River deltas

When rivers reach the ocean, they drop their sediments and create some of the most biodiverse and exceptional(ly flat yet complex) landforms in the world.

Learning Goals

• Know how sea level and river deltas interact.
• Connect deltas and global change

A little background

Here’s the essential classification of river deltas, as influenced by waves, tides, and rivers:

Minute Earth: Energetic background on river deltas

Jaia Syvitski: Deltas and global change

Coastal landforms beyond deltas

• Waves create spits and beaches
• Tides and rivers create mudflats and tidal marshes; these grow and shrink in a complex interplay between coastal ecology, geomorphic processes, and sea-level change. (I’ll record and upload my lecture on this if someone is interested and writes me.)
• Barrier islands form and are shaped by waves, tides, sediment supply via rivers, and sea-level change

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