Stratigraphic evolution of a long-lived submarine channel system in the Late Cretaceous Nanaimo Group, British Columbia, Canada

Submarine canyons and slope channel systems are important conveyers of sediment from uplifted catchments to oceanic sedimentary sinks. Long-lived conduits can be established through deep incision of submarine canyons, with bathymetric relief of hundreds of meters to greater than a kilometer in many instances. Alternatively, a combination of erosion of the continental slope and aggradation of levees can yield a broadly comparable stratigraphic product through evolution of channels with more subdued bathymetric relief. Despite differences in formative geomorphic elements on the paleo-seafloor, differentiating the stratigraphic architecture amongst these systems is challenging, particularly in outcrop datasets. Accurate stratigraphic interpretation has significant implications for understanding the frequency and magnitude of controlling processes such as mountain building and denudation or eustatic sea-level fluctuations. In this study, deep-water channel strata of the Late Cretaceous Nanaimo Group are examined at Hornby and Denman islands, British Columbia, Canada. Evidence for a long-lived submarine conduit records the history of sediment transfer at multiple temporal and spatial scales. The composite submarine channel system deposit is 19.5 km wide and 1500 m thick, which formed and filled over-15 Ma. Facies scale analyses highlight conglomeratic channel fill juxtaposed against thin-bedded out-of-channel deposits. Erosional surfaces are commonly mantled by mass-transport deposits, which provide evidence for conduit wall reworking and maintenance. At a larger scale, a series of composite, conglomerate-prone channelform bodies are observed to stratigraphically stack in two distinct phases: (1) early persistence of laterally offset (migrated) channels; and (2) later vertically aligned and aggraded channels. This stratigraphic trend is comparable to composite, multi-phase degradational-aggradational submarine channel complexes observed globally. As such, we consider the stratigraphic evolution of the large submarine conduit deposit (1500 m thick) to have formed through the protracted processes of geomorphic channels with subdued paleo-bathymetric relief (20-200 m). Detailed observations at the scale of facies and stratigraphic architecture provide criteria for recognition and interpretation of long-lived slope channel systems, emphasizing a disparate relationship between stratigraphic and geomorphic surfaces. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.