Mass balance, bedload extraction, surface morphology, and Holocene stratigraphic architecture along distinct sediment transport pathways of the Brahmaputra River in Bengal Basin

Abstract:

The Brahmaputra River has followed three preferred pathways within the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta during the Holocene: the principal course along the modern Jamuna braidbelt and two subsidiary routes through the tectonically deforming Sylhet Basin. The Jamuna braidbelt follows a relatively straight and tectonically stable (subsidence rates generally <2 mm/yr) route along much of its reach. In contrast, pathways through Sylhet Basin traverse an actively subsiding basin (typically 3-4 mm/yr, with rates as high as 7 mm/year near the adjacent Dauki foredeep). In spite of differential subsidence, the Brahmaputra has only episodically occupied Sylhet Basin for brief periods during most of the Holocene. We compare downstream rates of mass extraction via selective deposition along multiple sediment delivery pathways using quantitative grain size data from a network of over 400 closely-spaced (3-5 km) boreholes (up to 90 m deep). An exponential function to describe downstream fining was fitted to the data, with the exponent alpha taken to be the rate of downstream fining. Our data indicate 1.) the upper and lower reaches (~100 km) of all pathways exhibit limited to no fining, 2.) once fining begins it proceeds rapidly in a downstream direction until the coarse fraction has been extracted, and 3.) the fining rate in Sylhet Basin (α = 0.005) is considerably higher than that for the modern braidbelt (α = 0.001), likely due to a steeper slope down the fan delta. When converted to a scale-independent chi space, preserved stratigraphy along both courses show declining sand:mud ratios and sand body thickness at a chi distance of about 0.7, consistent with previous studies in other depositional settings. This downstream distance also generally coincides with a decrease in slope from the fan delta to the lower fluvial-tidal delta, as well as the cessation of downstream fining. Furthermore, this transition corresponds with the backwater length as calculated by a number of different methods. These initial results suggest that complete extraction of the coarse fraction occurs over relatively distinct transition zones in the delta’s landscape morphology and tectonic regime, leading to coherent interpretations of fluvial dynamics, stratigraphic architecture, and their coupling with sediment extraction.