexed Earth’s crust

Why the difference

Milliner 2017

• Model sediment transport

Coming work

http://cirpwiki.info/wiki/CMS

• Collect more ripples samples

April, 2018, EOS back cover.

Houston Bayou Sedimentation

Allen Parkway, September 2, 2017

"Soil, Sediment, & Silt" Working Group: Sediment Budget through the drainage basin

Overwhelming message:• Erosion and sedimentation

episodic• Daily processes cannot

account for total budget

Galveston Bay Anthropogenic Estuary – Toxic Heavy Metals

Dr. Jessica Fitzsimmons

• Clear heavy metal lead source from Hurricane Harvey from the Trinity River. Not quite toxic levels but >10x normal concentrations at equivalently low salinity.

• Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin, with anthropogenic industrial sources.

• Where did the lead come from during Harvey? Did it end up in the sediments? On what timescale? How can we prevent this contamination of our backyard waters from happening in a future flood event?

Harvey lead (Pb) source from Trinity River

• Funding: UH EAS internal grant award; AAPG Grants-in-Aid 2017; AAPG James E. and Elloie B. Wilson Memorial Grant 2018; NSF RAPID for Harvey response.

• Field Work: Carolina Ramon-Duenas, Yuribia Munoz, Li Chang, JiananWang, Benjamin Chang, Matthew Sexton, Magdalena Dobrijevic, Delaney Robinson, Rachel Clark, Janet Kong, Raza Mir (UHD), Itzel Cardenas (UHD), Dr. William Sager, Dr. Robert Stewart, Dr. Julia Wellner.

Acknowledgements

Thank You

Israel et.al. 1987

Rice University Coastal Research Group from 1985 to 2003Wallace & Anderson 2013

NOAA station San Luis Pass

Chirp surface

met

ers

Galveston Pier 21 during Harvey