Up-Estuary Variation of Sedimentary Facies and Ichnocoenoses in an Open-Mouthed, Macrotidal, Mixed-Energy Estuary, Gomso Bay, Korea

摘要

Integrated sedimentologic and ichnologic studies from the open-mouthed, Gomso Bay estuary on the western Korean coast have revealed that both tides and waves play an important role in estuarine sedimentation. Because of up-estuary decrease in wave energy, physical structures pass up-estuary from wave-dominated planar lamination and hummocky cross-stratification to tide-dominated heterolithic stratification. The infaunal distribution is sensitive to physiological stresses, and traces increase in size from the inner bay to the outer bay. The mappable trends in sedimentary facies and ichnofacies appear to be oblique to the estuarine margin in the outer and middle bays because of wave refraction, whereas facies belts in the inner bay are parallel to the estuary margin, reflecting tide-dominated conditions.