ORCID Profile
0000-0003-3693-932X
Current Organisation
The University of Texas at Austin
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Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 28-06-2019
Abstract: Abstract. The sedimentary architecture at continental margins reflects the interplay between the rate of change of accommodation creation (δA) and the rate of change of sediment supply (δS). Stratigraphic interpretation increasingly focuses on understanding the link between deposition patterns and changes in δA∕δS, with an attempt to reconstruct the contributing factors. Here, we use the landscape modelling code pyBadlands to (1) investigate the development of stratigraphic sequences in a source-to-sink context (2) assess the respective performance of two well-established stratigraphic interpretation techniques: the trajectory analysis method and the accommodation succession method and (3) propose quantitative stratigraphic interpretations based on those two techniques. In contrast to most stratigraphic forward models (SFMs), pyBadlands provides self-consistent sediment supply to basin margins as it simulates erosion, sediment transport and deposition in a source-to-sink context. We present a generic case of landscape evolution that takes into account periodic sea level variations and passive margin thermal subsidence over 30 million years, under uniform rainfall. A set of post-processing tools are provided to analyse the predicted stratigraphic architecture. We first reconstruct the temporal evolution of the depositional cycles and identify key stratigraphic surfaces based on observations of stratal geometries and facies relationships, which we use for comparison to stratigraphic interpretations. We then apply both the trajectory analysis and the accommodation succession methods to manually map key stratigraphic surfaces and define sequence units on the final model output. Finally, we calculate shoreline and shelf-edge trajectories, the temporal evolution of changes in relative sea level (proxy for δA) and sedimentation rate (proxy for δS) at the shoreline, and automatically produce stratigraphic interpretations. Our results suggest that the analysis of the presented model is more robust with the accommodation succession method than with the trajectory analysis method. Stratigraphic analysis based on manually extracted shoreline and shelf-edge trajectory requires calibrations of time-dependent processes such as thermal subsidence or additional constraints from stratal terminations to obtain reliable interpretations. The 3-D stratigraphic analysis of the presented model reveals small lateral variations of sequence formations. Our work provides an efficient and flexible quantitative sequence stratigraphic framework to evaluate the main drivers (climate, sea level and tectonics) controlling sedimentary architectures and investigate their respective roles in sedimentary basin development.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 19-12-2019
DOI: 10.1029/2019GL084400
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 28-11-2018
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 27-04-2023
DOI: 10.1029/2022GC010844
Abstract: Subduction of bathymetric anomalies (e.g., an active ridge) can alter the morphology of subducted slabs and their coupling to surface processes. A natural laboratory to study these effects is the subduction of the Oceanic Chilean Ridge beneath the South American plate, which led to the formation of the Patagonian slab window. Its formation and subsequent northward migration contributed to the regression of Patagoniense sea and exhumation of marine strata to their present elevation. To date, there is no quantitative analysis of the effects on the sediment routing system of the slab window. We modeled the Neogene topographic change and foreland sedimentary evolution from the Andean Cordillera to Atlantic margin. Our results show that subcrustal‐driven subsidence correlated with accelerated subduction of the Nazca plate is required to explain the timing of the Patagonian transgression and thickness and spatial extent of marine beds during the incursion. In other words, traditional mechanisms, such as foreland flexure and global sea‐level rise, are insufficient. The subsequent regression and accumulation of mid‐Miocene alluvial‐fluvial deposits were associated with the growth of the Cordillera and a possible flattening of Nazca subduction in the middle Miocene. Isostatic uplift of ∼1 km due to lithospheric thinning during slab window formation can explain the foreland exhumation, sediment bypass, and increases in the offshore sedimentation rate. However, spatial‐temporal varying dynamic uplift is required to explain the along‐strike variations in foreland sedimentation. Our study provides new insights into the interplay between slab window formation, crustal deformation, and landscape evolution.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-02-2021
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 13-09-2021
DOI: 10.1177/14687976211045199
Abstract: Complex relationships exist between rationales for visiting, experiences and perceptions. Tourists are influenced by others, increasingly through social media as electronic word of mouth (ewom). While visitation rationales associated with popular culture are well documented, less understood is how social media use among specific cultural groups constructs and fuels new fictitious sites of popular cultural tourism, through what we call ‘soft heritage’. Particular physical qualities (often visual) endow places with a distinct but fabricated heritage value, linked especially to fictional characters in popular culture. Tourism numbers grow accordingly, as soft heritage sites become marked places for tourists of specific cultural backgrounds. This is illustrated through the case of the University of Sydney, which in the 2010s became a significant destination for Chinese tourists. Through mixed-methods research involving participant observation and interviews with 85 Chinese tourists, the rationales, experiences and perceptions of Chinese tourists were explored. Reasons for visiting included group tours, education, heritage and photography, but a key attraction was the ‘Harry Potter building’, a site not in JK Rowling’s books, nor involved in the making of the films, and not previously a tourist attraction. So much did social media and the Harry Potter Building influence tourism that the University became the most prominent of the city’s several ‘marked places’ (daka). The participatory character of Chinese social media, combined with architectural heritage and the enthusiasm of many younger Chinese tourists for Harry Potter, led them to create a new Chinese tourist site (or daka destination) without input from the management of the place itself.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 04-03-2021
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU21-13678
Abstract: & & The nature and contribution of flexural isostatic compensation to subsidence and uplift of passive margin deltas remains poorly understood. We performed a series of simulations to investigate flexural isostatic responses to high frequency fluctuations in water and sediment load associated with climatically-driven sea-level changes. We use a parallel basin and landscape dynamics model, BADLANDS, (an acronym for BAsin anD LANdscape DynamicS) that combines erosion, sedimentation, and diffusion with flexure, where the isostatic compensation of the load is computed by flexural compensation. We model a large drainage basin that discharges to a continental margin to generate a deltaic depocenter, then prescribe synthetic and climatic-driven sea-level curves of different frequencies to assess flexural response. Results show that flexural isostatic adjustments are bidirectional over 100-1000 kyr time-scales and mirror the magnitude, frequency, and direction of sea-level fluctuations, and that isostatic adjustments play an important role in driving along-strike and cross-shelf river-mouth migration and sediment accumulation. Our findings demonstrate that climate-forced sea-level changes set up a feedback mechanism that results in self-sustaining creation of accommodation into which sediment is deposited and plays a major role in delta morphology and stratigraphic architecture.& &
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2018
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2018
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 28-11-2018
DOI: 10.5194/GMD-2018-265
Abstract: Abstract. The sedimentary architecture at continental margins reflects the interplay between the rate of change of accommodation creation (δA) and the rate of change of sediment supply (δS). As a result, stratigraphic interpretation increasingly focuses on understanding the link between deposition patterns and changes in δA/δS. Here, we use the landscape modelling framework pyBadlands to assess the respective performance of two well-established stratigraphic interpretation techniques: the trajectory analysis method and the accommodation succession method. In contrast to most Stratigraphic Forward Models (SFMs), pyBadlands provides self-consistent sediment supply to basin margins as it simulates erosion, sediment transport and deposition in a source-to-sink context. We present a landscape evolution that takes into account periodic sea level variations and passive margin thermal subsidence over 30 million years, under uniform rainfall. We implement the two aforementioned approaches to interpret the resulting depositional cycles at the continental margin. We first apply both the trajectory analysis and the accommodation succession methods to manually map key stratigraphic surfaces and define stratigraphic units from shelf-edge (or offlap break) trajectories, stratal terminations and stratal geometries. We then design a set of post-processing numerical tools to calculate shoreline and shelf-edge trajectories, the temporal evolution of changes in accommodation and sedimentation, and automatically produce stratigraphic interpretations. Comparing manual and automatic stratigraphic interpretations reveals that the results of the trajectory analysis method depend on time-dependent processes such as thermal subsidence whereas the accommodation succession method does not. In addition to reconstructing stratal stacking patterns, the tools we introduce here make it possible to quickly extract Wheeler diagrams and synthetic cores at any location within the simulated domain. Our work provides an efficient and flexible quantitative sequence stratigraphic framework to evaluate the main drivers (climate, sea level and tectonics) controlling sedimentary architectures and investigate their respective roles in sedimentary basins development.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-03-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-018-23519-8
Abstract: Understanding the effects of climatic variability on sediment dynamics is hindered by limited ability of current models to simulate long-term evolution of sediment transfer from source to sink and associated morphological changes. We present a new approach based on a reduced-complexity model which computes over geological time: sediment transport from landmasses to coasts, reworking of marine sediments by longshore currents, and development of coral reef systems. Our framework links together the main sedimentary processes driving mixed siliciclastic-carbonate system dynamics. It offers a methodology for objective and quantitative sediment fate estimations over regional and millennial time-scales. A simulation of the Holocene evolution of the Great Barrier Reef shows: (1) how high sediment loads from catchments erosion prevented coral growth during the early transgression phase and favoured sediment gravity-flows in the deepest parts of the northern region basin floor (prior to 8 ka before present (BP)) (2) how the fine balance between climate, sea-level, and margin physiography enabled coral reefs to thrive under limited shelf sedimentation rates after ~6 ka BP and, (3) how since 3 ka BP, with the decrease of accommodation space, reduced of vertical growth led to the lateral extension of reefs consistent with available observational data.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 12-04-2018
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 15-05-2023
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU23-5654
Abstract: Destruction of the North China Craton mainly occurred in the Cretaceous and has been in hot debate due to its important tectonic significance. It is suggested that the spatio-temporal evolution of the Jehol Biota in northeastern North China is driven by the North China Craton destruction during the Early Cretaceous, due to the abrupt changes in paleogeographic environment. However, little quantitative work on the dynamic paleogeographic evolution in North China has been done. In this study, using the paleosoil weathering indexes (PWI and CFXNa) and carbonate isotope, we reconstructed the paleo-elevation of North China at 145 Ma. Then, factors include tectonic movements, sedimentology, paleoclimate and sea level changes were quantitatively combined into the Badlands software, we modeled the Cretaceous dynamic paleogeomorphic evlution of North China. It is revealed the eastern North China experienced an abrupt geomorphological transition from the collapse of the paleo-plateau to the formation of the Bohai Bay Basin due to the subduction retreat of the paleo-Pacific Plate. The geomorphological transition led to the formation of a series of rifted basins that migrated eastward.& The eastward migrating subsidence basin and eruption of volcanoes jointly controlled the eastward migration of the Jehol Biota.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2022
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 15-05-2023
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU23-5574
Abstract: Since the late Cenozoic, the geomorphology in the eastern part of North China have undergone tremendous changes under the influence of a variety of complex factors, but the exact process and finalization time are still controversial. The Badlands numerical simulation tool was used to dynamically reconstruct the geomorphic evolution process in eastern North China since the late Cenozoic (25 Ma). The& rationality of the simulation results was validated by comparing with& the regional tectonic framework and sedimentary distribution. The results show that the geomorphology in the eastern North China has been finalized and tends to evolve stably in Neogene, and is mainly controlled by tectonic activities. In addition, in the eastern part of North China during this period, there may be an ancient river - "East China River" around the Shandong Peninsula. It was formed no later than the Early Neogene, and may disappear during the Holocene. The results can provide quantitative basis for the study of geomorphic evolution and sedimentary process on the tectonic scale.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 15-05-2023
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU23-5760
Abstract: The Yangtze River is the largest river in Asia. It is an important geomorphological event in a united tectonics-climate-geomorphology system in Cenozoic era in China. The incision& of the Three Gorges, which is located between the Sichuan and Jianghan basins, marked the formation of the modern Yangtze River. However, it is still controversial on the key scientific issue of "when the Three Gorges formed or was incised", due to the abundant geological data. The previous study usually focused on one factor affecting the river development, e.g., tectonic movements, sedimentology, paleoclimate and sea level changes, to conclude this key issue. Those key factors could be quantitatively combined into Badlands, a software that simulates the paleo-geomorphology. Take the area to the east of the "first bend" (Shek Kwu Town in Yunnan Province) of the Yangtze River as the study area, we used Badlands to reconstruct the geomorphology and river system evolution process since the Late Cretaceous (80Ma). Then the& seismic data of Sichuan Basin and Jianghan Basin were used to test the reliability of our model results. The results revealed that the river flow direction in the Sichuan Basin was reversed to drain northwards due to the Late Eocene-Oligocene uplift in the eastern Tibet and the southwestern Upper Yangtze& River. The Jianghan Basin had been in a low base level during the early Paleogene, controlled by the continental& rifting environment in eastern China. The reversal of the drainage direction in the Sichuan Basin and the long-lasting low basal level in the Jianghan Basin eventually made the Three Gorges to be incised at the latest Oligocene. We& roposed& that& the flow direction of the Upper Yangtze River was reversed& and& captured by the Middle& Yangtze River is the incision mechanism of the Three Gorges.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 03-03-2023
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-2023-53
Abstract: Abstract. The interplay between climate-forced sea-level change, sediment erosion and deposition, and flexural adjustments in deep time on passive margin deltas remains poorly understood. We performed a series of conceptual simulations to investigate flexural isostatic responses to high-frequency fluctuations in water and sediment load associated with climatically driven sea-level changes. We model a large drainage basin that discharges to a continental margin to generate a deltaic depocenter, then prescribe synthetic and climatic-driven sea-level curves of different frequencies to assess flexural response. Results show that flexural isostatic adjustments are bidirectional over 100–1000 kyr timescales and are in sync with the magnitude, frequency, and direction of sea-level fluctuations, and that isostatic adjustments play an important role in driving along-strike and cross-shelf river-mouth migration and sediment accumulation. Our findings demonstrate that climate-forced sea-level changes produce a feedback mechanism that results in self-sustaining creation of accommodation into which sediment is deposited and plays a major role in delta morphology and stratigraphic architecture.
Location: United States of America
No related grants have been discovered for Xuesong Ding.