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Deltas

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Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Synonyms

River-mouth deposits

Definition

As defined by Moore and Asquith (1971), a delta is the subaerial and submerged contiguous sediment mass deposited in a body of water (ocean or lake) primarily by the action of a river. Wright (1985) added that deltas included secondary riverine-derived deposits that had been reworked and molded by waves, currents, or tides.

The term delta, for the sedimentary accumulation at a river mouth, was coined by the Greek historian Herodotus who in the fifth century recognized a similarity in shape of the Greek letter Δ to the tract of land at the mouth of the Nile River (The Histories, 450–420 AD). Although the distinctive morphology is lacking in many river-mouth land tracts, the term has become accepted to describe both the geographical region near a river mouth and the sedimentary package deposited by fluvial processes into a depositional basin. Although sediment delivery to a delta is by a fluvial system, the dynamic interaction of riverine and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA, 1778, USA

    Duncan FitzGerald

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, 70148, USA

    Ioannis Georgiou & Mark Kulp

Authors
  1. Duncan FitzGerald
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  2. Ioannis Georgiou
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  3. Mark Kulp
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Correspondence to Duncan FitzGerald .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Institute of Earth Science, KÖPPEN-Laboratory, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    JÖrn Thiede

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FitzGerald, D., Georgiou, I., Kulp, M. (2016). Deltas. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1_159

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