Provenance and dispersal of sand-sized sediments: reconstruction of dispersal patterns and sources of sand-sized sediments by means of inverse modelling techniques

Abstract

Sedimentary provenance studies attempt to link spatial and temporal patterns of compositional variation in basin fills to the evolution of source areas. The aim of this thesis is to propose a general framework for the study of spatial and temporal patterns of compositional variation of sand-sized sediments by means of quantitative methods. A number of techniques is presented which aim at providing a concise summary and/or explanation of compositional variation observed in natural sedimentary systems. This field of research is sometimes referred to as "provenance modelling".